NWI home sales down in November 2017, but still up for year as prices continue to rise

GNIAR CEO Peter Novak said 2017 is shaping up to be very similar to 2016.

The inventory of homes for sale is down sharply — off 12.3 percent from a year ago, to 3,585 homes on the market.

"It's been more of the same," Novak said. "Pretty high demand, increasing prices and fairly flat sales."

The GNIAR area covers Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, Jasper, Starke and Pulaski counties.

Lake County sales were down 0.4 percent in November, to 483, with a median price of $154,900, which is up 12.2 percent. Porter County saw a decline in both, with sales dropping 6 percent to 173 and the median price dropping 2 percent to $174,000. LaPorte County saw sales down 2.8 percent, to 104, and its median price up 18.5 percent, to $142,250.

Nationally, sales were up 3.8 percent to 5.81 million in November, the highest level since December, 2006, when 6.42 million homes were sold, according to the National Association of Realtors.

"Faster economic growth in recent quarters, the booming stock market and continuous job gains are fueling substantial demand for buying a home as 2017 comes to an end," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.

The inventory of homes for sale nationally is down 7.2 percent from a year ago, to 1.67 million. The median price nationally was $248,000, up 5.8 percent from a year ago and marking the 69th straight month of year-over-year increases.

Those facts, along with the anticipation of higher mortgage rates next year, threaten affordability, Yun said. Growing homebuilder optimism — if it translates to new construction — would help moderate prices.

"Price appreciation is too fast in a lot of markets right now," Yun said. "The increase in homebuilder optimism must translate to significantly more new construction in 2018 to help ease these acute inventory shortages.”