Area Real Estate Market Drops, Realtors Believe It’ll Come Back Up In Coming Months
Dayton real estate sales fell in February for the second consecutive month, but that may have a lot to do with buyer budgets.
According to data released by Dayton Realtors, sales last month were down more than eight percent from the previous year, and closed sales were down nearly 20 percent.
The good news is that the median sales price increased by more than five percent to about $240,000.
This is all with mortgage rates still hovering close to seven percent.
“I think interest rates are a very big contributing factor. But more than that, it also shows that different communities have – like one community, nothing will stay on the market, and the next community it sits there for a moment, but then it changes for us,” said Barbara Waddell, president-elect of Dayton Realtors.
Waddell said that if you’re looking for a new home, your budget is the determining factor in what you’ll see. Some homes priced at the higher end of the spectrum can stay on the market for weeks at a time, while others priced lower and in the buyer’s range are still hot commodities.
She added that buyers are ultimately more concerned with where they want to be rather than the available mortgage rate.
“We had a season where the rates were just phenomenal, but what else happened that season? People were paying $50,000 to $100,000 less because the rates were so great,” she said. “So in our market, things seem to be leveling out. Right now, you don’t have to pay $50,000, $30,000 or $100,000 less, but you’re going to be sitting on a seven percent interest rate.”
Waddell said she thinks sales will pick up, as they often do now that temperatures are warming up. Families typically want to make the move before the fall months and the start of the school year.
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