Good News and Bad News Today in the World of Northeast Ohio Real Estate

The bad news first:
In the July 7, 2008 issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business, Stan Bullard reported that a study by Foresight Analytics LLC now estimates delinquencies on construction loans for single family real estate in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) reached 16% at the end of 2008’s first quarter. Most alarming is that the delinquency rate at the end of 2007 was only 3%.
The first quarter rates for the Akron MSA were reported to be 13.6% (2008) vs. 2.4% (2007), and for the Columbus MSA, 10.1% (2008) vs. 2.8 (2007).

Now for the good news:
In the July 7, 2007 Cleveland Plain Dealer, Michelle Jarboe reported that Team NEO’s latest economic review estimates the current, lower than expected vacancy rate for industrial property in Northeast Ohio (10 county area) at 8.4%. Considering that Northeast Ohio now has an estimated 440 million square feet of industrial property (the most since 2000), the vacancy rate is reported to be a healthy, just slightly higher than the national average vacancy rate. In fact, Ms. Jarobe reported that Real Estate Research Corp., a Chicago research firm, recently ranked Cleveland seventh on its list of ten industrial markets for investors to watch in 2008. Here’s hoping that investors build, buy, sell and lease, as well as watch.