Real Estate Agent · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2024 · 30 posts · 14 votes
I was comparing the August numbers for Cuyahoga and Lorain County, and there are some pretty noticeable differences.
Obviously, Cuyahoga County is a much larger market, so the raw number of listings and sales isn't exactly apples-to-apples. The year-over-year changes are where it gets interesting.
August 2025 vs. August 2026:
- Cuyahoga County
New listings: +2%
Sold listings: -8.8%
Average sale price: +2.2%
Days on market: 35
- Lorain County
New listings: +11.2%
Sold listings: -0.6%
Average sale price: -5.1%
Days on market: 35
So while both counties are sitting at the same average market time, the markets are moving a little differently.
Cuyahoga is seeing fewer sales but higher average prices, while Lorain is seeing a much bigger increase in new listings and a decline in average sale price.
And looking at YTD numbers, Cuyahoga's average sale price is up 7.3%, compared to 3.7% in Lorain County.
For investors, this is a good reminder that you can't really say “the Cleveland market is doing X” and have that tell the whole story. Even neighboring counties can give you very different numbers.
At the end of the day, I'll still take a good deal in either county. 😂
For the investors buying in Northeast Ohio — what counties are you most interested in right now?
Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 536 posts · 300 votes
2d
This is the right way to look at it.
Where I’d push it further is this: the county number is usually where the interesting work starts, not where it ends.
Lorain showing more listings, basically flat sales, and lower average pricing gets my attention. But what I really want to know is where the pressure is building and who is feeling it first.
Which ZIPs are stacking inventory?
Which price bands are getting stale?
Which sellers are cutting twice?
Which properties are dying on market while the good ones still disappear immediately?
That’s where the opportunity usually is.
We’ve been buried in Northeast Ohio property data lately, and the thing that keeps jumping out is how quickly the “Cleveland market” story falls apart once you get down to the actual property level.
Two houses 15 minutes apart can be operating in completely different markets.
That’s the part I’m interested in — not just what happened, but where the pressure is forming before everybody starts calling it a trend.