(July 26, 2006) The central Ohio area has seen record levels of homes for sale in 2006. Inventory levels during the first six months of 2006 have been anywhere from 25 to 40 percent higher than last year. There were 18,641 residential homes for sale at the end of June -- 25.7 percent more than were listed for sale in June of 2005 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service. "The record levels of inventory this year have not frightened off sellers," says Chris Reese, President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. "Over 5,116 homes were listed in June by owners anxious to sell. At this rate, provided no additional homes are added to the market, it would take 6.5 months to sell all of our inventory. Last summer we were closer to a 5.5 absorption rate." June saw 2,872 homes sold -- a 3.8 percent increase over June of 2005. Year to date home sales are 2.8 percent ahead of 2005. The average sale price of a home sold in June was $192,424 which is a negligible .3 percent higher than last year. Year to date, the average sale price is 1.2 percent lower than the average sale price of a home sold in 2005.
"It's clearly still a buyer's market," says Reese. "Although we saw almost 3,000 homes sold, we had over 5,000 new listings added to the market bringing our total to over 18,000 listings." "My advice to sellers is this...If you want to sell your home right now, price it realistically and be patient as it's going to take a little longer to sell under these conditions." The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Madison, Morrow and Union Counties and parts of Champagne, Clark, Licking, Fairfield, Knox, Logan, Marion and Pickaway Counties. To view residential and most of the commercial MLS listings, visit www.Realtor.com providing over 1.7 million homes every day. | | Additional Statistics 
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