Home sales rise over 10% in September!

This is the first year over year increase in over two years.

Home sales have increased over 10% in September of 2009 compared to last year. The 2,012 homes sold were 10.3% higher than September of last year and marks the first year over year increase in sales central Ohio has seen in over two years.

Gary Parsons, the president of the Columbus Board of Realtors said, "Not only did home sales last month increase for the first time since July of 2007, that's the highest number of sales we've seen in September since 2006." "This is likely due to the urgency felt by first time home buyers to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit that expires on November 30^th of this year."

"As inventory decreases, home prices continue to inch back up, but with an average home price of $157,000, central Ohio continues to be a very affordable and attractive market for home buyers." Parsons adds.

The number of homes for sale in central Ohio continues to go down. With 14,204 listings, levels are down. Levels are down 2.4% from the month before and down 14.4 percent from September of 2008. This is the lowest level of inventory the area has seen this time of year since 2004.

The average sale price of a home was $160,094 which was just 0.4 % lower than the average price of a home last year at this time.

One year ago, the month's supply was 9.10. But with the increase in sales and the drop in listings, the month's supply is now down to 7.06. This number means that if no new homes were added to the market, it would take slightly more than seven months to sell all the remaining homes currently listed. A market is typically considered balanced with around 6.5 to 7 month supply.