Just a week ago, I wrote about the Columbus housing market and how it was performing the past year. I used to do reports like that often, but hadn’t in years. Due to the overwhelmingly positive article response, I have decided to restart these monthly reports. Given the current state of the housing market, such information may be helpful to prospective homebuyers.

These new reports will be a bit more condensed than the one from last week. I will not list every location for every statistic as I did last week. Instead, I will still attempt to offer a general comparative view of the different markets within the region.

So let’s go!

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 February 2021
1. New Albany: $657,450
2. New Albany Plain LSD: $580,500
3. German Village: $569,500
4. Bexley: $517,000
5. Dublin: $502,500
6. Upper Arlington CSD: $450,000
7. Olentangy LSD: $434,900
8. Powell: $434,900
9. Granville CSD: $387,450
10. Worthington: $380,000
11. Buckeye Valley LSD: $378,240
12. Dublin CSD: $$360,000
13. Grandview Heights: $355,200
14. Short North: $350,000
15. Big Walnut LSD: $348,730

New Albany and some of the more urban suburbs and neighborhoods continue to be near the top of the pack in terms of price.

Top 15 Least Expensive Locations by Median Sales Price in February 2021
1. Valleyview: $129,850
2. Whitehall: $133,000
3. Newark CSD: $145,000
4. Lancaster CSD: $162,000
5. Hamilton LSD: $170,500
6. Groveport Madison LSD: $186,750
7. Columbus CSD: $194,750
8. Jefferson LSD: $198,500
9. Columbus: $210,000
10. South-Western CSD: $217,500
11. Circleville CSD: $224,000
12. Reynoldsburg CSD: $230,000
13. London CSD: $239,900
14. Obetz: $242,363
15. Blacklick: $245,000

Most of these places are outer suburbs outside of Franklin County or smaller locations that are less known or considered less desirable.

Overall Market Median Sales Price in February 2021: $225,500

Top 15 Locations with the Highest Median Sales Price % Growth Between February 2020 and February 2021
1. Valleyview: +93.8% (Based on just 1 sale)
2. Circleville CSD: +79.2%
3. Buckeye Valley LSD: +71.9%
4. Sunbury: +71.4%
5. Jefferson LSD: +52.8%
6. Reynoldsburg CSD: +44.9%
7. Worthington: +38.2%
8. German Village: +36.1%
9. Obetz: +31.2%
10. Marysville CSD: +29.9%
11. Dublin: +27.8%
12. London CSD: +26.3%
13. Olentangy LSK: +25.0%
14. Pataskala: +25.0%
15. Bexley: +22.7%

Top 15 Locations with the Lowest Median Sales Price % Growth Between February 2020 and February 2021
1. Granville CSD: -7.5%
2. Downtown Columbus: -6.6%
3. Jonathan Alder LSD: -4.5%
4. Grandview Heights: -4.0%
5. Powell: -4.0%
6. Minerva Park: -2.1%
7. Westerville: -0.8%
8. Pickerington: -0.7%
9. Canal Winchester CSD: -0.2%
10. Teays Valley LSD: 0.0%
11. Short North: +0.2%
12. Hamilton LSD: +0.3%
13. Beechwold/Clintonville: +1.3%
14. Pickerington LSD: +1.5%
15. Westerville CSD: +4.0%

Overall Market Median Sales Price % Change February 2021 vs. February 2020: +7.4%

Top 10 Locations with the Most New Listings in February 2021
1. Columbus: 830
2. Columbus CSD: 540
3. South-Western CSD: 135
4. Hilliard CSD: 102
5. Olentangy LSD: 91
6. Westerville CSD: 80
7. Dublin CSD: 73
8. Grove City: 65
9. Gahanna Jefferson CSD: 63
10. Pickerington LSD: 58

Top 10 Locations with the Fewest New Listings in February 2021
1. Valleyview: 0
2. Lithopolis: 1
3. Minerva Park: 1
4. Jonathan Alder LSD: 3
5. Jefferson LSD: 5
6. Sunbury: 5
7. Grandview Heights: 6
8. Obetz: 9
9. Worthington: 10
10. Hamilton LSD: 10
11. German Village: 10

Total New Listings in the Columbus Metro in February 2021: 1,932
Overall Metro New Listings % Change February 2021 vs February 2020: -25.4%

Top 10 Fastest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in February 2021
1. Obetz: 4
2. Gahanna: 8
3. Hamilton LSD: 8
4. Johnstown-Monroe LSD: 8
5. Pickerington: 8
6. Groveport Madison LSD: 9
7. Pickerington LSD: 10
8. Canal Winchester CSD: 11
9. Reynoldsburg CSD: 12
10. Gahanna Jefferson CSD: 13
11. Hilliard: 13
12. Worthington CSD: 13

Top 10 Slowest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in February 2021
1. Downtown Columbus: 72
2. Big Walnut LSD: 57
3. New Albany Plain LSD: 52
4. New Albany: 50
5. Grandview Heights: 48
6. Bexley: 44
7. Short North: 41
8. Circleville CSD: 40
9. German Village: 40
10. Dublin: 39
11. Granville CSD: 39

Columbus-area homes are selling at a blistering pace.

# of Days For-Sale Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale Across the Metro Overall: 26

Top 10 Locations with the Greatest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale February 2021 vs February 2020
1. Obetz: -89.5%
2. Pickerington: -83.7%
3. Pataskala: -82.1%
4. Pickerington LSD: -79.6%
5. Canal Winchester CSD: -78.0%
6. Hamilton LSD: -76.3%
7. Powell: -74.2%
8. Minerva Park: -70.4%
9. Gahanna: -68.0%
10. Groveport Madison LSD: -66.7%

Top 10 Locations with the Lowest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale February 2021 vs February 2020
1. Grandview Heights: +92.0%
2. Sunbury: +29.4%
3. Short North: +28.1%
4. Circleville CSD: +21.2%
5. Whitehall: +17.9%
6. Downtown Columbus: +16.1%
7. Worthington: +12.5%
8. New Albany Plain LSD: -3.7%
9. Jefferson LSD: -12.5%
10. Lancaster CSD: -18.4%

% Change for the # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale Across the Metro Overall: -39.5%

All this data can be confusing. Homebuyers must find the goldilocks zone of price, location and availability, and that’s difficult even in the friendliest of markets. Just because a local market may be seeing slower home sales doesn’t mean they’re affordable. Similarly, just because there’s a lot of supply doesn’t mean homes aren’t not selling out faster than they can go onto the market.

Columbus overall continues to have the most supply, but that’s far from the whole story. While the city added 830 new listings in February, only 582 were actually available for sale. This means that hundreds more homes were sold during the month than became available. The number of available homes only continued to shrink. Columbus’ entire supply would’ve sold out in just 18 days had no additional homes come up for sale.

And the thing is, nothing on the horizon indicates this situation will improve anytime soon. It’s not just that demand is drastically outweighing existing supply, though. Developers- when not faced with NIMBYism and zoning issues- are experiencing materials shortages that were exacerbated by the pandemic. Even when developers can build, they don’t always have the raw materials needed for construction. Unfortunately, these problems aren’t going to go away in the near future.

Given all of that, homebuyers have to be smart, they have to be very persistent, and they need to be prepared to spend more than originally planned.

For more information on the local market, go here to the Columbus Realtors site.