Hot housing market continues as prices climb
Average sales price in Clark County rocketed to $170,521 in 2021.
A shortage in housing stock in Clark and Champaign counties last year lead to a large jump in the average homes sales price and continued a hot market for sellers.
The local housing market has been categorized as a sellers one for multiple years, as homes in both counties have been selling faster and for more money.
Oftentimes there are multiple buyers competing over one home. In other cases, some potential sellers are holding off due to not being able to find a new home to buy.
A lot of people need to sell their homes in order to buy a new one, said Dori Gaier, president of the Springfield Board of Realtors.
Gaier said some of her clients who have sold their homes have resorted to using Airbnb to find a temporary place to stay or have moved in with relatives while waiting to buy their next home.
“Some people have had to get pretty creative,” Gaier said.
Both Clark and Champaign counties have dealt with aging housing stock and a limited amount of new builds for some time.
The addition of a spike in demand for homes has caused the market to be hot for multiple years, even during the coronavirus pandemic.
The average sales price in Clark County went from $145,142 in 2020 to $170,521 in 2021.
The average days on market for those homes also decreased, going from 79 in 2020 to 60 in 2021, according to Western Regional Information Systems & Technology (WRIST), an Ohio-based company that monitors real estate trends.
In Champaign County, the average price for homes sold between 2020 and 2021 went from $168,748 to $170,000.
The average days that a home sat on the market also decreased from 86 days to 69 days during that time period.
“We sold a lot of our product even before we put it on the market because we had buyers for it,” local Realtor Sunny Dhingra told this news organization earlier last year.
Dhingra, with Always Sunny Realty, said in some cases his business was able to facilitate trades between sellers, such as those looking to upscale their home swapping with those looking to downsize.
Gaier said the coronavirus pandemic and the economic impacts that have followed have not deterred growing housing
demand.
Multiple factors have played into people looking for new homes. Gaier said people are looking to buy homes instead of renting due to historically low interest rates.
She said an older population is looking to downsize homes to smaller single-story ones or condominiums, while a younger generation is looking to upgrade their homes to accommodate their families.
In addition, there has been people moving back to the area, either those that are retired or younger people who can work remotely, in order to be closer to family.
Gaier said an uptick in remote work due to the pandemic has made people more mobile, since many are no longer tied to a particular geographical area.
Dhingra said growth in larger metro areas such as Dayton and Columbus have also played a part.
Both counties are situated between those two cities. Lower property taxes and lower costs of living locally can be attractive to homebuyers who are looking to buy a home in Clark and Champaign counties while working in the greater Dayton and Columbus areas.
In addition to that, the creation of new jobs and companies opening facilities over the past five years in Clark and Champaign counties has also attracted potential home buyers.
Stimulus payments sreceived during the pandemic have also lead some to put that money toward home improvements or finding a new home, Dhingra added.
Cities like Springfield have made new housing a major priority, especially as the area has seen an uptick in demand.
“We have a need for all types of housing. It is important that we have those housing options in town,” Tom Franzen, Springfield assistant city manager, previously told this news organization.
He added that new housing can keep residents from leaving the city as well as be used to attract new people.
Efforts over the past several years to attract new housing has lead to new or planned developments. That includes Bridgewater near the Tuttle Road Walmart that seeks to bring 226 new homes to the area.
Prior to the start of construction at Bridgewater, there had not been a significant housing development built in Springfield since the early 1990s.
That project is entering its fourth and final phase this year and is expected to wrap up in the fall.
The developer of the project, DDC Management, has cited the success of homes sales related to Bridgewater as motivation for them to create a new housing development in Springfield.
The new development, titled Sycamore Ridge, will be located on 72 acres of land along East Leffel Lane and South Burnett Road.
The project will be split in multiple phases and aims to create a total of 258 homes.
Construction is slated to begin this year, and the project is expected to wrap up in 2026.
Springfield has also seen the creation of townhouses in downtown as well as plans for new apartments and smaller projects to build new homes.
Gaier said new development has been very positive in the area. However, the pandemic has caused shortages in building supplies and prices to go up.
Champaign County has also been looking to attract new housing projects, that includes loft apartments and apartments for senior citizens in downtown Urbana.