January home sales were up by 6.6% in Northeast Ohio as last year’s housing-market momentum spilled over into 2021.
Buyers snapped up nearly 2,800 houses and 286 condominiums last month across the 18-county area tracked by MLS Now, a real estate listing service. In Cuyahoga County, sales rose by a striking 18.2% from January 2020. Summit County sales started the year up 4.9%.
The monthly MLS Now report shows just how much the market has tightened during the last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic, job losses and business closures. The average house that changed hands last month spent just over seven weeks on the market, down from close to 11 weeks in early 2020. The typical condo sold after only 46 days.
And a long-running inventory crunch intensified. Would-be sellers listed only 3,247 properties for sale in the region last month, a 21.1% decline in new listings from a year before.
In Cuyahoga County, buyers closed on 1,060 purchases in January — and only 1,160 listings went live, according to the listing service, which captures the vast majority of residential real estate transactions.
Local real estate agents say that owners have been hesitant to put their homes up for sale in such a competitive landscape for fear that they won’t be able to find something to buy. The pandemic and safety concerns also are keeping some potential sellers on the sidelines.
The average sale price for a house in the region was $197,315 last month, up 17.5% from a year before. The average sale price for a condo dipped slightly to $149,180. Condos account for only a sliver of the market, about 9.3% of January sales.
The Ohio Realtors and the National Association of Realtors expect to release their January home-sales reports on Friday, Feb. 19.
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