Home price drops

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   Home price drops in region among worst in nation
By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer Updated 9:29 PM Wednesday, April 11, 2012 
    Home prices in the region were among the worst declines in the nation over the past four months, a sign of a not-fully recovered local housing market, according to a new report released.
    The Cincinnati-Middletown metro area, which saw an index of home prices decline 1.3 percent, joined other Ohio metros as some of the lowest performing markets in the U.S., including Columbus and Cleveland, which both saw prices decline 3 percent, according to Clear Capital’s quarterly Home Data Index of existing single-family home and condo sales.
    Hamilton, Middletown and the rest of the local region have home prices that may not yet have reached bottom, Villacorta said.
    “What you see in a change of prices is actually a change in market forces instead of a shift in buyer demand,” he said. “(The region) ...has had more of a slower ride down.”
    The real estate assessment firm compared sales from December through March to sales during the prior three months. Clear Capital said the company used a longer time period for the latest report to get a broader view of the market.
    One factor at play in the regions’s recent decline in home prices is an increasing amount of lender-involved sales, Villacorta said. In the last four months analyzed by Clear Capital, the proportion of foreclosed homes sold was 26.8 percent in the region, compared to 31 percent a year ago. Sales of bank-owned properties tend to drive home prices down. After dropping, foreclosure sales in the region have increased during the last six months, Villacorta said.
    “We’re actually seeing that rate increase. That’s the telltale sign of when there’s significant downward pressure on home sales,” he said.
    For the rest of the year, home prices in the local area are expected to drop 2.4 percent, according to a Clear Capital forecast.
    In the entire Midwest, prices are expected to rise 0.7 percent — the weakest growth of four U.S. regions. The Midwest saw since December the biggest increase in sales of bank repossessions of the Northeast, South and Western parts of the country. Nationwide, prices are expected to rise 1.2 percent in 2012, Clear Capital said.
    Local Realtors say some pockets of Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio’s second largest metro, might be doing better than others.
    “My sense, based off what I’ve closed already this year, I feel that we’ve already hit pretty much bottom. But the turnaround’s going to take a long time,” said Matt Riley, executive vice president of sales for Sibcy Cline and a real estate agent of properties in Butler and Hamilton counties.
    “People are still looking at what oil’s doing and what jobs are doing and jobs is driving the market right now,” Riley said.
    Tim Chupka, manager of Sibcy Cline’s Middletown/Monroe office, agrees prices in their sales area of Butler, Warren and Preble counties have bottomed out. The housing market recovery depends on the economy, including foreclosures, and lending, Chupka said.
    “I don’t think they’re (prices) going down really any further. Part of is we’re on the cusp of Dayton and Cincinnati,” he said.
    Home prices have leveled off in Butler County, said Brian Marischen, broker/owner of Realty First of Hamilton.
    “It’s hard to compare a fourth quarter of last to year to the first quarter of this year,” Marischen said. “I do believe we’ve seen the bottom. I think more sellers are realistic about what their homes should sell for where in the past, sellers haven’t wanted to give their house away in their mind.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.