ANDERSON — The cost of purchasing a house in Madison County rose 9.8 percent during the past year, the highest percentage increase reported among counties in the Indianapolis metropolitan market.
Indianapolis-based real estate company F.C. Tucker made the comparison of October 2014 to October 2015 for nine counties in the Indianapolis market in house sales, inventory and average sale price.
Over the past year, the average price of purchasing an existing house in Madison County climbed from $86,512 to $94,956. Despite that increase, the average selling price of a Madison County house still trails the nine-county average of $184,637.
The report showed that Madison County sales for the 12-month period ending in October declined by 7.5 percent and the inventory of homes for sale fell by 10.4 percent, from 771 to 691.
Tom Seal, with F.C. Tucker/O.C. Clark in Anderson, said the report was a mixed bag of good news and areas for concern.
“Inventory being down has been a big factor for three years,” Seal said. “With fewer houses on the market, there are fewer sales.”
He said that the lower number of homes in the inventory is resulting in higher prices.
“It’s the law of supply and demand,” Seal said. “The prices of homes in Madison County will always be behind the other doughnut counties.”
There is a big difference in the price of houses in Madison and Hamilton counties because of the demand for the existing properties on the market, he said.
“The cost here has been lower for as long as I can remember,” Seal said. “Right now there is a lot of new construction in the Fishers area, not as much here.”
Seal said the hope is that as new business locates in Madison County and existing companies expand. there will be more people looking to live in the county, people who don’t want to commute.
“The Lapel, Pendleton and Ingalls areas have higher prices because people are moving into the area and willing to commute into Marion County, and there is the perception that the school systems are better,” he said.
Seal said the upward trend in the average price for the purchase of a house in Madison County will continue.
He said the inventory of county homes on the market is at a low point.
Seal said when more houses are for sale, the buyer has more options available.
Overall for the nine-county region, there have been 2,071 single-family or condominium home sales in October 2015, as compared to 2,444 the previous October.
F.C. Tucker officials believe there will be a promising two final months of the year in terms of housing sales.
“Declines in the fourth quarter of the housing market should be expected, but there are several other factors impacting the overall picture of October,” said Jim Litten, president of F.C. Tucker. “According to the Consumer Confidence Index, we know consumer confidence declined in October, yet Indiana’s job market and average salaries are growing, signaling a promising end to 2015.”