Local experts on the Springfield and Urbana area housing market
Do you believe the area’s housing market is truly improving or not and why?
1. David Brisker, chief executive officer, Western Regional Information Systems & Technology Inc. (region's Multiple Listing Service)
“I have no data that is conflicting. I see units sold, I see average sales price going up….we see inventory levels going down, which means we’re selling houses faster than we’re putting on the market.”
“I can’t find any data that would make me not believe the housing recovery is well underway.”
2. Penny Underwood, clerk of courts, Champaign County
“Research indicates that the property value, of those that remain owner occupied, are staying the same or gaining ground, and the property transfers that have conspired so far this year indicate that the housing market is improving. As you know foreclosures do not happen overnight, the foreclosures now being filed were in the making two to three years prior.”
3. Tom Stoll, senior vice president, residential mortgage lending, Fifth Third Bank:
“I still have a feeling of confidence based on our activity at Fifth Third Bank. We have seen a diverse buying audience taking advantage of the low rates and attractive prices in the market across all price ranges.”
4. Wilbur Jackson, general manager, custom home builder, Andren Homes by The Jackson Group
“This is the first year we haven’t gotten anything new to build. We usually build a house or two…We’re fighting not just the economy of people willing to spend more money, but when they are willing to spend money, new construction costs are higher than a used house is going for.”
Halfway through the year, more people have purchased homes in the Springfield area and paid higher prices for them than in several years. But a high number of foreclosure cases and sluggish economy continue to hamper the housing market’s recovery, observers and officials said.
Just in Clark County, 535 houses sold from January to June this year, up nearly 16 percent from the same time period last year, according to WRIST. Just Springfield home sales rose year-over-year almost 13 percent through June to 240 closed housing contracts.
The entire region’s average sales price was approximately $102,100, an increase of about five percent.
The housing market is still weak because the overall economy is weak, said Tom Fitzpatrick, an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. An “enormous” problem in Ohio cities is that there is far more housing than there is population growth, Fitzpatrick said.
“I think what we need to hope for, for a recovery, is more stability than a return to previous highs,” he said. “We either gain population or we reduce the supply of housing.”
HOME SALES
“We’ve now seen four quarters in a row of average sales prices going up and sales going up. So we’re a year now into, from our perspective, the recovery. How long it’s going to last and all that, we don’t have a crystal ball,” Brisker said.
The average sales price over the six months of January to June in only Springfield was approximately $68,800, according to WRIST. Sales prices peaked in the region’s largest city in 2007 at more than $75,000, but before that in 2005, prices averaged just more than $69,000.
FORECLOSURES
The difference between people defaulting on their home loans and people buying houses is jobs, said Richard Stock, director of University of Dayton’s Business Research Group.
“Even though we’ve gained a few jobs back from our low, we still have a substantial number of people going through severe economic hardship,” Stock said.
HOME BUILDERS
A dry private home construction market in 2012 has made Habitat for Humanity the single largest builder this year in Clark County, funded by Neighborhood Stabilization funds in partnership with the city.
Builders typically pull a permit when they’re close to starting construction.
Clark County Community Habitat for Humanity will build 11 houses this year in the Grand Avenue South neighborhood of Springfield, said executive director Matt Wilson. Currently nine houses are in various stages of construction and will be complete by year’s end.
The three- and four-bedroom houses sell for $80,000 to $85,000 to qualified working families.
“I would say of any individual home builder, we’re probably building more,” Wilson said. “There will be an ongoing need.”
The housing recovery won’t be in full swing until home construction gains traction, Brisker said.
“If you look at a home not only as a residence but a commodity, I can go out and find a preexisting home right now less, much less than I can build that same style house. So the best buy right now is still a preexisting home,” he said.
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