Home sales

continued from A1 in the economy.

are just hopeful that a recession is a ways off so that we can continue to rebound and grow our economy as strong as possible,” she said.

Keith said a number of fac- tors — including interest rates, inflation and employment numbers — will determine whether the housing mar- ket stays on track.

“There are certainly some unknowns,” he said. “The question is how long can we sustain that — and that’s a question nationwide.”

Nationwide, real estate experts are saying the market will start to soften next year, but the Miami Valley tends to be slower at reacting to changes than other areas driven by tourism and bet- ter weather, Tami Holmes of HER Realtors in North Dayton said.

“I think we’ll still see a good 2019, but I think we should start looking for a shift in the market,” she said.

Indirectly, an upturn in the housing market also puts communities in a better position to provide more ame- nities and services to resi- dents, Dickstein said.

“This is all about property taxes, but as people buy and move into our city they are working in other places and bringing in income tax,” Dick- stein said. “As our income tax rebounds, it allows us to bring back some of those ser- vices or deliver investment out into the neighborhoods that will really have an impact on quality of life.”

Earlier this month, Dayton announced the return of curbside leaf collection in 2019, a service eliminated in 2010.

The housing market has been healthy this year, both in number of units sold and price, Holmes said. Holmes handles home sales along the Interstate 75 corridor from Piqua through Cincinnati.

“The interest rates have kind of spurred people onto purchasing now. They know the interest rates are not getting any better,” she said. “They were waiting for them to hit their low, and they have, and they’re now.”

In a majority of Mont- gomery County, Holmes said there were still plenty of homes available for pur- chase, helping increase the number of units sold during a healthy economy. Other parts of the Miami Valley east toward Columbus and south toward Cincinnati saw a shortage of inventory in 2018.

Property values remained relatively unchanged this year because during nonupdate years typically only new construction and tax revision cases affect values, Keith said.

Montgomery County expe- rienced more than $250 mil- lion in real estate construc- tion in 2018, according to going up the auditor’s office. Wash- ington Township’s $38 mil- lion in residential additions made up more than half of the county’s $68 million in new residential construction.

Construction added $150 million in new taxable prop- erty value due to residential and commercial development. The county also saw $100 million in tax-ex- empt construction in 2018, including new nonprofit med- ical facilities in Dayton Children’s South and Miami Valley Hospital South.

The new data come as the county auditor is beginning its next comprehensive revaluation of about 250,000 real estate parcels. The next review, to be completed in 2020, promises to provide more challenges because the county has experienced both historic losses and record highs in property values since 2000, Keith said.

Valid sales are those conducted at an “arm’s-length” between willing buyers and sellers, discounting those that might skew numbers, such as those between family members, foreclosures sold at a sheriff ’s sale, transfers within a company to another entity and other transactions, according to the auditor’s office. Valid sales reported by county auditors varies from sales numbers provided by area Realtors.