Columbus, Ohio Housing Market Considered Undervalued

Most metro-areas in the nation are seeing the overvaluation of houses curb - but prices in the Columbus housing market are below what they should be, a quarterly study asserts.

The Global Insight/National City Housing Valuation Analysis showed that of the four Ohio cities surveyed, the average price for existing single-family homes in Cleveland was overvalued, while price tags in Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus saw an increase undervaluation.

A survey of the 2006 fourth quarter - October through December - showed the average housing price in Columbus remained the same as in the previous quarter at $153,900, but went from being undervalued by 1.2 percent to 2.1 percent.

During 2005’s fourth quarter, the sale price for houses in Central Ohio was on target at an average of $152,300.

The study was conducted by Waltham, Mass.-based Global Insight Inc. and Cleveland-based National City Corp. The methodology used several factors to determine an appropriate price level for homes in 317 real estate markets across the United States, including the markets’ housing density, average household income, desirability and prevailing mortgage rates to determine if buyers could afford to pay more and keep their monthly payments the same.

The trend of overvaluation of houses nationwide dipped to 16 percent for the period from 17 percent during the third quarter. The largest declines were recorded in California, Florida and the New York housing market.

Results for other Ohio cities were:

• Cincinnati’s average house price was $144,700, undervalued by 3.5 percent, making this an ideal region in which to apply for an Ohio mortgage.

• The average house price in Dayton was $125,300, undervalued by 0.9 percent.

• Cleveland’s average house price was $148,100, overvalued by 2.4 percent.

At the top of the study’s overvalued list was Naples, Florida housing market, which was overvalued by 79.9 percent, while New Orleans was at the bottom of the list with the average price of houses undervalued by 38 percent.