October 2018 Ohio Housing Market Report

Ohio's October Housing Report: Tight inventory levels pushing list prices higher and shortening market times

Nov 8, 2018

The latest review of the Ohio housing marketplace shows a continued rise in list prices and fewer days homes are being marketed compared to October 2017. While the Buckeye State is continuing to confront the challenges posed by persistent low inventory levels of homes listed for sale, signs of improvement in select marketplaces are beginning to emerge.

Nationally, the takeaway headline from realtor.com's October 2018 Housing Report, which tracks inventory of for-sale single-family homes and condos, median list prices, inventory levels and days on the market for cities across the country, is that during the month there has been an uptick in the the inventory of homes listed for sale, combined with a continued rise in prices and decreases in time spent on the market.

“Ohio is continuing to face the challenge of low levels of homes currently listed for sale, although there are signs of improvements in some of our marketplaces,” said Ohio REALTORS President Tiffany Meyer. “The tight inventory of homes for sale is not only contributing the list prices continuing to tick upward, it is a key factor in quickening the pace of sales in nearly every market throughout the state."

Ohio Housing Report -- October 2018 vs. October 2017

Ohio Marketplace	Median List Price	Days on Market	Active Listings
Akron	$160K / 7%	58 / -3%	2.6K / -11%
Ashtabula	$120K / 9%	79 / -4%	475 / -3%
Canton-Massillon	$147K / 7%	48 / -10%	1.3K / -9%
Chillicothe	$135K / -4%	61 / -8%	274 / -21%
Cincinnati	$240K / 13%	53 / -5%	7.3K / -3%
Cleveland-Elyria	$180K / 9%	65 / -6%	8.7K / -6%
Columbus	$240K / 0%	46 / -10%	7.7K / 54%
Dayton	$143K / 4%	52 / -13%	3.8K / -6%
Findlay	$180K / 6%	64 / -1%	322 / 3%
Lima	$123K / 17%	69 / -1%	405 / -14%
Mansfield	$123K / 6%	53 / 4%	361 / -16%
Marietta	$160K / 0%	74 / -9%	165 / -17%
New Philadelphia-Dover	$144K / 11%	56 / -27%	260 / -10%
Portsmouth	$110K / -5%	88 / -8%	343 / 0%
Salem	$121K / 5%	81 / -14%	424 / -9%
Sandusky	$189K / 5%	84 / -7%	619 / -13%
Springfield	$113K / 3%	59 / -14%	762 / 4%
Steubenville-Weirton, WV	$95K / 6%	76 / -17%	437 / -20%
Toledo	$139K / 7%	60 / -6%	2.5K / -3%
Wooster	$165K / 14%	58 / -5%	306 / 19%
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman	$120K / 11%	70 / -13%	2.4K / -10%
Zanesville	$156K / 4%	70 / -5%	474 / 10%
U.S. Average	$295K / 7%	68 / -7%	1.6M / 2%

Top Ten Things Agents Do That Sellers Love

By Sonia Krishnan on 3/19/2018  

We know sellers need agents. In fact, 89 percent of sellers list with one. But how do sellers rank agent services in order of importance? We analyzed the data in the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017 and found sellers most valued when agents:

10)  Stage the home

9)   Arrange video and other media to showcase the home

8)   Provide legal advice

7)   Hold open houses and private tours

6)   Determine the home’s list price

5)   Promote listing on real estate sites

4)   Arrange for photographs to be taken of the house

3)   Lead contract negotiations

2)   Give guidance on the overall selling process

Most importantly … 

1)   Find interested buyers

The Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2017 has even more ideas on how you can help your sellers during such a stressful time in their lives. Take a look to learn more about buyers and sellers, and how you can shape their experience.

5 Housing Market Trends that are Changing the Market Today

Reasons to invest in Akron Ohio 4

North Hill’s foreign-born are nationally recognized as economic drivers in CNN report

By Doug Livingston 
Beacon Journal staff writer

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Published: February 9, 2017 - 03:34 PM | Updated: February 10, 2017 - 05:17 PM

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ON THE WEB

• Stores in North Hill neighborhood of Akron reflect influx of Asian immigrants
• It takes a village: Akron area women help Bhutanese refugees learn sewing, sell products
• New study lauds benefits of immigration in Akron

In the midst of an international debate over welcoming or rejecting refugees, Akron’s North Hill is getting national attention as an example of how integration can drive the economy.

