Stats_2010Residentialchart Home sales statistics for central Ohio in 2010 showed marked improvements compared to previous years according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS® (CBR).  This is their press release…

The average sale price of a home in 2010 was $158,893, just 0.6 percent lower than the average price of homes sold in 2009. However, the average price of homes sold in 2009 was 2.4 percent lower than 2008 which was 5.1 percent lower than 2007.

“Our market saw average sale price increases for eight of the 12 months of 2010,” says CBR’s 2011 President Rick Benjamin. “As we’ve experienced annual decreases in our average sale price since 2005, we see ending the year just half a point lower than 2009 as a positive for central Ohio homeowners.”

The 1,460 homes sold in December 2010 is just 0.3 percent lower than the number of homes sold in December of 2009. Annual 2010 home sales (19,676) finished 2.8 percent behind 2009 (20,235).

“There’s no question the home buyer tax credits had a significant affect on last year’s home sales,” adds Benjamin. “Providing home buyers with a substantial monetary incentive really helped to energize the market in the first half of 2010.”

“Homes in contract (which are expected to close in January or February) are up slightly from the previous year suggesting that home sales in the first of the year could be strong.”

Homes spent an average of 90 days on the market, a reduction of seven days from the average time to sell a home in 2009.

In December 2010, the month’s supply of homes was down to 9.93, the lowest since last June. Month’s supply is the ratio of inventory to sales which takes into account both supply and demand. A healthy market has a 6.5 to 7-month supply of homes, meaning if no new homes were added to the market, it would take about 6.5 or 7 months to sell all the available homes.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Champaign, Clark, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Licking, Logan, Marion, Muskingham, Perry and Ross Counties.

Columbus real estate agents are often asked about the make up of different neighborhoods–socio-economic, racial, age, lifestyle, sexual orientations, etc.  We’re not allowed to say a whole lot in response to these questions for fear of making a negative impression of one community at the expense of steering a Buyer to another.

That’s when I point Buyers to one resource or another where they can find the information they’re looking for. As a data-loving map geek, I’ve always been very fond of ESRI and geographic information systems in general.

Recently they launched this zip code look-up tool which gives an attractive stash of information regarding the people who live in the zip code you’re querying.  Readers of this blog know that I can’t stand using zip codes when talking about the Columbus Real Estate market because they’re too broad and generally have no direct correlation to Columbus Neighborhoods–especially when trying to derive meaning from housing sales, days on market, active listings, etc.

Still, it’s pretty neat and I believe it’s based on 2010 census data or at least the last available data for Columbus. Try it below. Better yet, though, is a similar tool from ESRI that

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This is a highlight of the September 20 Columbu The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Columbus City Council Meeting.

IMHO, I rarely see or understand where huge amounts of money like this actually make it into our neighborhoods and make real differences.  Where does it go? I can’t answer that but if  there are new monies with a specific aim to, “create vital, healthy neighborhoods by implementing strategies that build a stronger housing real-estate market in weak-market areas of Columbus,” I’m all for it.

I’d like to follow the money trail from beginning to end and find out how it works through a proper accounting of these new funds…..

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Columbus$23.2 million in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).

The funds, included in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, will provide for the acquisition, rehabilitation, redevelopment, or demolition of foreclosed, abandoned and vacant properties. Housing Committee Chair Charleta B. Tavares is sponsoring ordinance 1240-2010 to appropriate $6,882,700.00 in various divisions and object levels of the General Grant Fund to provide funding for approved programs in order to create vital, healthy neighborhoods by implementing strategies that build a stronger housing real-estate market in weak-market areas of Columbus.

The city of Columbus is the Lead Applicant of the NSP2 Consortium which also includes Franklin County, the Affordable Housing Trust of Columbus and Franklin County, Campus Partners, Columbus Housing Partnership, Community Development Collaborative of Greater Columbus, and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Columbus.