Last year brought a drop in Central Ohio homes sales, with an especially-poor end to the year giving local realtors a reason to be pessimistic for 2019.
An annual report released Tuesday says the area saw 31,520 closed sales in 2018. That’s down 2.2 percent from 2018 and represents the largest year-over-year drop since 2009.
The number of homes sold in 2018 was also below 2016 levels.
The drop in home sales came as the inventory of homes for sale remained near historic lows, and as prices increased by more than 7 percent to a median of about $195,000.
“Fewer homes to choose from coupled with lower affordability made it tough for buyers in 2018,” said Columbus Realtors president John Myers in an emailed statement. “But the increases in inventory during the last four months of the year suggests more choices for buyers in 2019.”
The downward trend for local home sales intensified in December, as realtors closed 2,052 sales. That’s down 9.2 percent from the previous December.
The Columbus Realtors report came on the same day the National Association of Realtors reported the number of existing-home sales tumbled to a three-year low in December.
