Troy Market Update October 2021 – Watch Video

Thanks for joining me down below here! Feel free to turn on my market video above and listen or dig a little deeper here with me on the stats! I want to dig into a couple key indicators of today’s market and how they may effect you if you are thinking about buying, selling or investing in real estate.

Highlights in the Market

Active Listings are DOWN just under 10% compared to the same time last year (-9.9%)

New Listings are DOWN just under 1.5% compared to the same time last year (-1.4%)

SOLD Properties are relatively flat UP 1% compared to the same time last year (+1%)

Under Contract/Pending Properties are UP 30% compared to same time last year (+30.1%)

Interest Rates are UP from 1/8% to 1/4% compared to 1 yr ago (+0.18 to +0.27% on 30 yr fixed) … (From 3% one year ago to 3.18% today and they were 3.27% last week)

So what does all of this actually mean to you? Below I will break down what it means to you if you are a buyer, seller or investor in the market.

Buyers

The relatively stable buyer demand with the seasonal drop in new listings has created movement back to a tighter inventory environment. Although the days of 20 offers from spring and summer are gone, 5 or 6 strong offers creates enough competition to continue driving prices up. We have seen the strongest demand in the sub $500k price range in suburban school districts.

The interest rates continue to be at historic lows, however, buyers who sat on the sidelines “waiting for the crash” might be surprised at what there payment will be now, especially if we see the Federal Reserve begin to pull back on their purchasing of mortgaged backed securities, which has kept rates arbitrarily low for the last couple of years. They have said they may start pulling back on that as soon as November, so we will wait to see what effect that has on rates. Certainly buying power is affected when rates rise, which will either slow demand or cause the lower price ranges to become even more competitive.

Sellers

The current environment continues to be the strongest in years, if not ever for most sellers. The extremely low inventory packaged with stable buyer demand has continued to create competitive offer environments for sellers who have priced their home appropriately. We have seen the rate of appreciation slow a bit as some areas have bumped into pricing ceilings, especially when pricing in traditionally lower priced areas begins to bang up against that $400-$500k range. We continue to see very strong demand in suburban and rural school districts which were experiencing less growth compared with urban areas Pre-Covid.

Investors

The investor market in Central Ohio remains very tight. With very little foreclosure activity, the bulk of “off market” buying has happened through direct prospecting by investors. This has led to less hitting the actual market. When something does hit the market there are often multiple offers. A lot of the demand in multi family real estate in particular has been compounded by interest in our market from cities on the “coasts” whose average sales prices are significantly higher. Columbus metro has a very attractive average sales price as well as very strong rents for the price. The combination of those two factors makes our market very attractive for investors from out of the area. I average one to two inquires from investors (often from California) who have never been to Columbus, but are interested in purchasing here, either in the form of long term rentals or in “flips”. If prices continue to rise for multi-family properties and rents don’t rise at the same pace, I expect demand to decrease some, especially from out of state investors. Other lower priced markets which are in a similar place that we were in 5 or so years ago will start to grab the attention of the bargain hunters from the coasts. Until that shows up in the numbers, we will continue to see strong demand from outside the market.

Thank you for checking out my latest post, please follow us for more information. If you would like to have a quick chat about the market or get a market analysis for your particular home or investment area, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Troy

Founder & Managing Partner

Marsh Home Group of KW Consultants Realty