Dayton Business Journal...
Report: Ohio home prices down 3% in March
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 

Ohio home prices have slid faster than the national average during the past year, a California research firm said Tuesday. 

Santa Ana, Calif.-based CoreLogic Inc.’s home price index showed that Ohio single-family home prices fell by 3.3 percent between March 2011 and March 2012. That compares with a decline of 0.6 percent nationwide. 

Among its neighbors, Ohio is the only state to see home prices decline. Prices improved in Indiana (0.6 percent), Pennsylvania (0.9 percent) Michigan (2.4 percent) and West Virginia (5.3 percent). West Virginia’s increase was second only to Wyoming, where home prices spiked by 5.9 percent during the last year. 

CoreLogic’s home price index tracks increases and decreases in sale prices for the same homes over time and accounts for price, time between sales, property and loan type, and both short sales and real estate owned transactions, according to a release. 

Removing distressed properties from the calculation, Ohio home prices would have increased by 0.5 percent during the last year, but it still would pace behind the national average of a 0.9 percent price increase. 

“This spring, the housing market is responding to an improving balance between real estate supply and demand, which is causing stabilization in house prices,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Mark Fleming said in a release. “Although this has been the case in each of the last two years, the difference this year is that stabilization is occurring without the support of tax credits and in spite of a declining share of REO sales.” 

The lower home prices may be playing a role in improving home sales across the Dayton region. 

Local home sales surged ahead in March, climbing 36 percent from the previous month, according to the Dayton Area Board of Realtors. 

Read this and other articles at Dayton Business Journal