Winter is coming back to Cleveland. After few fine days of almost spring we are watching snowflakes flying and covering green lawns and trees. Wow! Back to reality.
No wonder that one of the most productive Real estate professional activities has been named Farming. Like farmers, we depend upon weather conditions more than people of any other profession. A week of good weather - and we experience a good buyer's activity in Greater Cleveland. More showings on our listings, more buyers attending Open Houses, more hope for our sellers. That sounds funny but it is true.
My favorite Mayfield Heights. Great community, great schools, safe and beautiful neighborhoods, affordable and decent housing market. And - like almost everywhere in Greater Cleveland, we see two parallel real estate worlds here: one belongs to sellers, another one belongs to buyers. From my own and my agents' experience, difference in prices which sellers expect to receive and buyers are ready to pay is more than 25 %. Historic sales data supports neither sellers' expectations nor buyers' hope. We currently have 171 active listings for sale in Mayfield Heights with average asking price of $181,315. Sellers historically receive 95-96 % of asking price for their homes here in Mayfield Heights. So, sellers expect to close with average price of about $172,250 which is much higher than 2007 average price of $153,387 and higher than the record high average price of 2006 - $166,455. The sellers' optimism probably roots in a fact that mortgage crisis almost did not hurt Mayfield Heights. We had just few foreclosures in the area, mostly in the low-end price range. However, amount of sales is a little bit lower than in the record 2006 but still very high. Average price is also lower than in 2006 but is on the very decent level.
Here is the graph of 10 years sales data for Mayfield Heights, OH. Statistics provided by our regional MLS.
This graphics remind that market is pretty steady in Mayfield Heights. Buyers in our community do not depend on fancy "creative" financing which brought a lot of neighborhoods to a deep crisis. Honestly, today we have much more real good buyers with good savings, very high credit score and strong desire to live in Mayfield Heights - if it is not overpriced. There is no base for unreasonable expectations. I hope that this graphics will help two worlds - pre-cautious world of home buyers and anxious but stubborn world of home sellers in Mayfield Heights, OH finally meet in the point where they belong to each other. Let's be reasonable! Mayfield Heights is a very good place to buy the houses and enjoy live. Be reasonable and good luck to all of us!
Svetlana Stolyarova, broker and founder of Local-n-Global Realty, Mayfield Heights Real Estate expert, multi-million dollar producer. E-mail: Realty@Local-n-Global.com
Call 24/7 Free Local-n-Global Real Estate Information Line 877-770-5551
