Data from the Federal Reserve’s fourth district show home prices outside the state of Ohio holding steady, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said Friday.
Still, the district, which includes Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Kentucky and parts of West Virginia, is a mixed bag of economic data with delinquency and foreclosure trends decreasing in both Ohio and West Virginia from 2010 to 2011.
On the other hand, Kentucky and Pennsylvania saw increases in the same categories, the Cleveland Fed Bank said.
Ohio contrasts somewhat with other areas in the fourth district in that home prices in Cleveland and Toledo — the two largest state metros — fell to their lowest level in 10 years. However, metro areas outside of Ohio but still in the district continue to be stable and even showed some positive price gains over the past decade, the report said.
One troubling trend emerged at the beginning of 2011 when the rate of loans delinquent for 90 or more days stopped declining in the district, suggesting the potential for more late payments. This particular trend was pronounced in Ohio and Pennslyvania at that point.
The Cleveland Fed Bank is waiting to get more data on the first part of 2012 to determine whether last year’s rise in delinquencies is an isolated incident or if market conditions are in fact continuing to deteriorate.
