Butler County home sales up in September

County building permits year-to-date show region’s biggest increase.

Butler County’s housing market continues to show signs of improvement, with September home sales and average sale prices up year-over-year, according to the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors.

Real estate agents closed on sales of 326 single family houses and condominiums last month throughout the county, according to the monthly update released Friday by the greater Cincinnati realtors group. Approximately 388 existing houses sold in August, and 303 homes sold September of last year.

The year-over-year difference is an increase of about 7.5 percent.

The number of Butler County existing single family homes and condominiums sold have been ahead every month this year than the same month the year before except for March, according to figures provided to this newspaper by the realtors group. The Cincinnati board handles the area’s Multiple Listing Service, which Realtors use to list properties for sale. The Hamilton-Fairfield-Oxford and Middletown realtor groups do not maintain the listing service, but local Realtors use it.

September’s average sales price in Butler County was $137,763, up by about two percent. A year ago, homes sold for an average price of $134,868, also according to the realtors group.

Also, the median sales price — where half of the homes sold for more and the other half sold for less — increased more than three percent to $124,200 in September from $120,000 a year ago.

The biggest purchase most people make in their life is a house, and home values are an indicator of homeowner wealth.

“Many of the indicators today continue to show a more stable and positive housing market,” said Tom Hasselbeck, president of the Cincinnati Board of Realtors and a Fairfield real estate agent, in a statement with the release.

For the entire Cincinnati metro region, home sales rose 11 percent to 1,588 units sold for an average sales price of $158,219. The average sales price for the entire region, including Butler County, was the best in five years, the realtors group said.

Another segment of Butler County’s housing market also contained some positive notes. Last month, 27 building permits were issued for a slight drop from September a year ago when 31 permits were issued, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati.

Building permits are a sign of future home construction.

However, year-to-date through September, Butler County has seen more increases in home building activity than surrounding counties of Clermont, Hamilton and Warren. A total 375 building permits have been issued in Butler the first nine months of the year, up nearly 27 percent from 296 permits issued during the same time period last year, according to the builders group.

The Cincinnati builders group prepares the permit data in partnership with Cincinnati real estate firm NorthPointe Group’s DataQuest.

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