Several Counties Show Improvement In Sales Price

While overall pended home sales continued to fall in May, several counties in central Indiana reported strong activity with improved average sales prices and a drop in the number of homes on the market year-to-date, compared to the same time period last year, according to pended sales statistics compiled by F.C. Tucker Company.

Available inventory dropped 4.1 percent in May with 19,218 homes on the market, 817 fewer homes than in May 2007. Hamilton and Johnson counties, however, reported a slight increase in the number of homes available.

"We continue to be encouraged by the decline in inventory in central Indiana," said H. James Litten, president of F.C. Tucker Company's Residential Real Estate Services Division. "As available inventory declines to more historic levels of five to six months' supply, we'll see pricing firm up even more." May pended home sales in the nine-county area were down 15.4 percent compared to May 2007 with 2,557 homes pending. Pended sales during the first five months of the year are down 12.6 percent compared to the same time period in 2007. So far this year, 11,474 pended home sales have been posted; 13,125 homes were pending during the first five months of 2007.

Shelby County continues to be the only county in the nine-county region to show an increase in pended sales, up 4.3 percent compared to May 2007. New jobs in the area have boosted this community's results during the busiest home-buying season of the year.

Despite the slow pace of pended sales, five counties in central Indiana revealed an improved average sales price, and three counties showed a lower average number of days on the market for the first five months of 2008, compared to the same time period last year. Overall, the nine-county region showed a year-to-date decrease in the average sales price of homes and an increase in the number of days on the market.

Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Madison and Morgan counties all reported an increase in average sales price for the first five months of this year, with Hendricks County posting the largest increase � 9.1 percent � since the beginning of the year. The average price of a Hendricks County home was $177,618. Hancock, Hendricks and Morgan homes were on the market for fewer days year-to-date compared to last year.

The average year-to-date sales price for a home in the nine-county area was $144,680, 3.3 percent less than what was reported in the first five months of 2007. However, the average sales price for a home in May 2008 vs. May 2007 has risen 2.8 percent, to $159,504.

The National Association of REALTORS� expected unprecedented home price declines in the first half of the year, and many markets can anticipate stabilizing price trends in the second half before rising more than 4 percent next year. "We believe central Indiana will be one of the first markets to emerge from the downward price trend," Litten said.

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