We are fortunate to have a pretty balances housing market in Greater Cleveland, OH. Balanced market means a constant meeting of minds of relatively reasonable sellers and relatively reasonable buyers combined with sufficient supply of money and strong professionalism of Real Estate consultants advising their buying and selling clients.

We still have great professionals among our fellow Realtors who diligently serve their clients despite all the troubles and rumors about housing crisis and death of the profession itself. Indeed, only the best survive and prosper on today’s market, so if you need a good Realtor to help you sell or buy the house, please choose the one who is active and successful TODAY, not two or three years ago.

Mortgage crisis of 2007 created situation of insufficiency in money supply. 2008 may be even worse as not only sub-prime or A- borrowers will be affected, but also good and even perfect borrowers will partially lose availability of mortgage financing because almost all the Greater Cleveland neighborhoods belong to “declining market” according to new Fannie May rules. All Cuyahoga County, Geauga, Portage Counties are declared declining market. Sad, especially considering that Real estate market is strictly local. How can they seriously compare markets in Cleveland and Solon or Mayfield Heights?

Speaking of reasonability of buyers and sellers: let’s compare the sales data for three cities - Mayfield Heights, Solon and Twinsburg. All three are on the East Side of Greater Cleveland. All have excellent school systems. All of them are great places to live and raise kids. All three have strong housing demand and good inventory of houses for sale. Let’s see what today’s sellers expect to sell their houses for:

Mayfield Heights - 171 house for sale; Average asking price $181,315

 In 2007 207 houses were sold for average price of $153,387. Sellers historically get 95-96 % of the last asking price (after all price reductions) in Mayfield Heights.

Solon                    201 house for sale; Average asking price $395,654

In 2007 245 houses were sold for average price of $368,829. Sellers get 95 % of the last asking price.

Twinsburg             124 houses for sale; Average asking price $242,612.

In 2007 251 houses were sold for average price of $225,527. Sellers get 97 % of the last asking price.

So, you - buyers -  decide: who is a champion in reasonability among the home sellers

Mayfield Heights sellers expect to get about $172,250 vs. $153,387 avg. sold price in 2007  

Solon sellers expect to receive about $375,870 vs. $368,829 avg. sold price in 2007

Twinsburg sellers expect to receive about $235,330 vs. $225,527 avg. sold price in 2007. 

Let’s see what happens in three month.

Good luck to all sellers and buyers! Let’s keep it real!

Svetlana Stolyarova, founder and broker of Local-n-Global Realty

Buyers and sellers in Mayfield Heights, Solon and Twinsburg! Need an expert on your side?

Call anytime 877-770-5551 or e-mail Realty@Local-n-Global.com