Real estate indicators continued their upswing in Howard County in April, with increases in both closed sales and new listings, the Realtors Association of Central Indiana reported.

“What we’re hearing from brokers is that we’re busier than we’ve been in years, and it feels good,” RACI’s executive director, Amy Pate, said Thursday.

New listings were especially impressive in April, with 22.3 percent more homes hitting the market than a year ago.

Median sale prices were down slightly in April, a blip
Pate attributed to one or two “outlier” sales.

In the longer view, sale prices are up in both the three-month and 12-month trailing averages, with median sales prices climbing from $70,000 to $75,500 over the past 12 months.

In the 12-month period ending in April 2012, there were 993 closed sales. In the year since then, there have been 1,049 closed sales in
Howard County, a 5.6 percent increase.

With inventories of available homes dwindling, Pate said the local housing market has achieved an “equilibrium” between buyers and sellers.

At the end of April, there was a 7.3-month supply of homes on the market. That figure is down from double digits just two years ago, Pate said.

“When that number gets around 6 or 7, it really starts to switch between a buyer’s market and a seller’s market, because of supply,” Pate said.

Sellers were receiving an average of 94.4 percent of their original asking price in the three months ending in April, compared to 93.9 percent for the same period in 2012.
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