Housingmarket shows signs of renewed vigor
More than half of Dayton neighborhoods, parcels, see values rise.
After a decade and a half of sizable declines or feeble growth, Dayton’s property values fifinally are starting tomake a comeback, driven in large part by renewed vigor in the housing market.
More than half of Dayton’s neighborhoods and parcels saw values rise in 2020, and more than 18,000 parcels saw a double-digit percentage increase, according to tentative revaluation data shared on Wednesday by Montgomery County Auditor Karl Keith.
Southeast Dayton neighborhoods have been a major source of housingmarket strength. They added nearly $93 million in value, which is about half of the city’s total residential gains, Keith said.
Other parts of the city did not perform nearly as well, and some experienced declines.
Also, Dayton properties lost $1.2 billion in value between 2007 and 2014, meaning there is still a long climb back to mid-2000 levels.
“We stillhave a longway to go,” Keith said. “We are still $1 billion behind where we were before the recession.”
Every six years, the auditor does a revaluation, which is amajor and comprehensive update of property values. The last onewas in 2014, but the auditor also does a triennial update in between (last completed in 2017).
Until recent updates, Dayton’s property values were headed in the wrong direction.
They declined2% in 2008, 12% in 2011 and 9% in 2014.
After that, they stabilized and saw an uptick of 0.5% in 2017.
But between 2017 and 2020, values shot up 5.5%, or more than $209 million, which was the largest increase since 2005.
“It’s been 15 years since we’ve seen these types of numbers,” Keith said.
This is very good news for a city thatwas badlywounded bythe“gutpunch” oftheeconomic downturn, the foreclosure crisis and predatory lending, Keith said.
The GemCitywas hit earlier and harder by the Great Recession than many other communities across the country, he said, and Daytonproperties lostmore than 25% of their value during the downturn.
But valid residential sales in the city have soared, Keith said, andmany home sellers have had their properties sell shortly after hitting the market, sometimes above asking price.
Southeast Dayton, in particular, has been a hotbed of real estate activity. The area had more than 2,000 valid residential sales between 2017 and 2019.
That exceeds the sales in the next three sections of Dayton combined: Fair River Oaks Council (FROC), northeast and northwest.
Housing values in southeast Dayton have risen by $92.8 million, which is nearlyequal tothecombined growth of all other areas that saw gains. City leaders said about half of Dayton’s residents live in southeastern neighborhoods.
Sections of Dayton that sawvalues decrease include FROC (-$14.1million), southwest (-$6 million) and inner west (-$9.7 million), according to auditor data.
About 57% of Dayton’s neighborhoods saw values increase and 39% saw declines, the auditor said. About 3% saw no change.
Dayton clearly had a stalled housing market back in 2014, considering that more than 100 areas in the city that the auditor considers neighborhoods had no valid sales, said Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
By comparison, only 10 Dayton “neighborhoods” hadnovalid sales inthe2020 valuation.
“This is hopeful news,” Whaley said.
FROC in the revaluation period had the second most number of valid sales (726). Northeast had 696 and northwest had 507.
The areas with the fewest sales were downtown (104) and inner west (151).
Despite the pandemic, Ohio’s and the local housing market continue to show signs of strong demand.
There were 1,773 units sold in the Dayton market last month, up more than 6% from July 2019, and the average sales price was up more than 9%, according to Ohio REALTORS.
Historically lowmortgage rates have helped spark interest in housing in the near term, and Ohioans seem to appreciate that home purchases are a solid, long-term investment, said ChrisReese, president of Ohio REALTORS.