ANDERSON — It’s a seller’s market in Madison County as home prices have been skyrocketing in 2017.
The median sale price in the county rose by more than 29 percent over the same time last year to $112,000, according to new data released by the MIBOR Realtor Association.
Closing sales are also up, with 186 sales closed in June, up nearly 50 percent over June 2016.
“The current housing market is one of the most competitive I’ve seen,” said Vallonia real estate agent Cheryl Stuckwish, who is president of the Indiana Association of Realtors. “When houses are selling fast, you’ve got to be faster than rival buyers and pull out all the stops.”
Ken Miller, co-owner of FC Tucker OC Clark Realtors in Anderson, said he expects to see growth continue as southern Madison County feels the effects of an expanding Hamilton County.
“Everything in the south side of Madison County is doing well,” he said. “I think its going to continue; they may be overextending themselves with growth in Hamilton County.”
As existing home sales rise, so too do new building permits across central Indiana, as statewide new home construction has reched a 10-year high.
Single-family building permits increased by 12 percent across the state in May over the same time last year, according to the latest round of data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. In the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson metro area, single-family permits grew by about 12.6 percent.
“This substantial increase reflects the continual growth of the state’s healthy housing market,” Indiana Builders Association President Lance Swank said in a press release. “Home building has reached a peak we have not seen since 2007. Therefore, Hoosiers are confident Indiana remains a great place to both buy and build a home.”
In 2016, 5,828 single-unit building permits were issued in Indiana, an increase of 656 permits over the 2015 number of 5,172.
Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes weakened slightly by two points in June to a 67 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor, according to a press release by the Indiana Builder’s Association.
“Builder confidence remains consistently sound this year as the housing market makes a gradual recovery,” Swank said. “As more buyers enter the marketplace, it is important that we continue our efforts to repair the ongoing skilled labor shortage and burdensome regulations that our builders are challenged with.”