Ohio home sales rose 1.6% in Nov. compared with ’12

December 20, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Home sales across the state increased in November, up 1.6 percent from the same time a year ago and marking the 29th-consecutive month in which the market posted year-over-year gains, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors.

Some 9,518 homes were sold last month, up from 9,364 a year ago, and OAR said November 2013 posted the month’s best sales total since 2006.

“Our current level of sales activity, while maintaining an unprecedented string of consecutive monthly gains, reflects a market that is stabilizing at a more modest, traditional pace,” Thomas J. Williams, OAR president, said in a statement.

Sales in the first 11 months of 2013 hit 120,255, a 6.5 percent increase for the same period last year when 112,638 homes were sold.

The average sale price rose by a slight 0.7 percent to $136,468 from $135,258 in 2012.

The gains across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties have been less consistent and more modest than the statewide figures.

According to data released by the Youngstown-Columbiana Association of Realtors, 390 homes were sold in the Mahoning Valley last month, up from 377 from the same time a year ago. But only Trumbull County posted increased sales in November compared with last year.

Jeff Byce, of Byce Auction & Realty, said it’s hard to compare local results to statewide reports.

“You don’t always see the same local impact of those across-the-board numbers,” he said, in part because of new construction and differences in wealth and income.

He said new construction slipped at the height of the housing bubble, and it hasn’t returned to the Valley since.

Byce said that sales and prices have been strong in the lower segment of the market — the $50,000 to $100,000 range.

“We are selling everything we can get our hands on,” he said.

Like the rest of the state, home sales in the Valley were up through the first 11 months of the year, giving Byce reason for optimism heading into the new year.

“Next year is going to be a really strong year for real estate,” he said.