Republic file photo A real estate sign sits in front a building a condominium for sale in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, June 3, 2021.
Bartholomew County’s housing market defied national trends last month as median home sale prices increased from a year earlier, while home prices in some areas of the country continued to slide.
In June, the median sale price of a single-family home in Bartholomew County was $275,000, a 3.8% increase from June 2022 and 35.8% increase since June 2019, according to data from the MIBOR Realtor Association, a professional association that represents Realtors in central Indiana.
By comparison, U.S. home sale prices ticked down 0.9% in June from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors, or NAR.
“We definitely still have a lack of inventory,” said Jessica Risacher, managing broker at F.C. Tucker Company office in Columbus, Seymour and North Vernon. “…Because of that, it has appreciated the values of homes.”
Local Realtors attributed the increase in sale prices largely to the county’s persistent low housing inventory, which remains considerably lower than five years ago, and higher interest rates.
In June, the county’s inventory of single-family homes was 105, compared to 307 in 2017, according to the MIBOR Realtor Association. At the same time, a total of 99 homes were sold in Bartholomew County in June, down from 142 in June 2022.
“Our inventory has remained low,” said Tyler Meyer, a Realtor at Dean Wagner Realtors in Columbus. “We’re only at about 100 active properties in Bartholomew County right now. It has been that way for the last couple years. But five or six years ago, we’d be sitting at around 300 active properties. We’re just way lower than our historic averages, and it has just continued to drive prices up.”
The local increase in home sale prices comes as home prices in parts of the country have begun to pull back after home price growth accelerated during the pandemic, fueled by ultra-low mortgage rates and bidding wars as competition for relatively few properties on the market intensified, The Associated Press reported.
Even as the market cooled last summer as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in its bid to slow economic growth and tame inflation, U.S. home price appreciation remained resilient until this February, when the median U.S. home price slipped 0.2% from a year earlier — the first annual decline in 13 years, according to the National Association of Realtors.
U.S. home prices have kept falling since, more recently sliding 3.1% in May from a year earlier, according to the NAR.
Still, the national median house price in May remained nearly 40% higher than it was three years ago. Meanwhile, the average rate on a 30-year home loan climbed to a new high for the year this past week at 6.81%, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s more than double what it was two years ago.
Consider that two years ago the median national monthly payment on home loan applications was $1,320.48, or 63.4% less than what it was last month, according to wire reports.
Locally, real estate agents say that the higher interest rates are having an impact on the housing market.
“(People) are hesitating to list their homes,” Risacher said. “…A lot of them refinanced when the interest rates were 2%, and you’re not going to get those people to move. Because now if they were to purchase a new home, we’re looking at 7.5% interest rates.”
“Every time we get an interest rate hike, it definitely creates a little bit of volatility and buyers get hesitant,” she added.
In addition, Bartholomew County residents who do put their homes on the market are tending to wait until they already have another home picked out.
“I think a lot of it has to do with people are afraid to list them because they’re having trouble finding something. So, we’re not seeing as many homes getting listed and then (people) hope they can find something. We’re seeing a lot of people try to find something and then end up listing. So, it takes one off the market and puts one on, instead of just feed more homes to the market.”
But as the summer winds on, only time will tell if Bartholomew County’s housing market continues to defy national trends.
In June, the median home sale price in Bartholomew County slid from $282,250 to $275,000, a roughly 2.6% decrease month over month, according to the MIBOR Realtor Association. However, sale prices have declined from May to June in each of the previous two years.
A recent forecast by Realtor.com calls for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to drop to 6% by the end of the year, according to wire reports. Lower rates could motivate some homeowners to sell, adding more sorely needed inventory to the market.
But lower rates could spur more buyers to come off the sidelines, which would heighten competition and push up prices.
“There are other parts in the country where you’re seeing a decrease (in home sale prices,)” Risacher said. “There was such a harsh appreciation rate in bigger cities and now those values are decreasing. But Bartholomew County, we’re actually up, and I anticipate that we’ll see a steady increase in (home) value.”
