Do we need some good news for a change or what?????

The Case Shiller Report studies 20 metropolitan regions in the U.S.  The August Report shows that Cleveland and Boston were the only two regions out of twenty to show an increase. The report is here and an excerpt:

For the August/July period only 2 regions, Cleveland and Boston, had positive returns. Cleveland returned +1.1% and Boston returned +0.1%. Boston has had positive monthly returns for each of the past five months. Dallas and Denver's streaks of 4+ straight positive returning months ended in August. San Francisco was the biggest decliner for the month returning -3.5%. This worsened from its July/June return of -1.8%. From August 2007 to August 2008, Dallas and Charlotte have the best relative performance. Dallas is down 2.7% over the year and Charlotte is down 2.8%.

Boston and N. Carolina have shown positive growth albeit small for the last few Case Shiller reports; but finally Cleveland is included in the mix.

We had a very active summer as far as sales are concerned (meaning my office and my colleagues) so I'm not surprised. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the scales can keep inching up.  Still not expecting major recovery but we'll take this yes? Case Shiller also reported that even though most of the markets showed a decline the rate of decline was smaller than recorded for other months this year. 

The Northern Ohio Multiple Listing Service (MLS) stats for this past September are also available for viewing now.

Cuyahoga County stats show 1,109 homes transfered title last month, compared with 914 sold in September of ‘07. The highest sale price last month was $1,372,500.  In September of ‘07 the highest sale price was $1,050,000.  So that's an increase in sale prices - while the average sale price is down 12.5% this September from 2007 ($116,522 and last year, $133,181). Both years had identical averages for days the sold homes were on the market: 87.

In fact, three months from being listed to sales are the averages for most (not all) NE Ohio communities.

If you'd like to see the entire MLS report by County, go here.  Peace Out - 3C

 Peace Out - 3C