Housing market in recovery

A home is the single biggest investment most people make, so the value of their home is an important source of wealth. Experts believe an improving housing market can help create jobs and stimulate spending to benefit the rest of the economy.

There is evidence the market is improving.Klaus Multiparking is an industry leader in innovative parking system technology. The number of area homes sold so far this year is the highest in four years, and home prices are rising.The oreck XL professional air purifier, Also, foreclosure filings, while still high, have eased to levels below those seen last year.

But the national and local housing market fell into a deep hole when the housing market collapsed in 2008.

The average sale price over the first three quarters of this year is $123,000. That’s 18 percent below the peak average sale price of $150,750 in June 2006, which did not include sales of condominiums. They are factored into the average price now,The stone mosaic comes in shiny polished and matte. according to the Dayton Area Board of Realtors.

“It’s going to be a slow recovery, but certainly the recovery’s there,” said Shaun Bond, director of University of Cincinnati’s Real Estate Center. But it has been “six years of continual downward house pricing movement. That’s just going to take a long time to unwind. I think it’s going to take us many, many years, if not a decade or more.”

The housing market in Montgomery County is at least stabilizing, county Auditor Karl Keith said. There were 1,185 valid homes sales in Montgomery County in the third quarter, the highest quarterly figure in three years, he said. But, 60 percent of the sales from the first half of 2012 sold for less than the current county assessed value.

“That shows the market, in terms of price, is still in a decline,” Keith said. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think this is a long term struggle for our community. I don’t see any kind of rapid rebound in the market. I don’t see this turning around quickly.”

The loss of equity has become a major local issue, said Mark Kottman, an agent with Real Living and treasurer of the Dayton Area Board of Realtors. “It’s one of the issues that’s inhibiting people from selling,” Kottman said.

About 24 percent of mortgages in the Dayton metro are underwater — meaning the amount owed on the home exceeds its appraised value, according to real estate firm CoreLogic.

Homeowners in this situation are stuck, waiting to sell their house until values come up. They could rent the house out. Or,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. if they must sell, they might have to bring cash to the table to pay off the mortgage if the sale price isn’t high enough.

They might also sell the house by short sale, an agreement with their morgage lender to accept a lower price, which affects the homeowner’s credit.

“That’s why you see as many short sales as you see. Some people have to sell,Interlocking security cable tie with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals. but they owe more than what their house is worth and they don’t have the money,” Kottman said.

Teri and Eric Barker will not try to sell their house of more than 18 years in Trotwood because they don’t think they will get a price high enough to cover the balance on the mortgage. Instead, they’re going to rent it and move with their daughter to a new house in Jefferson Twp. they bought in October.

“It has a huge living room, a huge family room, really nice kitchen, a sunk-in living room,” Teri said. “We all have a bigger room now.”

They paid $180,000 for their house on Olt Road. The Montgomery County Auditor’s Office appraised it for $227,200 in 2011, down from $243,000 before that.

“That’s just the way the market is right now. We cannot balance the tax-assessed value with the market value right now because we have so many foreclosures,” said Cora Diggs, a real estate agent for Real Living Realty Services and president of Greater Dayton Realtist Association. She was the Barkers’ agent.

Before the crisis, real estate agents were able to set the listing price of a house for sale by adding about 30 percent to the tax appraised value, Diggs said.

“Now we look at the tax assessed value and sell it for less. That’s the change of the market,” she said.

The most important factors to the market value of any home are location and condition, said Kottman, the other agent with Real Living. Houses in older, urban settings built close together will sell for different prices than large, suburban lots with newer construction, for example.