DBJ... Dayton, Midwest see drop in housing prices

From the Dayton Business Journal…

Dayton, Midwest see drop in housing prices

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The Dayton housing market rests near the bottom of the recovery barrel, according to a national housing survey.

The Dayton metropolitan area recorded the fourth poorest showing in home prices in the country during the past four months, according to the Clear Capital housing report — a monthly ranking of the top 50 metro areas.

Local housing prices dropped 11.6 percent compared to the previous three month period and 14.8 percent compared to the same period in 2009.

The local price decline was echoed on both the regional and national fronts. The Midwest topped the list of quarterly price declines, recording quarterly price drops of 9.9 percent and annual declines of 4.7 percent.

Nationally, prices dropped 5.8 percent quarter-over-quarter and 2.7 percent year-over-year. Yet, despite the decline, national home prices remain 5.5 percent above the record lows of last year.

However, Deb McCuiston, president of the Dayton Area Board of Realtors, said the Clear Capital statistics don’t reflect “an average picture of the area market.”

“There’s a lot of positive and a lot of areas are doing well in the Dayton area,” she said.

The data Clear Capital used to rank metro areas only reflects the housing activity within four counties in the Dayton region — Clarke, Greene, Miami and Montgomery counties. Locally, the housing picture changes depending on which counties are analyzed.

McCuiston said the region’s home sale prices actually are on the rise. The Ohio Association of Realtors, which tracks Dayton housing data for Greene, Montgomery, Preble and Warren counties, reported increased sale prices on area homes for the first 10 months of the year. McCuiston said that while the number of local sales dropped 2.2 percent compared to 2009, home prices increased 1.1 percent.

Two other Ohio areas — Columbus and Cincinnati — joined Dayton on Clear Capital’s list of poorly performing housing markets. Columbus led the list with a 15.3 percent year-over-year drop in prices, while Cincinnati ranked 14th with a 7 percent decline.

Clear Capital is a provider of data and solutions for real estate asset valu­ation and risk assessment for large financial services companies. The company’s customers include 75 percent of the largest U.S. banks, investment firms and other financial organizations.