Housing Market Update April 2021




housing market update April 2021 Columbus, Ohio

The monthly housing market update April 2021 has been released from Columbus Realtors. The results continue ongoing trends of rising prices and low supply.

Note: LSD= Local School District, CSD= City School District. In both cases, school district boundaries differ from city boundaries.

Top 15 Most Expensive Locations By Median Sales Price in April 2021
1. New Albany: $677,500
2. German Village: $570,000
3. Bexley: $527,500
4. Dublin: $514,000
5. Powell: $500,000
6. Grandview Heights: $486,000
7. New Albany Plain LSD: $469,393
8. Upper Arlington CSD: $465,008
9. Olentangy LSD: $446,575
10. Dublin CSD: $437,000
11. Buckeye Valley LSD: $425,000
12. Jonathan Alder LSD: $422,000
13. Granville CSD: $410,000
14. Worthington: $409,250
15. Short North: $405,500

New Albany continued to top the charts, and remained more than $100K over second place.

Top 15 Least Expensive Locations by Median Sales Price in April 2021
1. Newark CSD: $140,000
2. Circleville CSD: $164,900
3. Whitehall: $165,000
4. Hamilton LSD: $195,250
5. Groveport Madison LSD: $196,000
6. Jefferson LSD: $198,000
7. Lancaster CSD: $200,000
8. London CSD: $207,500
9. Columbus CSD: $217,000
10. Obetz: $225,100
11. Columbus: $228,500
12. South-Western CSD: $230,000
13. Reynoldsburg CSD: $237,900
14. Canal Winchester CSD: $245,500
15. Minerva Park: $245,551

Columbus and some of its suburbs remained relative bargains in April.

Overall Market Median Sales Price in April 2021: $251,135
The overall market is defined by Columbus Metro Area counties.

Top 15 Locations with the Highest Median Sales Price % Growth Between April 2020 and April 2021
1. German Village: +67.2%
2. Jonathan Alder LSD: +42.1%
3. Worthington: +39.3%
4. Blacklick: +38.6%
5. Buckeye Valley LSD: +36.7%
6. Powell: +33.8%
7. Teays Valley LSD: +30.6%
8. Whitehall: +29.7%
9. Worthington CSD: 26.4%
10. London CSD: +25.8%
11. Olentangy LSD: 24.7%
12. Bexley: +24.1%
13. Westerville CSD: 22.9%
14. Jefferson LSD: +21.5%
15. South-Western CSD: +21.1%
16. Marysville CSD: +20.3%

Top 15 Locations with the Lowest Median Sales Price % Growth Between April 2020 and April 2021
1. Grandview Heights: -20.4%
2. New Albany Plain LSD: -10.3%
3. Canal Winchester CSD: -8.4%
4. Downtown: -8.0%
5. Johnstown-Monroe LSD: -6.8%
6. New Albany: -6.6%
7. Lithopolis: -6.3%
8. Newark CSD: -2.1%
9. Big Walnut LSD: +0.3
10. Circleville CSD: +0.6%
11. Granville CSD: +1.4%
12. Reynoldsburg CSD: +2.9%
13. Pataskala: +5.0%
14. Minerva Park: +5.8%
15. Gahanna Jefferson CSD: +6.4%

Urban areas generally improved significantly over earlier in the year. Downtown was still down, but by less than in previous months, so it seems the urban market is now well underway with a recovery.

Overall Market Median Sales Price % Change April 2021 vs. April 2020: +13.8%

Top 10 Locations with the Most New Listings in April 2021
1. Columbus: 1,328
2. Columbus CSD: 917
3. South-Western CSD: 197
4. Westerville CSD: 182
5. Olentangy LSD: 177
6. Hilliard CSD: 171
7. Dublin CSD: 153
8. Worthington CSD: 108
9. Pickerington LSD: 105
10. Grove City: 100

Columbus lead again, and had a few hundred more listings in April than it did in March. Listings overall were up in most places compared to a year ago, a small glimmer of good news.

Top 10 Locations with the Fewest New Listings in April 2021
1. Valleyview: 3
2. Lithopolis: 6
3. Obetz: 8
4. Jefferson LSD: 9
5. Sunbury: 9
6. Johnstown-Monroe LSD: 9
7. Jonathan Alder LSD: 10
8. Minerva Park: 11
9. Circleville CSD: 13
10. Grandview Heights: 14

Total New Listings in the Columbus Metro in April 2021: 3,250
Overall Metro New Listings % Change April 2021 vs April 2020: +41.1%



Top 10 Fastest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in April 2021
1. Lithopolis: 2
2. Minerva Park, Sunbury: 3
3. Big Walnut LSD, Jonathan Alder LSD: 4
4. Canal Winchester CSD, Jefferson LSD, Reynoldsburg CSD, Westerville, Worthington: 5
5. Groveport Madison LSD: 7
6. Beechwold/Clintonville, Delaware CSD, Hilliard CSD, Johnstown-Monroe LSD, Powell, Westerville CSD, Worthington CSD: 8
7. Hamilton LSD, South-Western CSD: 9
8. Hilliard, Pickerington LSD: 10
9. Obetz: 11
10. Bexley, Circleville CSD, Columbus: 12

