EVANSVILLE —The Southwest Indiana Association of Realtors sees signs the Tri-State housing market continues to strengthen, though it has no magic wand to wave for predicting what kind of a year 2012 will be for the market.
Anita Louthan, the association president and a broker associate with F.C. Tucker Emge, said statistics from the Broker Listing Cooperative, or BLC, (formerly MLS, Multiple Listing Service) reveal the number of single-family homes sold in the association's 10-county district during the last six months of 2011 increased by 9.2 percent, compared to sales in the same months in 2010.
The 2011 number sold was 2,387 homes, compared to 2,184 in 2010.
Louthan said the average price of homes sold increased by 4.0 percent over the same months in 2010. During 2011, the average sale price was $127,954, compared to $122,704 in 2010.
The total value of the sold homes was $305.4 million in the last six months of 2011, compared to $267.9 million in the same period in 2010.
The association's 10-county district includes Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey, Gibson, Perry, Spencer, Dubois, Daviess, Martin and Pike counties.
Meanwhile, a study by Bob Reid of Evansville-based Appraisal Consultants, Inc., revealed 1,808 single-family homes were sold in Vanderburgh County in 2011, a 2.4 percent decline from 2010.
Even so, that is still considered stable, Reid said, as is the average sale price in Vanderburgh of $115,494, a decline of 1.1 percent from 2010.
Sales in Warrick County totaled 728, a 9.3 percent increase from 2010.
Posey County had 206 sales, showing a 4.08 percent improvement compared to 2010.
Warrick homes on average sold for $180,275, an increase of 1.2 percent from 2010.
Gibson had 243 sales, which was a 14.1 percent decline from 2010. The average sale price was $110,115 — up 8.9 percent from last year.
Despite the Tri-State's stable-to-increased activity in the housing market, a larger economic rebound won't depend on a big boost in housing.
"It all comes back to jobs and people's confidence," said Reid.
"When people have a job and a steady paycheck, they then can think about getting a house.
"People want to own their homes, but the uncertainty and lack of income has driven some people away," he said.
Louthan said, "For people to feel confident, they need to be gainfully employed and have a means to pay for a home mortgage."
Reid and Louthan agreed that the affordability of housing "is tremendous" with low interest rates.