The 2015 housing market was one of the strongest since before the recession, and 2016 looks to do even better. An ongoing problem, especially within the more urban markets, is a historically low inventory of available homes for sale. This has been a problem for several years now, as construction has failed to match demand.
That lack of inventory really shows up in the yearly % change chart. Few urban markets have increased year over year, as they have a much more limited supply of housing, even as demand for urban housing has increased.
Let’s see how this impacted prices.
While urban markets were not necessarily the most expensive compared to suburban, more of them were generally towards the top half of price increases last year.
This occasional series on failed and canceled projects around the city today talks about an unassuming parking garage that was originally supposed to be much more.
Beginning in 1984 and continuing into 1985, a parking garage/city office tower was being tossed around to house an increasing number of city office works. Space had become tight and many existing buildings were more than 50 years old and required extensive renovations. The Daimler Group started construction on the 10-story garage part of the project at the southeast corner of W. Gay and N. Front in late 1984. The 16-story office project that would’ve been built on top (for a total 26-story building) was just one of 3 options the city was considering to alleviate its office problems. The other two options consisted of a $75 million civic center about a block north of City Hall, or simply renovating the existing buildings.
In the end, it was deemed that there were too many other problems to spend public dollars on. At the time, there was quite an issue with road maintenance funding, and the city deemed that it was not the right time to build a brand new tower for city workers. By April 1985, the project was dead, although the garage was finished and remains to this day.
The Gay and Front garage in 2015.
Ironically, within a few years, the city would have several much larger office towers. 5 new towers were built between 1986 and 1991, though not all were specifically built for city offices. Renovation of existing buildings has been ongoing since.
For this update, I’m going to do things a bit differently. In previous updates, I have done long ranking lists and it got to be a bit overwhelming. So starting with this update, I’m going to do more charts instead.
In any case, August continued the year-long trend of home sales being down, with the month coming in at more than 11% off from the same time last year. Prices, however, were up more than 6% to reach a monthly record. There continues to be a supply problem, which is the main mechanism driving both lower sales and higher prices.
The Columbus Lank Bank got started back in 1994 to address vacant land and properties, but more specifically, the worst of the worst. Over the years, the number of properties on the list has grown into the hundreds as the city bought the properties to either renovate what could be renovated, or to demolish those that could not be saved and were contributing to the decline of surrounding neighborhoods.
The city provides a few links where these properties can be searched for and purchased. The properties are in various stages of decline and are being sold only to those qualified to renovate the properties or replace them with new development. Many of them are in urban locations, and most of the houses are old, with many retaining elements of their original architecture. In most cases, they need major to moderate rehabs, however. Given the rise of urban living lately and the rapid pace of revitalization happening throughout urban Columbus, these properties maintain some inherent value despite what their overall condition may be.
June’s housing data for the Columbus region was just released. The month continued the same story as the previous 5 months, with home sales down due to a lack of inventory. Prices continued to rise and the number of days to sell a home continued to fall in relation to this problem. As always, I looked at 21 major areas of the Columbus region, both urban and suburban. Here is how those areas performed.
Top 10 June 2014 Sales Totals 1. Columbus: 1,045 2. Upper Arlington: 109 3. Dublin: 108 4. Clintonville: 83 5. Westerville: 77 6. Gahanna: 63 7. Grove City: 62 8. Reynoldsburg: 59 9. New Albany: 38
