BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – There may be some light at the end of the tunnel for the area real estate market, according to realtors in Clarion, Venango, and Jefferson Counties.
ExploreJeffersonPA.com talked with Kyle Forsythe, of Pro-Market Realty in Brookville, Brian Burford, of Burford and Henry in Shippenville; and Bill Moon, of Gates and Burns Realty in Oil City about their take on the real estate market and changes they have seen.
“Generally speaking, there are certain segments of the market that are still very strong,” Burford said. “There are other segments – like the student rental market in Clarion – that are really difficult right now. Clarion Borough is struggling, but there’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Moon said last year was the best year ever for his company, Gates and Burns Realty. Moon has been with the company for 13 years, and the company has been in the Oil City area since 1889 and will celebrate its 130thanniversary next year.
Moon, who also serves as Oil City Mayor, deals mostly with foreclosure pressures on the local economy due to losing major industries.
Forsythe, who serves Jefferson and Clearfield Counties, experienced stable sales during the last two years.
“Our multiple listing services cover Clearfield and Jefferson Counties, and in the past year, there were 618 sales, and in the year before, there were 605,” Forsythe said. “Our market is stable, and it’s neither declining nor increasing.
Clarion County Real Estate
Bill Henry and Brian Burford
“At one time, there was just a superabundance of homes available in the Clarion Borough market, but I think that has kind of tailed off,” said Burford. “As a general statement, the market is still down.”
“There are definitely some positive signs. Some of the stuff that had been on the market for some time has recently sold. There are probably fewer properties for sale now than within the last year in Clarion Borough.”
Like other realtors that we talked with for this story, anything with acreage is strong in the market.
“There always seems to be buyers out there for properties with land associated with it. People sometimes want privacy and having the ability to hunt on their own land or maintain a buffer between them and their neighbors.”
The Marianne Estates had an abundance of homes for a while, but Burford said those homes seem to been absorbed by the market.
“I think there are fewer homes for sale now in Marianne Estates than there were a year ago. The Knox market is still active.”
In addition to selling homes, Burford and Henry is also involved with new construction through its Showcase Homes.
“We build quite a few homes for people locally, whether it is the modular or manufactured homes. Prices range from a $45,000.00 (for a) single-wide home up to where we have worked on a couple of $400,000.00 projects.”
“On the residential sector within the last year, I sold one property for over $400,000.00 – it was a large home with some land with it. Some of the camps might go as low as $15,000.00 in certain areas that don’t have a well or septic.”
Burford said some sellers have cut the selling price of their homes to attract sales.
“There have been a few of what we call ‘panic sales.’ They wanted to cut their losses and move on because they were absentee owners and just didn’t want to have any mortgage payments here, plus a mortgage payment somewhere else. If they had held out, they could have probably held for a little more money, but they just wanted to be done with that particular property. There have been a few of those, and that makes the market difficult, because if you’re including the lower sales at almost below-market rates, that gives you even more of an artificial low.”
Student rentals
“There’s been a lot of conversion from student rentals over to non-student rentals. At one time, if you had four walls and a roof in proper zoning, you could call it a student rental and people pay a fair amount of rent for it. Nowadays the kids and parents are getting more particular where they want their kids to live, and the kids want a little better location and better quality. At one point, you could put maybe two or three students in the same bedroom in certain circumstances, but kids want their own bedroom so that dynamic has changed greatly.”
“We don’t get into the resale of student rental housing with the decline in student enrollment and a mandatory two-year residence in university housing. Some housing owners opted to convert their housing in section 8 subsidized housing with guaranteed rents.”
“Some of the Clarion apartments might be as low as $400.00 a month for a pretty small apartment, but most of the stuff is in the $600.00 a month range for even a smaller house. We have seen some premium housing for people for a couple of years who do not have to worry about selling a house when they move on to the next job, and we’ve seen it as high as $1,200.00 or $1,300.00. It has to be a pretty nice house, good location, very well maintained.”
Rental costs outside of Clarion Borough still high
“Outside Clarion Borough, rental prices are not much cheaper. Some of these places are renting for $650.00 a month. For example, in the Knox area that is getting $650.00 or $750.00 a month rent for a three-bedroom house.”
Light at the tunnel
“I’ve noticed a couple of things that are a spark for the local economy. There are some things on the Verizon that I have heard about that would be a nice little boost to the county. In some sense, we’re also losing other things. You hope that the positives outweigh the negatives.”
“It’s been a tough ten years here losing Sealy, the glass plant, and miscellaneous differ thing that happened in this area. It has taken a while for the negative impact of having the glass plant leave. At first, some people may have thought that there was little impact, but three or four years nearly everyone said wow. O-I had executives and training positions that would rotate every few years and those people would often buy homes in the area. That all disappeared.”
Oil City and Foreclosures
The landscape is a little different in Venango County and Oil City.
“I deal mostly with foreclosures and other people’s homes that we put up for sale,” said Oil City Mayor Bill Moon (pictured on right).
“The lender grabs the properties before they go to sheriff’s sale, so they really don’t get out to the public.”
