2007 Year in Review
The year 2007 saw the terms "credit-crunch" and "sub-prime" become commonplace, when referring to the national housing market. Across the nation, sales of new and existing single-family homes saw declines in numbers of home sales and in home values.
Locally, the Dayton-area market was certainly not untouched by the downturn in sales activity. However, we were clearly affected to a lesser degree than many other markets, especially in terms of our local home values.
"We are lucky to be in a local market that does not see dramatic swings either upward or downward," said Debra White, president of the Dayton Area Board of Realtors. "Over the past thirty years, the Miami Valley market has seen steady but not dramatic appreciation in home values compared to many other markets. This stability, in turn, has helped protect our market from any dramatic drop in home values during the current housing slump."
During 2007, single-family sales activity as reported to the Board's Multiple Listing Service generated over $1.76 billion in total volume, for an average sale price per unit of $134,763. This is less than a 1% depreciation compared to the average sale price of $136,008 in 2006, when a volume of about $1.97 billion was generated.
The median sale price for 2007 came in at $116,900 compared to $118,500 in 2006, only a 1.35% decline.
A total of 13,105 single-family sales were reported for all of 2007. This is 1,373 units, or 9.48%, fewer than the 14,478 reported last year. 2007 finished as the fourth-best year ever in terms of overall sales activity in the Dayton-area market.
Single-family listings entered into the system during 2007 totaled 29,339. This is the second highest listing total ever for the Dayton MLS, eclipsed only by last year's total of 30,550, and is a decline of less than 4% from that record total.
The year began with a single-family inventory of 8,727 available listings, peaked in August at 10,812, before falling back off to 8,973 at year's end. The supply ratio remained steady over the last four months of 2007.
There was a supply of just over 11 months of available homes for sale at year's end, based on December's resale rate, which was the same as the supply for September, October, and November.
"This is yet another sign of the stability which is keeping our market healthy," stated White. "The Dayton-area housing market continues to expand in many directions. With new businesses opening and new military and civilian jobs moving to Dayton as part of the BRAC initiative, we appear to be in an excellent position to rebound from the downturn in the market."
Statistics compiled by John Junker, MLS Data Specialist