ANDERSON – After struggling for several years, home sales in Madison County are being considered strong for 2015, Realtor Tom Seal said.
The latest home sales numbers for central Indiana released by Indianapolis-based real estate company F.C. Tucker shows that, from November 2014 to November 2015, there has been an 8.1 percent increase in sales in Madison County.
That ranks Madison County third in the percentage increase in the number of sales for the past year behind only Shelby County (13.6 percent) and Marion County (9.7 percent).
The cost of purchasing a house in Madison County rose 9.2 percent during the past year, the highest percentage increase reported among counties in the Indianapolis metropolitan market.
Over the past year, the average price of purchasing an existing house in Madison County climbed from $86,878 to $94,891. Despite that increase, the average selling price of a Madison County house still trails the nine-county average of $184,648.
The inventory of Madison County homes for sale fell by 8.3 percent, from 708 to 649.
Seal, of F.C. Tucker/O.C. Clark in Anderson, said other than the normal lag during the holiday season it has been a really good year in Madison County.
“Any good news is a real plus,” he said.
Seal said typically home sales during a presidential election year are good and he expects the upward trend to continue.
Despite the concern about lower inventory of homes, but Seal said that tends to drive the price up.
“We need more homes on the market in the $90,000 to $120,000 price range,” he said. “There has been new home construction, which impacts people looking to sell a home. It helps increase the price of existing homes.”
Seal said there has been a lot of new residential construction in the Pendleton and Lapel areas in 2014, a trend he expects to see continue.
As new businesses locate in Madison County and existing companies expand, Seal said it is hoped that more people will be looking to live here; people who don’t want to commute to Indianapolis and other counties.
Overall for the nine-county region, there have been 1,791 single-family or condominium home sales in November, as compared to the previous November of 1,982.
F.C. Tucker officials said housing sales for the region is well ahead of 2010.
“Five years ago at this time, central Indiana’s pending home sales were down more than 10 percent for the year and the average home sale price was $150,130,” Jim Litten, president of F.C. Tucker, said. “Now we’re closing in on 30,000 homes sold ..., instead of the approximately 20,000 homes in 2010, and prices are nearly $35,000 higher.
“It’s great to see the housing market continue to build momentum year after year,” he said.