Central Ohio home sellers profit 15%

Central Ohioans who sold their home during the first three months of the year received 15 percent more for the home than they paid for it, according to data released this morning by Attom Data Solutions.

The real-estate information service found that the average central Ohio home sold during the quarter had been owned by the seller for nearly eight years and sold for $19,000 above its purchase price.

Despite central Ohio’s healthy housing market, that return rate is well below national averages. On average, U.S. homeowners sold their home for $44,000 more

than they paid for it, for a return of 24 percent — the highest rate of return since the end of 2007, according to Attom.

While central Ohio homes have appreciated well the past few years, Columbus-area homeowners who sold during the first quarter lived in their home 7.91 years, including several years when homes failed to rise much in value.

U.S. homeowners who sold their homes this year on average lived in their homes 7.97 years, far longer than they did a decade ago. Between 2000 and 2007, the average tenure of a homeowner was 4.26 years, about half the current rate, according to Attom.

“The first quarter of 2017 was the most profitable time to be a home seller in nearly a decade, and yet homeowners are continuing to stay put in their homes longer before selling,” said Attom Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist.

“This counterintuitive combination is in part the result of the low inventory of move-up homes available for current homeowners, while also perpetuating the scarcity of starter homes available for first-time home buyers.”

Attom found that California homeowners received the highest returns on their homes during the quarter. San Jose homeowners sold their homes, on average, for $356,500, or 71 percent, more than they paid for them after 9.6 years of ownership. San Francisco sellers ranked second nationally in return ($276,750) and percentage gain (65 percent), after owning their homes an average of 9.8 years.

On the other end, homeowners in a handful of Southern cities lost money when they sold their home during the first quarter. Homeowners in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, lost $15,000 on average and in Huntsville, Alabama, they lost $8,100.