YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A year after construction started on Villa Nora, a new residential development in Poland, six of the planned 17 units of the development’s first phase are sold, David Klacik, agent at Klacik Real Estate, reports.
That includes four units that are now occupied and the house that had been constructed as the development’s model home, a replacement for which is being built now. Klacik describes the units as “smart houses” that owners can manage remotely using smartphone apps.
Housing built on a speculative basis, such as Villa Nora, is unusual.
“Very few do what we call specs,” or units constructed without a contracted buyer, Klacik says. “We’re going to start our second phase this year.”
The 34-unit Villa Nora development represents new housing product coming online in the Mahoning Valley market, which like many areas has suffered from lack of inventory in recent years.
“That’s been the key problem. There’s not enough inventory,” Alicia Kosec, broker and Northern Ohio and Michigan president for Howard Hanna Real Estate Service, Mayfield Heights, says. In the Mahoning Valley, what she describes as the “hot price point” is $250,000 to $400,000, compared to $300,000 to $500,000 in the Cleveland market.
Pricing in the tri-county area is up about 6.5% from a year ago, reports Sue Filipovich, broker/owner at Burgan Real Estate in Boardman. First-quarter activity usually is slow, but pending sales picked up in March. The median sale price in the market now is around $188,000.
“Owners are still wanting to get that top dollar,” Filipovich says.
Just a few years ago, when interest rates were around 2% or 3%, there was a surge in sales, Klacik says. Now rates have stabilized around 6.5%.
“Homes are staying on the market, on average, just a little bit longer,” Filipovich says. During the first quarter, houses in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties were on the market about 10 to 20 days longer than a year earlier, as higher interest rates have priced more buyers out of the market compared to a few years ago.
A Lull
January represented the first real lull the local market has experienced in some time, according to Michael Stevens, owner of Coldwell Banker EvenBay Real Estate, which has offices in Howland and Boardman. Houses stayed on the market longer than they had been, resulting in some price reductions.
“The second half of [the fourth quarter of 2024] and into the beginning of [first quarter 2025], “all the way back to postpandemic, that’s the first we’ve really experienced some slowdown there,” he remarks.
Some people blamed it on 2024 being a presidential election year, or were watching what was happening with interest rates, he continues. Also, local weather was far warmer a year ago than it was this year.
“Over the last 30 days, we’ve seen a lot more activity. Some of the price adjustments have kicked in, we’ve been getting a lot more pendings, and we have seen an uptick in transactions,” he says.
Klacik also says there has been a recent uptick in the market.
“It was such a severe winter, and we’re just coming into the spring season,” he says. “Right now, the supply has been moving quick. It hits the market and moves quick, which is good to see.”
“Higher-end homes might take a little bit longer, but they sell. We see them sell,” Kosec says.
Those sales are related to first-time home buyers, who are “a lot different than they were 30 years ago,” she continues. Today’s new buyers are in their 30s and 40s rather than 20s, have two incomes and are starting with $400,000 houses that might have been second or third houses years ago. “You are purchasing your first house at a considerably higher price point than a generation before,” she says.
1970s Homes
Among the properties staying on the market longer are homes built in the 1970s the owner hasn’t updated, because new buyers “might not have the budget to go in and make all those improvements right off the bat,” Filipovich says. Houses that have been completely or “very well” remodeled aren’t staying on the market long.
“The buyers want something that is pretty much done and complete,” she says.
Sellers still are getting multiple offers but fewer of them, and days on the market have increased, Stevens says. In recent years, the market was so competitive that buyers would be unable to even have a home inspection performed, whereas now the market is more traditional and the playing field a little more level.
“[Buyers] may ask for some repairs. Now they may ask for seller concessions,” Stevens says. “I see a little bit more in seller concessions and buyers not being at the mercy of such a strong seller’s market.”
“One of the things we’re also watching is the city properties in Youngstown,” Filipovich says. People are considering areas they might have passed on before because of the scarce inventory. The average sale price has risen by 9.5% and buyers are starting to take advantage of the $10,000 grants for downpayments and closing costs the city has available.
Real Estate Crash
The crash of the real estate market in 2008 and 2009 “really kneecapped builders,” so new construction eroded, Kosec says. In addition, members of the baby boom generation are healthier and living longer, so they are staying in their houses longer.
“We have seen some new developments spring up that are doing quite well,” Kosec says. “Poland Preserve is one in Poland that sprung up to kind of satisfy a little bit of that empty nester type of home, and that’s going like gangbusters.”
Agents also are trying to find temporary solutions for baby boomers who want to move.
“So, the amount of homes that are for sale is probably up over 20%, which is helping inventory, and we see a lot of new listings coming on now,” Stevens says.
The starting point for the houses being built in Villa Nora is $400,000, Klacik says. Area starts at just under 1,700 square feet.
While new construction has picked up in recent years, the cost of materials such as wood and concrete has doubled in the past five to seven years, Kosec says. There are new concerns over the impact of potential tariffs that could affect pricing of those materials.
“I’ve heard a lot of concern from home builders about it,” she says.
Stevens says it is too early to see the effect of the tariff situation. “Hopefully it is short-lived, and will have no effect,” he says.
“We’re still seeing people who are working from home and want some type of home office area,” Filipovich says. Even with companies bringing employees back into the office, many are doing a hybrid situation which is “a positive for property sales.”
Additionally, buyers in the younger generation – 28- to 38-year-olds – are wanting to get out of the rental market, which is driving purchases, Filipovich says.
“Even with a little bit higher interest rate, that still makes sense,” she says.
Pictured at top: David Klacik of Klacik Real Estate at Villa Nora development in Poland.