Ohio Real Estate Sales History/Trends 2003-2009

We've pulled the Ohio housing statistics from the years of 2003 through 2009. We'll look at the trends of homes sold in Northeast Ohio during the peak real estate boom by numbers and cover some of the reasons for the ups and downs. These are residential, single-family homes and condos sold. We're using March as the month of reference for all years so it's accurate and most current for today.

• Homes Sold: 2003-2004 45,115
• Homes Sold: 2004-2005 47,508
• Homes Sold: 2005-2006 48,700 <>
• Homes Sold: 2006-2007 46,235
• Homes Sold: 2007-2008 41,137
• Homes Sold: 2008-2009 37,053

• Licensed Realtors in the state of Ohio: 2008 35,000
• Licensed Realtors in the state of Ohio: 2009 30,000

The Realtor statistics are for the entire state of Ohio, (88 counties.) The housing sales statistics are for the 15-county Northeast Ohio market only. Typically in any real estate market, the top 3-5% of all agents are responsible for 95-97% of all homes sold. That doesn't leave a lot of room for the other agents. What does that mean to you? All Realtors are not created equal and do not all work in the same way. Ask questions. Homes are still selling and always will. If your real estate agent is selling less than 40 homes a year even in a slow market, find out why.

As you can see above, 2005 was the year. Things were great. Homes were appreciating nicely, appraisals were coming in strong, and home owners were refinancing. Yes, the infamous refinance nightmare had started. ARMS (adjustable rate mortgages) were out there and home owners were jumping on them. Many Ohio residents did not anticipate that taking the equity out on their home or refinancing to a nice low interest rate, (a temporary one in some cases) would cause so many problems in the next few years. Most thought with the rate of appreciation, they could just refinance again later when the rate increased. Wrong. As home values started to decrease, the expiration of many ARMS were up, so mortgage payments sky rocketed. Home owners could not refinance again to lower their new, increased mortgage payments because they were upside down in value, so... stuck they were. Either pay up, or foreclose. We know what happened with that decision.

There are many additional variables in the equation and it's certainly not black and white, but a good reason for the home selling decline, is lack of "moving up." The average home owner, (in 2005) stayed in a home for five years. They put their home on the market, and purchased another. This stopped happening in many areas as these home owners could not move even if they wanted to.

New home owners were faced with less financing options. This is another reason for the home sale decline after 2005. In the peak years, first-time home buyers could get a home with no money down, poor credit scores and at times not showing any income at all. These home buyers are not entering the market as there are no loan options fitting that criteria any longer. That's a good thing for this market turn.

Foreclosures started to rise and banks were faced with increasing problems. It costs a bank $50,000 on average to handle a foreclosure. The rest of the story is almost but not quite, "history." The entire reason for the housing 'crisis' or details about other factors such as jobs, health care, credit and cost of living, etc., aren't included. This is a generic outline of the Cleveland real estate market and isn't intended to define the entire problem, but naturally there is quite a bit more to the story.

So what is the Northeast Ohio housing forecast for 2009-2010? Many have speculated, and there are lots of opinions out there. No one knows for sure exactly what is going to happen in Ohio or across the country at this point. There are some bright rays of positiveness though...

So far, 2009 has started off with a stimulating bang. In the beginning of the year, the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit was passed and is good for only this year. Interest rates are now lower than we've seen in 50+ years, and home prices are reduced 10-30% in some areas of Northeast Ohio. This is a very enticing reason for renters or those on the housing fence to plunge into this wobbly real estate market. As of March, 2009, home values in Cleveland alone are up 3.8% from February.

There may never be a better time to secure housing. This is the time to cash in, as trends are already showing signs of increase. The need for rental property has increased with the amount of foreclosures. A good reason to buy now is to avoid raised rents in the future. Investment property is also something to consider. We'll be following the sales as we have been with our Ohio city and county housing statistics and continue to keep you up to date with the real estate market in the Cleveland area.

Reference the many links within this article for detailed information and explanations. Real estate statistics are brought to you by the YouShouldOwn.com team of agents at Howard Hanna, Ohio's largest real estate broker. Housing sales are residential, single-family homes and condominiums only. Multi-family, commercial and land sales are not included. Information pulled from the Ohio MLS and the National Association Of Realtors. Contact us with any questions or if you need assistance with financing or buying/selling a home. You can also search all homes for sale in Northeast Ohio here.