September Home Sales Up Over Last Year, Down From August

The latest report on home sales in central Ohio shows a region still struggling to climb out of the foreclosure crisis. But there are signs of hope. In nearly every category of the September report, from the number of homes sold to the average sales price to the number of homes entering into contract, central Ohio fared better than last September but worse than earlier this summer. On the whole, prices have stabilized since last year. But from August to September, the average sale price fell more than $13,000. Local realtors sold about 1,700 homes…that’s 800 fewer than the number that went into contract the month before. “A lot of those, it’s taking longer to get actual loans right now, and the process of the actual closing of the home. So it should just kind of fall into the following month," says Rick Benjamin, president of the Central Ohio Board of Realtors. Benjamin could not say if the reduced inventory of local homes was an indicator of an ease in foreclosures, or frustrated sellers taking their homes off the market.