Encouraging news about local housing market - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

The local housing market has seen several strong sales months and prices are inching up too, but there is some concern about foreclosures going back up as well. Some homes are getting two, three even four offers at a time, and that's something that hasn't happened much in recent years. In fact some realtors say they've had multiple offers on homes and sold them for more than the asking price in recent months.

Realtor Michelle Nieman says sales have dropped off a bit in recent weeks, but that's not unusual as school starts back up. She says sales numbers from earlier this year were a bit unexpected, "The spring market into summer was very,very good you could hardly keep up with it. We were all saying it was almost better than the good times, it was just like the old days."

Nieman has seen her business go up by about 5 percent compared to the same time last year. She says the lower and higher ends of the market are doing relatively well. The slowest parts of the market, the first time buyer and middle range categories, but she is starting to see multiple bidders on certain homes, "The ones that are good deals and nice homes are still selling quickly and people are getting into bidding wars. We are seeing prices firm up , they are not dropping from list to sale price that of course is due in part to the fact that prices are lower to begin with."

Rod Culler specializes in foreclosures, "If a property is priced right it is not unusual to have 2,3,4 buyers at any given time."

His summer selling season was also strong, "We are seeing some up ticks at certain price points but the encouraging thing is that inventory levels have stabilized and actually gone down."

Culler says foreclosures have leveled off but he doesn't expect it to stay that way. He says we could see another spike in foreclosures after the first of the year, "I think the slow down in foreclosures is a temporary run, I think we will be seeing more of a retreat. Banks are doing alternative things to prevent foreclosures like short sales and loan modifications, they are not taking properties to sheriff's sales as much as in the past."

Culler says it will still be a couple years before the local housing market gets back to a normal balance.