New construction in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren Counties is helping to fuel real estate sales in greater Cincinnati.

Of the 6075 single family homes for sale in the 4 county area, 66o are advertised as new construction in the Cincy MLS.  The new construction comprises about 10% of the available inventory but the average list price for newly built (or to be built) is nearly twice the average list price.  $210,190 for existing homes versus $423,250 for new construction.  It appears that after several years of virtually no “spec” homes or new areas popping up in corn fields the greater Cincinnati area has new homes blooming everywhere.

During the last 6 months 316 newly constructed homes were purchased/closed with an average sale price of $322,980 versus an average sale price on resales of $161,451.  The percentage of new homes sold was only about 4.3% of the total number sold but the dollar volume made up approximately 8.5% or $105,221,617.  In addition to fuel sales, the good news is that builders are not just concentrating on one or two areas-the new construction is spread out through all four counties and available in many price ranges.

According to CoreLogic the trend is happening across the country but for those of us from Cincinnati we were especially spoiled when we had spec homes available throughout the area.  The lack of new construction for the past several years seems to be ending as lenders gain confidence and begin to loan money to builders. Hopefully the new construction trend will continue because as buyers decide to build new homes- they often need to sell their current residence in order to move on.  Overall, it’s a win/win for everybody -new construction does fuel a lot of real estate activity for greater Cincinnati.