14 News, The Tri-State's News and Weather Leader-Housing market shows promising numbers

Housing market shows promising numbers

By Nathan Ryder - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Sarah Harlan - email

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - New numbers out Tuesday show a rebound may be in the works for Indiana's housing market.

The report released by the Indiana Association of Realtors shows some pretty promising numbers.

When you compare 2009 to 2008, this is now the second month in a row that Indiana has posted gains in existing home sales.

One local broker also said she's seeing signs that the local economy might also be turning around.

"We're very excited because we've sold many more homes in 2009 than we did in 2008," real estate broker Carol McClintock said. 

New numbers compiled by the Indiana Association of Realtors show a big boost to Indiana's housing market compared to the same time last year, and attribute those gains to the home buyer's tax credit.

Existing home sales were up 36.5 percent this November, the second month in a row that category has shown a gain.

Median prices also saw a jump up 10.5 percent compared to last November.

"Whereas a few months ago we were seeing big movement on the homes $100,000 or less, now we're seeing showings and purchases in all price ranges," McClintock said. 

Existing home sales in Vanderburgh County are up more than 23 percent.

Warrick is up 50 percent, Posey County is up 180 percent and Gibson is up a little more than 21 percent.

McClintock said things are looking better.

"Companies that we have worked with for years that have not brought anyone in for 18 months or longer have been calling and we've been doing a number of tours and know that other realtors are doing that as well," McClintock said. 

McClintock said that will bring even more life to the Tri-State housing market.

"When that happens they're really helping the market to move around because they're moving in, buying a house, those families can then move and buy a house," McClintock said. "It's a dominoe effect.

When it comes to new home sales, the owner of local home builder Jagoe Homes said the new extension to the tax credit has also boosted their sales.

 "We sold about 18 houses over a four day period during that second week in November and it's been pretty steady since," Scott Jagoe said. 

But if you expect to get that credit on new construction by the June 30 filing deadline, your time is running out.

"It takes about 90 days to build a house and then you have four weeks of lending requirements on top of that," Jagoe said. "That only gives us about a seven or eight week window for you to get out and go ahead and make a purchase." 

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