Top 10 June 2014 Sales Increases over June 2013 1. Downtown: +72.0% 2. Grove City: +14.5% 3. Gahanna: +12.7% 4. German Village: +10.5% 5. Grandview Heights: +6.3% 6. Canal Winchester: +3.8% 7. Hilliard: 0.0% 8. Minerva Park: 0.0% 9. Columbus: -1.8% 10. Reynoldsburg: -5.1%
Top 10 Year-to-Date Sales Through June 2014 1. Columbus: 4,803 2. Dublin: 362 3. Grove City: 332 4. Clintonville: 323 5. Westerville: 299 6. Upper Arlington: 294 7. Reynoldsburg: 265 8. Hilliard: 258 9. Gahanna: 221 10. Pickerington: 136
Top 10 Year-to-Date Increases Through June 2014 Over 2013 1. Obetz: +42.1% 2. Downtown: +13.4% 3. Grove City: +11.0% 4. New Albany: +2.8% 5. Reynoldsburg: -0.4% 6. Westerville: -3.2% 7. Pataskala: -3.4% 8. German Village: -3.9% 9. Columbus: -5.3% 10. Clintonville: -5.8%
Average Sales June 2014 Urban: 122.3 Suburban: 55.1 Urban without Columbus: 30
Average % Change June 2014 vs. June 2013 Urban: -5.8% Suburban: -5.1% Urban without Columbus: -6.0%
Average YTD Sales Through June 2014 Urban: 545 Suburban: 222.6 Urban without Columbus: 119.2
Average YTD % Change YTD Through June 2014 Urban: -4.8% Suburban: -5.3% Urban without Columbus: -4.7%
Top 10 Average Sales Price June 2014 1. New Albany: $659,186 2. Upper Arlington: $389,575 3. Bexley: $382,496 4. Dublin: $377,541 5. German Village: $307,753 6. Downtown: $300,582 7. Worthington: $283,209 8. Grandview Heights: $246,271 9. Hilliard: $230,396 10. Gahanna: $229,845
Top 10 Average Sales Price % Change June 2014 vs. June 2013 1. Whitehall: +55.6% 2. Worthington: +17.7% 3. New Albany: +15.8% 4. Bexley: +15.6% 5. Columbus: +12.2% 6. Clintonville: +9.3% 7. Hilliard: +8.5% 8. Canal Winchester: +7.4% 9. Pickerington: +6.7% 10. Gahanna: +6.4%
Top 10 Average Sales Prices YTD Through June 2014 1. New Albany: $541,077 2. Dublin: $360,202 3. Upper Arlington: $348,160 4. Bexley: $334,491 5. Downtown: $305,215 6. German Village: $302,117 7. Worthington: $261,659 8. Grandview Heights: $245,946 9. Hilliard: $225,849 10. Gahanna: $213,782
Top 10 Average YTD Sales Price % Change Through June 2014 vs. 2013 1. Obetz: +24.7% 2. Grandview Heights: +15.5% 3. Worthington: +11.3% 4. Pataskala: +10.8% 5. Columbus: +10.6% 6. Pickerington: +9.9% 7. Canal Winchester: +9.5% 8. Downtown: +9.5% 9. Dublin: +9.2% 10. Westerville: +8.5%
Average Sales Price June 2014 Urban: $232,965 Suburban: $253,488 Urban without Columbus: $240,917
Average Sales Price Change June 2014 vs. June 2013 Urban: +7.6% Suburban: +5.0% Urban without Columbus: +7.1%
Average Sales Price YTD Through June 2014 Urban: $220,893 Suburban: $234,492 Urban without Columbus: $229,327
Average Sales Price % Change YTD Through June 2014 Urban: +6.6% Suburban: +7.5% Urban without Columbus: +6.2%
Top 10 Fastest Selling Markets June 2014 (Based on Average # of Days for Listings to Sell) 1. Worthington: 21 2. Upper Arlington: 36 3. Clintonville: 38 4. Gahanna: 39 5. Hilliard: 39 6. Dublin: 40 7. German Village: 42 8. Obetz: 45 9. Bexley: 46 10. Pataskala, Westerville: 47
Average # of Days Before Sale, June 2014 Urban: 47.8 Suburban: 54.3 Urban without Columbus: 47.3
Average # of Days Before Sale YTD Through June 2014 Urban: 58.6 Suburban: 67.8 Urban without Columbus: 57.4
Top 10 Lowest Market Housing Supplies June 2014 (Based on # of Months to Sell all Listings) 1. Grandview Heights: 1.0 2. Worthington: 1.4 3. Westerville: 2.0 4. Clintonville: 2.1 5. German Village: 2.1 6. Gahanna: 2.3 7. Hilliard: 2.5 8. Minerva Park: 2.7 9. Obetz: 2.7 10. Upper Arlington: 2.7
A healthy housing supply is considered to be around 5-6 months. Anything less than 3 months is considered very low. Grandview’s 1 month is ridiculously low and the lowest reading I’ve seen for any area.
Average # of Months to Sell All Listings, June 2014 Urban: 2.7 Suburban: 3.5 Urban without Columbus: 2.6
Average % Change of Single-Family Home Sales June 2014 vs. June 2013 Urban: +33.2% Suburban: -5.4% Urban without Columbus: +36.8%
Average % Change of Single-Family Home Sales YTD Through June 2014 vs. YTD 2013 Urban: -8.8% Suburban: -5.4% Urban without Columbus: -8.9%
Average % Change of Condo Sales June 2014 vs. June 2013 Urban: -4.0% Suburban: +41.0% Urban without Columbus: -5.0%
Average % Change of Condo Sales YTD Through June 2014 vs. YTD 2013 Urban: +19.3% Suburban: +7.0% Urban without Columbus: +21.0%