Top 10 Slowest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in April 2021
1. Short North: 52
2. New Albany: 49
3. Granville CSD, New Albany Plain LSD: 39
4. German Village: 38
5. Grandview Heights: 28
6. Downtown: 27
7. Buckeye Valley LSD: 25
8. Lancaster CSD: 23
9. Marysville CSD, Olentangy LSD: 20
10. Upper Arlington CSD: 18

Top 10 Locations with the Greatest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale April 2021 vs March 2020
1. Lithopolis: -97.0%
2. Minerva Park: -94.6%
3. Big Walnut LSD: -93.7%
4. Johnstown-Monroe LSD: -92.3%
5. Canal Winchester CSD: -87.2%
6. Jonathan Alder LSD: -85.7%
7. Downtown: -81.0%
8. Delaware CSD: -80.0%
9. Hamilton LSD: -75.0%
10. Groveport Madison LSD: -73.1%

Top 10 Locations with the Lowest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale April 2021 vs March 2020
1. Short North: +73.3%
2. New Albany Plain LSD: +62.5%
3. New Albany: +44.1%
4. Jefferson LSD: +25.0%
5. Lancaster CSD: +4.5%
6. Upper Arlington CSD: 0.0%
7. Grove City: -7.1%
8. Buckeye Valley LSD: -16.7%
9. Gahanna: -18.8%
10. German Village: -24.0%

% Change for the # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale Across the Metro Overall:
-46.7%

The market heated up even more in April. Despite more homes on the market, houses were selling the fastest they have in any month year to date. The improvements in sales came across the metro area, including urban areas that had been lagging behind somewhat in previous months.



Columbus Commute Comparison to Other Cities




Columbus commute comparison

Light Rail in Portland, Oregon

For a long time, Columbus has had a reputation for having a relatively easy commute, at least in terms of driving. Its abundant highway and road system allowed commuters to travel to work quickly, with most commutes 20 minutes or less. However, as the city has grown and traffic has increased, the local commute may not be as quick as it once was. Story after story has shown that Columbus’ commute is steadily getting worse.

This post seeks to answer both how people are getting to work, how fast they get to work, and how commuters in Columbus differ from those in other cities. For this comparison, I used cities from metro areas most similar to Columbus’ size- 1.5-2.5 million- as well as major Midwest and Ohio cities.

First, let’s look at just how people get to work by the % of workers in 2019, the latest year available.

Out of the 31 cities looked out, Columbus is the 10th most car-dependent city. It is also the 3rd most car-dependent in Ohio after Akron and Toledo.

The heavy use of cars in Columbus did not translate to more people carpooling.

With only the COTA bus system available, the portion of the population that uses public transit is also in the bottom half. This despite the city seeing strong bus ridership growth over the last several years.

Columbus sat right in the middle of cities with the number of walking commuters. Several parts of the city lack sufficient walking infrastructure. For example, large parts of Linden and the South Side were built without sidewalks of any kind. Crosswalks and other safety features are also lacking in many areas.



Columbus is again in the middle of the pack on biking commutes, and again infrastructure is the likely reason. There is only a single section of one bike lane that is protected anywhere in the city. Creating more bike lanes, let alone protected ones, remains a low priority for the city. Instead, they have relied on “Shared Use” type signage, along with painting sharrows.

Columbus was in the top half of at-home workers. These numbers were all prior to the pandemic, so it’s likely that there will be significant increases in long-term or permanent home workers in post-2019 numbers.

Other types of commuting include everything from taxis to commercial airline flights.

Columbus was in the bottom half of cities for the average commute time. Like almost everywhere else, that time has been increasing, however. Columbus saw the 11th biggest commute time increase and had the 2nd largest in Ohio. With its far larger population growth recently and predicted, that commute time is only going to get worse.

It’s pretty clear that Columbus has significant car dependency. With increasing commute times, it is crucial to plan for how people will get to work in the future. That is why it’s so important that new development is built to be walkable and dense while the average commute is still relatively short. This will promote walking, biking and new transit forms, all of which is better for a more vibrant, healthier city. It will also perhaps keep the number of cars on the road from growing as much. To assist in this process, the city must invest in more pedestrian and bike-friendly infrastructure, while also writing building codes that promote better planning in development.

To be fair, Columbus has made some progress. In 2010, the % of the population that drove alone was 80.76%, 1.38 points above where it was in 2019. Furthermore, the city has promoted more bus usage with its CPASS program. That said, the culture changes could’ve been much better had more policy and infrastructure been in place years ago like many other cities have had. Columbus has a lot of work to do.

To see about Columbus transit history, visit the following links.
Roads and Highways
Rail Transportation
Planes and Buses