CNNMoney’s Wednesday report, “How immigrants helped save the economy of Akron, Ohio,” takes economic stock of North Hill’s outsized foreign-born population.

“The foreign-born people are helping us. They want to send their kids to school, they buy houses and they pay taxes,” Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan told CNN in the story, which includes interviews with local refugee families and business owners.

The economic impact of refugees, who are estimated to account for one in four foreign-born in North Hill, has been well-documented.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that Ohio received nearly one in five Bhutanese refugees who came to America in 2015. Many settled in North Hill, which has become a national beacon attracting countless more refugees from Nepal, Bhutan and other southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries upset by genocide or civil war.

A study released at the height of the presidential election by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan group of 500 mayors and business leaders, found that foreign-born residents, including immigrants and refugees, added $207 million to housing values in Summit County from 2000 and 2013, and kept Akron’s population relatively flat from 2007 to 2013.

The CNN spotlight and other economic studies straddle an executive order signed at the end of January by President Donald Trump.

The order temporarily halts refugee intakes while giving Christians and non-Muslims persecuted in seven countries in the Middle East and Africa a path to enter America. Trump has said the temporary pause, which blocks normal travel from the seven Muslim-majority countries, is not a Muslim ban.

The CNN report also cites the libertarian Cato Institute, which found that low-income refugees are less likely than impoverished Americans to access government assistance, a trend Summit officials said holds true locally.

Reasons to invest in Akron Ohio 3

Akron Snow Angels grows from one-off to regular mission (photos)

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Winter gear left for Akron's homeless around town carry a message from Akron Snow Angels. Jennifer Conn, cleveland.com

Jennifer Conn, Akron reporter, cleveland.com

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By Jennifer Conn, Akron reporter, cleveland.com 
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on February 06, 2017 at 4:18 PM

AKRON, Ohio – Akron Snow Angels, which started as a one-off act of kindness before a snowstorm two years ago, is now an ongoing mission to provide homeless Akronites with food, supplies and warm clothing. 

Erin Victor started the group with an impromptu decision in February 2015 to provide warmth for Akron's homeless. She hung scarves, hats, socks and long underwear from trees and fences around Akron with a note letting the homeless know the items were for them. Cleveland.com reported on the act, and the charity was launched.

With winter storm approaching, Akron woman hangs clothes for homeless with note 'You are loved'

With a winter storm approaching, an Akron woman decided to hang clothing out for the homeless.

"It was a total fluke; it was going to be a one-time thing," Victor said. "But the story was the catalyst. My phone was blown up with emails and calls. The community wanted to keep it going."

Here's how it works:

Now, with its mission to "Spread the Warmth," Akron Snow Angels is a well-oiled machine with an active board and a growing social media network. It gets donations of goods and cash from residents and groups around Akron to support missions that run from November through April, each serving about 200 homeless residents.

Goodwill of Akron provides hundreds of hats, scarves and gloves, while knitters across Akron make more.

ill Bacon Madden of Jilly's Music Room provides warehouse space to house the group's supplies and serve as a starting point for missions.ome items are bagged and tied to fences and trees around town, affixed with a Snow Angels message of caring and supportIn its first year, the group raised $27,000 and was awarded $14,000 from the Akron Halloween Charity Ball, which gives two Akron nonprofits the proceeds from each year's masquerade party.

Akron Snow Angels also takes requests, for sleeping bags, shoes or clothing for jobs. If the items aren't picked up, Snow Angels holds onto to them and brings them back on a subsequent mission.

"We get a lot of requests for boots," said Josh Troche, a Snow Angels board member who blogs about the group's missions on Learning by Helping.

What a mission looks like:

On Sunday, under a bright blue sky, about 50 Akron Snow Angels volunteers met at the warehouse and received assignments. About a dozen vehicles bearing large Akron Snow Angels magnets then headed up Market Street to Grace Park.

