An executive study recently released continues to show promise of a stabilizing real estate market on Indy’s south side. Overall, the housing market collapse has been less painful in the Indianapolis MSA than other parts of the country. The area’s historic annual price increases have been a moderate 3 to 4 percent, which has cushioned the downside.
Favorable mortgage and interest rates with a wide inventory of homes for sale — including bank and HUD-owned properties — contributed to make home prices more affordable for Indianapolis in 2008. Consumer confidence, a relatively stable economy, and a slightly shrinking inventory of homes will impact the real estate market in 2009 in the Indianapolis metro area. To read the entire study, click here.
An area broker/owner said,
“First-time home buyers on the Southside are seeking out the $115,000 to $125,000 homes.” “We have had a big surge in the investor market,” he said. “We have seen an increase in people buying investment property, property to fix up, and HUD properties that have been priced right.” Caldwell expects prices to stabilize, since inventory in the median market is declining slightly. “We may have hit the actual bottom, and may see a trend up a bit,” he added.
Still, there are some surprising bright spots for the south side of Indianapolis in particular
On Indianapolis’ Southside, Franklin Township was the only city area to see home prices go up. The median sales price in Franklin Township increased by one percent, from $119,875 in 2007 to $121,000 in 2008.”
Beech Grove was fairly insulated. Even though the number of homes sold was down, only thirty fewer homes were sold as reported in the two year study. Perry Township saw a small decrease in median home price of 5%, and sales activity was reduced only 7.1%. Decatur Township saw the least erosion in home sales – down only 6.4 % with a slight decrease of 8 % in median home price.
Houses in Johnson County sold in exactly the same number of days – 95 – as they did a year ago. The median sales price in Johnson County declined a mere 6.4%. Johnson County’s largest population centers, Greenwood and nearby New Whiteland and Whiteland, fared the best in the 2007-2008 real estate market.
In Marion County, the average number of days a house stayed on the market remained relatively constant: rising only slightly from 95 days in 2007 to 96.4 days in 2008.
Submitted by: David Brenton