Columbus Housing Facts

Check out www.ColumbusHousingFacts.com for good news about the Columbus housing market. Here are a few of my favorites:

• The first half of 2008 has seen steadily increasing home sales, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors, with 8.6% more homes sold in June than in May. This continues the pattern of increasing home sales each month of 2008 over the previous month.
• The average sale price of homes in central Ohio increased from May to June by more than 7% with an average of $180,399.
• The central Ohio housing market continued to stabilize in June as the area saw its lowest "month's supply" level since summer 2007. The fact that central Ohio's month's supply continues to decrease shows that the market is becoming more balanced. Buyers still have a tremendous selection, but a lower month's supply also means good news for sellers.
• Columbus was recently named one of the 66 markets in the country where it makes more sense to buy a home than to rent, according to an article on MSN.com.
• Columbus is the most affordable market for homebuyers in the US among the 46 metropolitan areas studied, reported The Columbus Dispatch in a story on May 29. This information is based on a study by Moody's Economy.com that looked at home prices versus rental fees. "Owning a home a pretty good deal in Columbus," the Dispatch headline read.

Columbus is affordable

I was reading an interesting article from Business First of Columbus called "Study: Columbus and Midwest more Affordable than National Average." The study compared 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom 2,200 square foot houses across the country. At an average price of $236,924, Columbus is the second highest market in Ohio, second to Cincinnati with an average price of $243,583. Akron and Canton each had averages between $135,000 to $140,000. The Midwest had 8 out of 10 most affordable markets, while California had 8 out of 10 most expensive with the highest in La Jolla with an average of $1.84 million. The nationwide average of the 315 metropolitan areas studied is $403,738.

Fannie and Freddie rescue

The federal government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this past Sunday. Fannie and Freddie depend on investors so they can get more money to issue new loans. With the uncertainty in the market and the number of failing mortgages, there are fewer investors out there. The government took over to make sure there is enough money out there to lend to keep the housing market moving.

During these last few days, interest rates have dropped dramatically from about 6.6% to about 6.1%! If you have been "on the fence" trying to decide if it's the right time to buy or not, now is the time to pick a house and lock in the lower rates!

This doesn't mean that it's any easier to get a loan. Lenders are requiring buyers to have higher credit scores and larger down payments than in recent years. Also, the lenders are charging higher fees for those buyers with lower credit scores or smaller down payments. Call your lender for more information and call me if you're ready to buy because now is the time!

So busy I forgot to blog!

Sorry, readers! I got busy and forgot to blog these last few weeks! Here are a few updates. First, I got a new listing at 893 Caniff Place. It's a really nice one-story brick house in Northwest Columbus, near Kenny Road and North Broadway. It has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a family room, living room, dining room, and screened porch and was listed at $147,000. We had a showing on it every day for the first week and it went into contract that week! Here is a picture.

Then, I got another listing in that same neighborhood. This one is still available, so let me know if you're interested! It also has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a family room, living room, dining room, screened porch, plus utility room and an attached one car garage. This one is a brick split-level house with plenty of storage space in the attic and crawl space. They're asking $152,700. Here is a picture of that one. Both are great deals in a neighborhood with easy access to 315, Upper Arlington, OSU, Riverside Hospital, and downtown, where houses sell for up to $180,000!