Container Top
Search

Events Calendar

EVENT SEARCH:

In This Section


Most Read Stories


Blogs:


First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight

Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs

The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30

Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win

Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner

Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated

Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft

Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9

Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet

Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day

Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball

All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention

Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions

Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up

Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll

Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?

Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.

Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend

HRLite House:
Track HR Research

Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'

See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering

Realtor sees banner 2008

Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer to promote discounts on homes

By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal business writer

Published on Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008

Some area real-estate agents are predicting 2008 to be a banner year in the housing market and say they are lining up a few ventures to spur activity.

Bill Askin, vice president of Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer Realty, gave an optimistic outlook of the market Tuesday to Hanna agents in their West Akron branch office.

''We're going to do something a little bit
different in 2008. We're going to treat the housing market like a retail business in terms of marketing and selling and getting our inventory moved by offering discounts,'' Askin said. ''Like auto dealers and the clothing industry, we will reduce in price the homes on the market by 10 percent to create some urgency and make room for 2008 listings.''

Without revealing details, he said the reductions will be promoted the last week in January and the first two weeks in February.

''There's a lot of pent-up demand in this market, sale prices are affordable and interest rates are down. This could be our best year ever in real estate,'' Askin said.

Home sales in Summit County for 2007 totaled 12,426, down 9.8 percent from 13,787 in 2006.

The average sales price in 2007 was up 3 percent — $144,775 compared with $140,599 in 2006.

Howard Hanna agents reported 25 percent of the homes in the market both years were sold by their company.

Figures show there were more homes on the market in 2007 in Summit County than in 2006, but in some areas, such as Bath, prices were higher than average.

Bath had a 9 percent sales increase in 2007 and prices totaled $52 million, up from $47 million in 2006.

The Akron area has been named in the top five as the most affordable and livable place in the country, Askin said, citing magazines including REAL Trends as sources.

''The cities were rated based on the economy, schools, parks, entertainment, culture and stability in housing prices,'' he said.

Also in the top five were Indianapolis, Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh.

''We have a strong local real-estate market with job growth in the health-care system, research and manufacturing jobs are returning to the area, and we are exporting products to China and India,'' Askin said.

''We have seen little appreciation in the past few years, but we have seen appreciation in at least the last 12 years in this market. We have not seen the coastal or Sun Belt appreciation increases of 10 and 20 percent in a year, but we haven't suffered the consequences of their depreciation, either.''

Askin said homes appreciated 1 to 4 percent in Summit County, despite low sales in some areas.

Fairlawn sales were down 11 percent, with closed sales volume at $22 million in 2007 compared with $24 million in 2006. But the average price of a home in Fairlawn was $209,903 last year and $197,821 in 2006.

In a geographic area of West Akron, defined by Askin as ''West Akron North,'' ''West Akron South'' and Northwest Akron, closed sales were down 17 percent, with $77 million in sales in 2007 compared to $93 million in 2006. The average home sold for $125,188 in 2007, down 4.7 percent from the average price in 2006 at $131,356.

Home sales declined in Copley, which Askin attributed to an area hit hard by new construction costs. There were 210 homes sold in Copley last year, down 7.5 percent from 227 in 2006. West Akron also had lower sales compared to a year ago.

''The worst part of the credit crunch is behind us, with interest rates coming down. Some of the postponed activity should turn up in existing home sales over the next couple of months,'' Askin said. ''As for Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer, our mortgage arm is one of the top five independent real-estate mortgage companies in the United States. We weren't faced with subprime or the exotic loan dilemma that existed elsewhere.''

Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or 800-777-7232 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.

Some area real-estate agents are predicting 2008 to be a banner year in the housing market and say they are lining up a few ventures to spur activity.

Get the full article here.


Story tools

Email  Email   Print  Print   Save  Save   Reprint  Reprint   Popular  Most Popular   Reprint  Subscribe

Share this story

AddThis Social Bookmark Button













Most Commented Stories