Ohio Mortgage Broker Talks About Current, Future Housing Market

After five straight years of record home sales, the sizzling sales pace for the Ohio housing market ended last year.

As reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer, Tom Steele takes over this year as president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors, a real estate trade group with more than 5,000 members.

A Cincinnati native, Steele, 47, is the owner and mortgage broker of Steele Realtors in Montgomery. He spoke recently with staff writer Jeff McKinney.

What major factors led to the drop in home sales in 2006?
Sales started to drop in March, and for the most part, that started a downward trend for most of the year. Sellers found they could not get the appreciation they benefited from the previous five years. There also were more homes available for sale than there were buyers for those homes.

Move-up buyers who could not sell existing homes and did not have enough home equity to buy newer property were the most drastically affected by the market reality because they had to stay put. In previous years, those move-up buyers were able to sell existing homes at higher prices and use the equity to buy higher-priced homes.

National media reports of a down housing market also kept potential buyers from getting into the market.

The number of homes for sale in Southwest Ohio, which accounts for about 80 percent of the region’s sales, was 14 percent higher in December than in December 2005, based on the most recent figures available. When do you expect to see the high inventory levels start to drop?
There are indicators that we’re starting to see it already. The number of homes available for sale drooped to 14 percent in December from 29 percent in May. That decline is hopefully an indicator of the market adjusting to the number of [Ohio mortgage applicants] in the market. Good houses priced right are still selling quickly.

What advice would you give sellers and buyers now?
Sellers need to make sure their homes are priced right based on today’s market and not the market six months to 12 months ago. They need to work with a Realtor who can give them an objective view of what they can reasonably expect to get to for their home.

They need to understand that buyers have a huge inventory to choose from, so they should make sure their homes is in excellent condition before listing.

For buyers, anyone who has not jumped into the market should do it now because there are plenty of homes to choose from, mortgage rates are good, and you may be able to negotiate a better deal.