In a piece for WOSU, Debbie Holmes reports on the inventory problem hitting the Central Ohio housing market.
Like many markets, potential first-time buyers are being priced out of the area’s most desired locations.
“That’s certainly one of the challenges for buyers today is the fact that they can’t find the kind of house that they want to buy, in the location where they want to live," says Rob Vogt with Vogt Strategic Insights. "So it’s continuing to be a challenge to find a house,”
According to Vogt, the new home market is relatively flat in the region and new home permits are way below where they stood before the recession. Vogt says officials permitted 4,100 new homes in 2017 - that's down from about 7,000 permits per year before the recession.
“I think the bigger challenge is the cost of land, the cost of regulations," Vogt says. "All of those items have driven up the cost of a house well beyond what an entry-level buyer can afford. So they end up driving as far out of town to find a place they can afford.”
Builders, Vogt adds, find it difficult to construct a single-family home for under $250,000 in Central Ohio.
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