‘Cash buyers’ running rampant over Cincinnati home market

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Home buyers are finding their dreams of owning a house becoming harder to come by, thanks to the flood of cash buyers and investors in the Cincinnati market.

Tri-State home buyer Erin Jameson has put in offers 13 times. She was beaten every time by a cash buyer who purchased the home when it immediately went to market.

“A lot of times, I didn’t even have the chance to bid on a house,” Jameson said. “I would go ... on the day of an open house and they would already have a cash buyer. So it’s really hard to compete with that.”

Helena Cameron, Vice President of Sales with Sibcy Cline, said homeowners are competing with outside investors who are buying homes to use as rentals. Last year, 19 percent of the homes in Cincinnati were bought by all-cash buyers. Cameron said that percentage matches the number of homes bought in the area by outside investors.

It’s a competition prospective home buyers can’t win.

“I think for the average person, especially with a median income in Ohio, it’s not possible,” Cameron said.

Property investing has become more popular in recent years, according to Deborah Collins of the Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati.

Collins said investors can benefit communities, as long as they follow regulations.

“My company purchased a property that had been vacant for 10 years,” Collins said. “It had been broken into a number of times, was run down and not well kept. The neighborhood was grateful when we were able to get that rehabbed and sold to a nice family, providing property taxes to the county again.”

This hasn’t benefited Jameson, who has put a hold on her plans to buy a house out of frustration.

Nationally, the number of homes bought by investors has fallen slightly, but it remains higher than during the pandemic.

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