Yeah!  Lakeside Realty officially completed the sale yesterday on its ‘soon to be’ new headquarters located at 51 Wickliffe in Austintown.   Our new 4,000 square foot office building, which was formerly a church, will be ready for the big move within a few months. 

We’re planning to start the repairs and remodeling right away so that we will be ready to occupy the new building before the holiday season.  We've outgrown our current space in spite of the fact that we doubled our square footage just last year.  This new building will comfortably house our current staff with plenty of room for future growth.     Check it out!

Welcome Aboard!  Lakeside Realty is proud to have you as part of our staff of professional REALTORS®!

Sheri Dibacco, a lifelong resident of Youngstown and a graduate of Hubbard High School, recently moved to Austintown and joined the Lakeside staff.  Sheri is a licensed real estate agent, nurse and enrolled agent.  She can find her clients their dream home and also assist them with their financial and tax planning.

Garnett Chinchic, a licensed real estate agent since 1998, lives in the Champion area. She has two sons, Adam 22 and Tyler 18, who work and go to school in the Akron area.  Garnett, often referred to as "The HUD Queen" is a specialist when it comes to foreclosures, investors and flipping houses.  Your needs are her number one top priority, whether it's your first house or an investment property. 

Ted Kegley, born and raised on the south side of Youngstown, resides in the area with his wife and three boys.  He is involved with the local Boy Scouts program where he enjoys providing a moral compass to the future leaders of our country.  Ted has lived and worked in the Youngstown/Warren area for his entire life and knows the potential of our community.  He is committed to helping the community grow by continuing to meet the needs of buyers and sellers and promoting the American Dream.

Real estate markets are local, and do not necessarily reflect national or even state market conditions.  Let's take a closer look at the local real estate market conditions in Mahoning County.

The good news is that the market has been improving . . . slowly but surely . . . over the past year.  It makes the most sense to focus on what has happened for the first six months of the year compared to the first six months of last year, instead of looking at month to month comparisons, as they can fluctuate either way and the short term focus can be misleading.

This is a re-print of an email Fannie Mae sent to their network of Real Estate Brokerages in Ohio.  We would have provided a link to the information, but have not been able to locate it on the internet.  Although the Youngstown/Warren metro area was not specifically mentioned, we will experience a surge in additional foreclosures here in the months ahead.

RealtyTrac helped us compile a list of the metro areas where a rebound in foreclosure activity could put a damper on home prices… again.
The data is broken down by Metropolitan Statistical Areas, which are localities defined by the U.S. Office of Budget and Management that usually contain a city and its neighboring suburbs.

For the first four months of 2012 pending sales are up 29.2% and closed sales are up 19.2% from the same period last year.  

The average days on the market are about the same, at 152, and the average sales price of $87,123 and median sales price of $65,00 have shown no significant change.  

Housing inventory is down to an 8.9 months' supply, from 12.4 months a year ago, a much healthier level.

These trends are promising.  We all have our fingers crossed that the trend will continue leading to a normalized market and higher home values for Mahoning County homeowners.

To read a full report including charts and graphs dating back to 2004, please click on the '1 Attachment' link in the gray bar under this blog post.