Home sales in central Ohio home have exceeded 2010 for the last four months according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. The 1,543 homes sold in October marks an 8.6 percent increase over the 1,421 homes sold in October of 2010. Home sales in September were up 16.6 percent compared to the year before.
Year-to-date, home sales (January through October 2011) are only 2.1 percent behind 2010 and closing the gap.
Homes put in contract last month (1,379) were up 46 percent from a year ago making October the sixth straight month of increased contracts.
"The number of homes put into contract have been up for the last several months," said Rick Benjamin, 2011 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. "However, contract failures - cancellations caused largely by declined mortgage applications or failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated price continue to be a problem for central Ohio buyers."
Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 23.3 percent to 13,827 existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.7-month supply in September.
The average sale price for single family homes and condominiums year to date is $157,327, down 2.4 percent from homes sold January through October 2010.
"Affordability conditions this year have been the most favorable on record since 1970," said Benjamin. "As mortgage interest rates continue to remain low, more first time home buyers, investors and move up buyers are being drawn into the housing market."
ZIP Codes: 43035, 43065, 43017, 43016, 43085 Approximate Location Boundaries: Central Ohio including the Greater Columbus Ohio Metro Area
Location Characteristics: Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city in the United States of America. It is the county seat of Franklin County, yet the city has expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County and Fairfield County. Named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. The city has a diverse economy based on education, government, insurance, banking, fashion, defense, aviation, food, clothes, logistics, steel, energy, medical research, health care, hospitality, retail, and technology. Modern Columbus has emerged as a technologically sophisticated city. It is home to the world's largest private research and development foundation, the Battelle Memorial Institute; CAS, or Chemical Abstracts Service, the world's largest clearinghouse of chemical information; NetJets, the world's largest fractional ownership jet aircraft fleet; and The Ohio State University, the nation's largest campus.
In 2009, BusinessWeek named the city as the best place in the country to raise a family.Forbes Magazine in 2008 ranked the city as the no. 1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation,and the city was ranked a top ten city by Relocate America in 2010.In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no. 3 in the U.S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no. 1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide.
In 2008, MarketWatch named Columbus as the 7th best place to do business in the nation. In 2011, the city had five corporations named to the U.S. Fortune 500 list including Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, Limited Brands, Momentive Specialty Chemicals, and Big Lots.[26] Major foreign corporations operating or with divisions in the city include Germany-based Siemens and Roxane Laboratories, Finland-based Vaisala, Tomasco Mulciber Inc., and A Y Manufacturing, as well as Switzerland-based ABB Group and Mettler Toledo.
The population of the city was 787,033 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous city in Ohio. In 2008, Columbus was the 16th largest city in the United States, with 754,885 residents, but has only the 32nd largest metropolitan area, and the fourth most populous state capital in the U.S. 2008 estimates indicate that roughly 116,000 of the city's residents are foreign-born, accounting for 82% of the new residents between 2000-2006. According to the U.S. Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 1,773,120, and the Combined Statistical Area (which also includes Marion and Chillicothe) has a population of 2,031,229. Columbus is located within 550 miles (890 km) of half of the population of the United States.
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