Central Indiana Housing Recovery Slows
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The latest issue of the Carpenter Report, suggests that the Central Indiana real estate market continues to build on a solid footing despite a slight slowdown in pended sales.
Year-over-year listing inventories have continued to decline; down another 4.2% over the fourth quarter of 2012. Hendricks County led the decline with a 13.3% drop. Marion County, the largest in our survey, showed only a slight decline of 2.2% in homes for sale. This continued decline in inventories is important for the continuing recovery of the housing market. Johnson County saw a substantial improvement in inventory with a 13.3% increase in inventory of homes for sale with Madison County as the only other up at only 0.3%.
Pending sales units during the fourth quarter of 2013 were actually down 2.4% year-over-year. Hendricks County led the slowdown with an 11.1% decline over fourth quarter 2012. While these pended sales reflected a slight slow down from the second quarter levels reported in the last issue of Carpenter Reports, the data continues to support the belief the housing recovery is on solid footing.
The average sales price for closed residential sales in Central Indiana reflected another strong quarterly increase of 9.2% year-over-year. Hendricks, Marion, Hamilton and Shelby Counties led with double-digit increases. Marion County experienced a solid 12.3% increase. We anticipate the continued strengthening of home prices to continue into 2014 and beyond as the inventory of available properties remains under pressure.
We believe the recent leadership change at the Federal Reserve coupled with their stated plan to slowly unwind the “QE” program as the economy improves will place modest pressure on mortgage interest rates. We also believe rising interest rates will be off-set by an improving economy. As a result, we anticipate the housing market in central Indiana will remain stable through 2014. At Carpenter Realtors, we continue to be optimistic about the future of housing in central Indiana. The improving picture presented in this report continues to fuel our optimism.
We hope you find this quarter’s analysis in Carpenter Reports and the insight it might provide useful in your understanding of the central Indiana housing market.
