Saturday, February 16, 2008

Columbus Real Estate Marketing Update

Greetings Columbus and Central Ohio. Real estate is still alive and well in our area. There have been some changes in our market as we are aware. A few months ago the market was a buyers market with about 10 homes on the market for every one buyer. A balanced market is about 7 homes on the market for every one buyer. With the interest rates so low, this is really good news for all buyers. However, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors there have been some changes in the last few weeks. A slowing in the number of listings added to the market is good news for sellers. While it is still a buyers market, my opinion is this will change in 2008 to a balanced market again. Right now it remains the perfect market for buyers.

For buyers 2007 was a memorable year in real estate. The low interest rates, prices and inventory, made 2007 a strong buyers market. Despite what you have heard and read, according to the CBR reports, the market was strong for central Ohio. I feel most of the doom and gloom in the media was including states with an extremely high foreclosure rates. While Ohio is facing a record number of foreclosures, Ohio is very low compared with other states. For Ohio buyers there are some extremely good buys in this forcloseure market if the buyer is careful about what they buy. Not all foreclosures are good buys. Some need an extreme amount of costly repairs. You can check out a list of forclosed Real Estate on Clifford Realtors web site. You should know what sold in that area at what price, in the last six months. Get estimates of the repairs and add that to the purchase price and don’t forget to add your time involved. Ask your Realtor for an estimate of your net before buying a foreclosure.

So, right now it is still a buyers market with lots of great buys out there. But, according to my research this may change soon and the market will be balanced again. When this happens, there will still be some great buys and the interest rates will still be good. I don’t think we will see this memorable buyers market again for years. So, congratulations to all you smart buyers that are taking advantage of this. Be sure and check out all homes for sale on Columbus Ohio MLS. There are many great buys with low interest rates.

Posted by: Dora Clifford, Broker Clifford Realtors