SitemapOf all the cities and townships in Mahoning County, it turns out the ones with the oldest houses have seen the largest percentage of increases in home valuations. How did that happen, and is that good or bad? Earlier today, we talked with several people about the increases in Youngstown, Struthers and Campbell. The 400 block of Geneva Avenue in Struthers — between Youngstown-Poland Road and 5th Street — is a neighborhood that was built in the 1960s. Six years ago, houses there sold for between $70,000 and $80,000. “Those same houses are reselling for $130,000 [and] $140,000,” said Jenna Koontz, a realtor for Howard Hanna.
Koontz grew up, still lives and now sells houses in Struthers where, for the last couple of years, she says buyers have been frustrated. “They’re frustrated by what the houses are going for. Like, can I even afford this anymore? There were 20 offers on this house. Well, it’s kind of caught up to us now,” Koontz said. Numbers released last week by Auditor Ralph Meacham show that Youngstown, at 57%, had the highest percentage increase in home values of any community in Mahoning County. Second was Struthers at 51% and Campbell was third at 50%. “In some of those communities, you know quite well, you could buy a house, a few years ago, $25,000 to $30,000,” Meacham said.
In Youngstown, some of those houses now sell for $45,000. “The difference in absolute dollars is just $15,000 in that case, but as a percentage increase, it gets to be 50% pretty fast,” Meacham said.
“We want to see values go up,” said Ian Beniston, who runs the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.
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