The discussion about the local real estate market in greater Cincinnati never ends.

Is it good? Is it bad? Is it getting better? And the answer to all the questions is yes. Some areas are selling, some aren’t and yes the real estate market is improving….sort of. One way to track the market is to calculate “absorption rates”. Realtors, banks and relocation companies usually analyze “absorption rates” in order to determine how much inventory is currently available within the area. The formula is fairly simple:

1. # of closed sales in the 6 months /6 = # of sales per month
2. # of current active listings/ # of sales per month = # of months of inventory
3. # of months of inventory = absorption rate

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), as well as state and local real estate associations also publish absorption rates for public consumption.  By NAR standards our market appears to be “balanced” between buyers and sellers – but real estate is local and the local Board sees a balanced market somewhere between 4.5- 5 months.  Currently it looks like locally the scales are tipped slightly favoring buyers-but not by much.

Locally the problem with most of the numbers is how the calculation covers not only the greater Cincinnati area but also includes all the areas covered by Cincy MLS.  Most calculations also clump single family homes and condos together – but as you will see below homes are selling faster than condos.

So the bottom line for the 4 county area is that it will take this between 5-9 months for all the property to be sold if buyers continue to purchase at the same pace.

# of months of supply for the current inventory of homes/condos -based on data from Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati from dates 10/15/13 through 04/15/14.

Not to surprising the sale of single family homes is happening faster than the sale of condos.  Also the numbers change constantly and the rate homes or condos are selling a specific neighborhood may vary widely from their respective county’s. Hope this helps you understand how much “stuff” we need to sell in order to clear out today’s merchandise.
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