With many homeless awaiting the groups' arrival, the vehicles lined both sides of Park Street and set up stations, organized by cargo type, for attendees to browse.

One vehicle handled men's shirts and jackets, another carried kids' clothes and one had pants. One station had scarves, hats and gloves. Socks, shoes and belts, underwear, shopping bags, backpacks and sleeping bags were also available.

An SUV held bins of toiletries, while another hauled hand-made brown-bag meals decorated with hand-drawn hearts. A table was set up with hot coffee, water and food to go.

In addition to twice monthly missions to take food and supplies to Akron's homeless, Akron Snow Angels stays true to its roots, bagging hats, scarves and gloves and hanging them from fences and trees with notes of caring and support for the homeless to find.Akron Snow Angels

"It's a Godsend," said Kenneth England who heard about Snow Angels through a friend and came to get shoes, socks, underwear and toiletries. "It's really helpful and I'm appreciative."

Nearby, volunteers from the Peter Maurin Center for the homeless manned a table, and In One Piece Ministriesserved hot food donated every Sunday by the Holiday Inn of Fairlawn.

Who's volunteering:

Volunteers range from couples and college students to families with middle-school and high school kids.

Volunteer Gina Hornacek, who's been on about 15 Snow Angels missions, regularly brings her teenage daughter, Kamryn. Hornacek said she believes kids need exposure to less fortunate populations to better understand the real world.

"Living in the suburbs, they don't see this," she said.

The group keeps track of many of its regulars, knowing where they sleep and looking for check-ins via text or Facebook.

 The group works two group missions per month and hosts Christmas in July, which provides free haircuts and medical trucks.

"My complete life has changed and I'm a better person because of it," Victor said. "The community is so warm and caring and there's so much good in people. My volunteers feel the same way."

In fact, the group recently benefited from birthday parties for two children and a 100-year-old woman who each asked that donations be made to Akron Snow Angels in lieu of gifts.

To donate cash or goods to Akron Snow Angels, or volunteer, visit its website. You can also follow Snow Angels events on its Facebook page. A GoFundMe campaignis also underway to help the group fund daily operations and expand its reach.

Reasons to invest in Akron, Ohio 1

By Megan Becka, special to cleveland.com 
Email the author
on February 07, 2017 at 10:07 AM, updated February 07, 2017 at 12:08 PM

AKRON, Ohio - The Akron Community Foundation will invite 1,000 Summit County residents to share dozens of meals and discuss how to make their neighborhoods stronger and safer, as part of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's national On the Table initiative.

Knight, which funnels money to all sorts of creative endeavors in Akron, is investing $1.15 million in 10 cities: Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus, Georgia; Detroit; Gary, Indiana; Lexington, Kentucky; Long Beach, California; Miami; Philadelphia; and San Jose, California. The Akron Community Foundation will receive $79,500 for its On the Table program.

8 Akron ideas named finalists in 2017 Knight Foundation Cities Challenge

Eight Akron ideas were among 144 projects nationwide chosen as finalists in the 2017 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's third annual Knight Cities Challenge. More than 4,500 applications vied for the money.

In Akron, meals will take place throughout Summit Count on Oct. 3, and discussions will focus on challenges, including affordable housing, public space improvements and race relations.

"This will elevate our civic conversation," John Garofalo, vice president of community investment for Akron Community Foundation, said in a release. "We also hope this event will spark more collaborations and relationships among residents here in Summit County, which will benefit us all."

On the Table, which began in 2013 as a way for Chicago residents to come together and tackle community issues, is part of the Knight Foundation's mission to help cities attract and retain talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of civic engagement.

"The expansion of On the Table will help create a connected network of people across our nation who are working to make our communities stronger and more successful, while sharing lessons about how local residents can collaborate to begin working on pressing challenges," Lilly Weinberg, Knight Foundation director for community foundations, said in a release. "With community foundations like Akron Community Foundation leading the effort, the information gathered through this initiative will tap into local residents' interests and aspirations, informing decisions about new investments and engaging local policy and decision-makers."