Southwest Ohio Is One of the Nation’s Healthiest Housing Markets

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Columbus-based Nationwide, one of the nation’s largest insurance and financial services organizations, has released its quarterly housing market report this week. According to the quarterly report, most U.S. housing markets are healthy, and Southwest Ohio is one of the most robust regions in the county.

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Nationwide’s Health of Housing Markets Report (HoHM Report) takes a look at 400 U.S. metro areas. It includes a national leading indicator score, which was 109.4 for the second quarter of 2015. Though the score decreased slightly from last quarter’s record level of 109.8, the score is still very positive. An index value over 100 means that the national housing market is healthy, with lower chances of a housing downturn in next year.

According to the HoHM Report, the housing markets in most metropolitan areas are also healthy. Southwest Ohio was one of the best-performing regions in the country, with three metropolitan areas in the Top 10. The first is Springfield, a city located 25 miles northeast of Dayton. It occupies second place in the Top 10. Dayton is sixth and Cincinnati is seventh.

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Although it was not present in the Top 10, the Northeast Ohio region, with its Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Akron-Canton and Youngstown markets, also performed very well. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor occupied second place in the Q1 report’s Top 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

The HoHM Report also said that only eight metro areas across the country have negative readings, but none too serious. Seventy-five percent of the negatively ranked metro areas are located in Texas and Louisiana.

Photo credit: Nationwide