Central Ohio market doesn’t match buyers

A new report concludes that central Ohio has one of the most mismatched housing markets in the nation.

The study, by the real-estate website Trulia, found that the homes listed in the Columbus area are not the homes most buyers want. The report compares the prices shoppers search for with the prices of the homes on the market.

In central Ohio, 24.4 percent of shoppers searched for homes in the bottom third of prices, but only 16.5 percent of all listed homes landed in that range. On the other end, 60 percent of listed homes were high-priced, but 40 percent of searches were in that range.

According to Trulia, that gap widened more in the Columbus area than anywhere else in the nation over the past year, also reflecting how quickly affordable homes get snatched up here.