“We market the property as sold ‘as is.’ The bank probably won’t let you turn on any utilities for inspections, and it has to be a cash purchase.”
“People have got to realize what they’re buying, and we let them know all of the problems that have occurred and tell them that the seller’s in charge of the transaction, not the buyer. They have to do their homework and make sure it fits their needs and the price is right. Some people buy them and some people don’t. Some people are handy and some are not.”
One of the most challenging things with his job is getting the foreclosure properties cleaned up and ready for market.
“There are some banks where you have to jump through a lot of hoops. You can’t get a mortgage on them, and you have to pay cash. These banks are in Texas, Utah, Florida…they’re the ones holding the note. You try to get the banks to understand that some people don’t have a well and septic or public water. A lot of them don’t understand that this isn’t the big city where you can just go and turn the tap on. Some of these properties don’t have that.”
“Those banks were not the loan originator and bought them on a secondary market. They’re buying them pennies on the dollar because they want to make sure they get paper from it.”
“I’m listed in a couple of the bank websites, and I work for the companies. They see my name on the websites and they contact me to see if I’m interested or not in handling the property.”
Who are his customers?
Moon also sells non-foreclosure properties, and on Thursday, he was busy with three closings. House prices can range from $59,900.00 to $250,000.00 in Oil City.
“Those buying housing could be anyone from millennial up to older adults. We get people who have made their money elsewhere, and they’re moving back into the area to live comfortably because of the high cost of living in other places. When I first meet the people, I ask them what brought them to Venango County. ‘I have family here or I grew up here and you have things I don’t have.’ I ask them what do we have that you like? ‘You have the four seasons, you have the river, you have things I don’t have.'”
“Oil City has many older Victorian houses that attract outside buyers. I had a couple come in from California—he was a chiropractor and she just retired from the post office. We looked at Victorians through Venango County, and they were hoping to sell their house for $750,000.00. They could come back here, buy a Victorian and live comfortably and do what they want to do for the rest of their retirement years.”
There are differences in the market throughout Venango County. Franklin seems to have higher prices on homes than Oil City.”
“However, they’re having the same difficulties as we do – finding buyers. With the higher priced homes, you need two incomes to support.”
“As mayor of Oil City, I explain to everyone we need to not raise taxes and keep taxes low so people can move in. That’s the first thing people ask…they can afford to purchase the house, but they can’t afford the taxes. You have a budget at home, I have a budget at home, we have to live within our (Oil City) budget and make sure services are provided and if we have to take something out, we have to take something out.”
“We have to live within our means, but luckily this year we’re putting in a playground, but all of that is being done pretty much by donations. People stepping forward to help Oil City, and I can sign thank you letters left and right.”
“I’m on the Venango County Land Bank for Oil Region Alliance and the Venango County Economic Development Board, and we take on blight. I was on the first committee formed for Oil City blight, and we also worked on starting rental inspections to stop blight.”
Moon said Oil City is still dealing with the closing of Joy Manufacturing, even though another company bought it.
“The plant was scuttled, and they lost all those union jobs and now we’re feeling the effects, auxiliary services, too, that they also supported. It’s a trickle-down effect of them closing. For that matter, we’ve lost several industries over the years.”
“I feel we’re coming out of the hole since Quaker State and Pennzoil left. Oil City had 30,000 people when they were here, and now we’re down to 10,500.”
Looking at a stable Jefferson County
Kyle Forsythe and Alexa Means
“The average sale price in our area was $96,900.00 two years ago, and the price last year $99,600.00 – not much of a difference,” said Forsythe. “Our market has been stable. The number of sales is basically in line with last year, and the prices have decreased a small percentage, maybe one percent.”
“What IS selling in our area are reasonable-sized ranch style homes within five miles of town in the $150,000.00 price range. There is currently a little trend for people who want to be out of town.”
“It would be easier for us to sell a country property right now. What we’re finding is the younger people want to live in the country, and the older folks that are coming back to retire in town just want a two-bedroom ranch with all of the conveniences and not much yard or maintenance.”
“We have the county seat and that helps us fortunately and we have recreational spots. I do a lot with summer homes and camps because of that and we have a good base for retired people who have moved away, made their money and are coming back to retire. We have the people that are still working professionals and are at their stage in their career.”
“We just sold a couple of farms recently, one with 80 acres, and the first person that saw it bought it. They want an old farm with acreage outside of town.”
Pets have a voice
“I’ve got to tell you the people that have pets—that drives their purchasing requirements. They want a place where they can let their dogs run free and not worry about them or one close to town with a fenced area for their pets.”
Improvements coming
“Four or five years ago when the oil people came here, they drove some prices up and then when they left it declined a little bit. I believe we are now seeing some good signs of businesses coming to the area. The area is improving and it’s stable.”
“We have camp and seasonal home customers, we have young families starting out, and we have older folks who are retiring. I can’t say that any one of them is the driving force, and we don’t have a lot of foreclosures in this area.”
“Most of the sales are government insured loans like FHA or VA. We might do one in ten cash sales. Most of them are zero or low money down loans.”
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