Sales in the Dayton real estate market dropped for a second straight month in February, but this may have a lot to do with a buyer’s budget.
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According to data released by Dayton Realtors, sales last month decreased more than eight percent from the year before, and closed sales dropped nearly 20 percent.
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The good news is that the median sale price increase went up by over five percent to about $240,000.
That’s all with mortgage rates still hovering near seven percent.
“I think that interest rates is a big, big contributing factor. But more than that, it also shows various communities have – like one community, nothing will stay on the market, and the next community it’s sitting there for a minute, but then it will switch on us,” Barbara Waddell, Dayton Realtors President-elect, said.
Waddell said if you’re in the market for a new home, your budget is the determining factor of what you’ll see. Some houses priced on the higher end of the spectrum may remain on the market for weeks at a time, while others that are priced lower and in the range of the buyer are still hot commodities.
She added that buyers are ultimately more concerned with where they want to be and not the available mortgage rate.
“We did have a season where rates were just phenomenal, but what else happened in that season? People were paying $50,000 to $100,000 over less because rates are so great,” she said. “So in our market, things seem to balance ourselves. Right now, you don’t have to pay $50,000, $30,000, or $100,000 over less, but you are going to be sitting on a seven percent interest rate.”
Waddle said she thinks sales will pick up as they often do now that temperatures are getting warmer. Families typically want to make the move before the fall months and the beginning of the school year.
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