This increase was 10 percentage points above the national average, the company said.
However, despite this rapid growth, Ohio’s home prices still remain 35% below the national benchmark, suggesting that the state continues to offer relatively affordable housing compared to other regions.
Matin Real Estate said the data shows that the first half of 2025 has brought “a remarkable rebalancing” in the American housing market.
“States like Michigan and Ohio, once seen as steady but unspectacular, are now seeing the strongest price growth in the country,” the company said. “This represents a significant shift from the pandemic and post-pandemic years, when states like Florida, Arizona and Utah dominated price growth charts.
“What we’re seeing now is likely the result of affordability concerns driving buyers to previously overlooked markets where housing remains relatively affordable despite recent increases.”
In the Miami Valley, median home sales rose 19% from $231,000 in January to $275,000 by June, the highest median price ever, according to Dayton Realtors Multiple Listing Service, which includes Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Darke and Preble counties.
Kathryn Tolbert, a Dayton-based CPA, said she purchased a 2,051-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath home in the 800 block of Westlake Drive in Troy in July after a four-month search that started during tax season.
Tolbert said one of the biggest challenges she faced was not knowing or understanding what sellers were prioritizing or expecting.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“Even when I would offer asking price, there were other things that some of the sellers were more interested in, like closing time, the amount of time to close and closing costs,” she said. “I lost out on a few houses just because it’s hard to know exactly what the seller wants.”
Tolbert said using a realtor, Glasshouse Realty Group’s Nickie Moreno, “really made the process way easier than I could’ve hoped for.”
She said the previous owner of her new home in Troy bought it two years ago for only $19,000 less than what she ended up spending for it this year, so when she first started looking to buy a new home earlier this year “it wasn’t extremely obvious to me that prices were going up just in that short amount of time.”
But she also said her first home, a 1,742-square-foot Butler Twp. ranch house she purchased in 2015 for $158,000, was valued at $297,000 at the start of 2025.
Tolbert said her advice to home buyers is to be realistic about their expectations.
“I had to kind of give up some of the things that were on my wish list, and I’m actually very happy with my purchase now,” she said. “Just making sure you’re staying open to different types of houses and not being extremely picky on what you have in your head as your dream home. And then also just trying to be intuitive about what sellers are wanting in different situations.”
The area’s median sale price climbed a little more than 7.1% year-to-date to $255,000 as of July, while the average sale price rose nearly 5.9% to $293,666.
Kelly McCormick, president of Dayton Realtors, told this news outlet those figures point to a strengthening market, despite a slight decline in overall transactions, down nearly 2.8%, from 8,487 home sales between January and July 2024 to 8,251 during the same period this year
Although year-to-date sales numbers are down slightly, the area started the year down almost 16% and the gap has been closing throughout this year, according to Dayton Realtors.
McCormick said the latest year-to-date sales numbers show that the area market has momentum with an increasing amount of buyers in the market.
“(Buyers) understand the complexity of the economic environment. They’ve accepted that there’s plenty of houses to choose from, because listing availabilities have had edged up from their lowest a couple of years ago,” she said. “Buyers have more choices, they’re willing to make decisions, so I think it shows momentum in the market.”
The median sale price for the month jumped nearly 9% to $270,000 compared to the same month a year earlier, while the average sale price rose 7.7% to $304,479, underscoring the continued rise in home values across the region, she said.
New listings also saw a robust increase. In July, there were 1,837 new listings, a nearly 12.4% rise from the 1,635 listed in the same month last year. Year-to-date, listings reached 10,746, up 3.9% from 10,342 in 2024.
However, total active inventory stood at just 2,357 homes, representing a 1.65-month supply based on July’s pace of sales. Industry experts typically consider a three-month supply to indicate a balanced market.
With inventory well below that threshold, the area remains a seller’s market, characterized by strong demand and limited supply, McCormick confirmed.
Although median sales price dipped from a high of $275,000 in June to $270,000 in July, the local housing market has demonstrated resilience and steady growth through that month, statistics show.
“At the end of the day, housing is more more than numbers,” McCormick said. “It’s about people moving forward with their lives. Seeing that the market is trending toward rebalancing is healthy, and I think that’s good news for buyers and sellers.”
While the total number of home sales year-to-date was slightly lower than the previous year, key indicators such as sale prices and overall market activity showed notable improvement.
As Ohio continues to experience rapid property value growth and Dayton maintains its upward trajectory in prices and market activity, the combination of falling mortgage rates and rising home values could set the stage for a solid second half of the year, McCormick said.
There were 1,426 transactions, marking a nearly 5.8% increase from the 1,348 recorded in July 2024. Total sales volume surged 13.9% to $434.2 million, compared to $381.1 million a year earlier.
“I think it shows the demand remains strong,” McCormick said.
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