Halfway into the year, Johnson County’s housing market is still hot and sales remain up.
Recent data from the MIBOR Realtor Association shows that the number of closed home sales is up by 11.7%. Jake Hemrick, of Franklin-based Hemrick Real Estate, says the county continues to be a hot market for homebuyers, with some areas of the county even hotter.
“There are certain neighborhoods, not only in Franklin, but in Johnson County in general, that are very hot still,” said Hemrick, who’s been in the real estate business for 11 years and started Hemrick Real Estate in 2016. “And so, as long as they’re priced reasonably, in decent condition, they are moving very quickly.”
New construction neighborhoods and bigger neighborhoods are moving a little bit slower in Hemrick’s view, but real estate agents are still seeing good traffic, he said.
What the numbers say
Year to date, the number of closed sales is up 11.7% in Johnson County, with 984 homes being sold so far this year compared to 811 at this time in 2024. This is as of May, the most recent month with data available from the MIBOR Realtor Association. The data includes the 16-county area around Indianapolis.
Year-over-year, the number of closed sales is up just slightly from May 2024, with 241 sales being reported in 2025 compared to 233 in May 2024, data shows.
The median sales price for single-family homes are up 2.4% year-to-date but down 2.14% year-over-year. The median sales price so far in 2025 is $325,000, with May 2025’s being $324,900. For new construction, the median sales price has been $390,000 so far in 2025, a $5,000 increase from 2024, according to MIBOR data.
Pending sales are up 12.3% year to date, with 1,122 pending sales logged so far this year. In May specifically, there were 269 pending sales, a 9.4% increase over May 2024’s 224, data shows.
As for new listings, there were 308 homes added to the market in May — a 0.3% increase compared to May 2024, and a 15.7% increase compared to April of this year. Year-to-date, new listings are up 6.4% this year compared to this time in 2024, according to MIBOR data.
The average number of days on the market is up by 23% when comparing May 2024 to May 2025. The median days on the market is up 22.2% from May 2024, going from 27 to 34 days, data shows.
As for active inventory, there were 338 homes on the market this past May — a 4% increase from 325 in May 2024. There is about 1.4 months’ worth of inventory supply, according to MIBOR.
In line with the data from MIBOR, Hemrick has seen homes stay on the market a bit longer than in the past. But this is ultimately a good thing.
“When we’ve listed homes, they’ve stayed on market a little bit longer, which is needed coming out of the COVID years where we had multiple offers pretty much on every single property that we listed, no matter what the price and condition,” he said. “So people were very desperate in terms of housing, and I think things have begun to balance out.”
Regionally, there was an increase in median sales price and in new listings compared to May 2024. The median sales price increased 20.5% and new listings increased 7.2%, according to MIBOR.
“Consumers demonstrated their confidence in the central Indiana marketplace as pending sales and new listings continue to outperform last year’s pace,” said Shelley Specchio, MIBOR CEO. “Mortgage rates through March and early April were 20 basis points lower than the same time last year, which helped boost demand. Additionally, growing inventory is giving consumers more choices and greater incentive to enter the market.”
For home permits, Johnson County saw a 32% increase year-over-year between May 2024 and May 2025. May 2024 had 72 permits, while May 2024 had 95, according to data from the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis, or BAGI.
BAGI noted that there was a 4% year-over-year increase in single-family building permits across Central Indiana, which the organization said signaled continued momentum in the region’s residential construction market.
“May’s numbers underscore the strength and resilience of Central Indiana’s housing market,” said Chris Hancock, CEO of BAGI, in a news release. “Builders are taking a strategic, informed approach—aligning with shifting buyer expectations and broader economic trends. Our region remains a desirable destination for homebuyers, and we expect that demand to hold steady through the remainder of the year.”
What about mortgage rates
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell for the fifth straight week to its lowest level since early April, falling to 6.67% from 6.77% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.95%..
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, fell to 5.80% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it was 6.25%, Freddie Mac said.
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. Economists generally expect mortgage rates to stay relatively stable in the coming months, with forecasts calling for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain in a range between 6% and 7% this year, according to the Associated Press.
Hemrick expects more of the same with interest rates this year. If interest rates do drop, then there would be a substantial increase in demand. But people shouldn’t count on it, which is what Hemrick tells his clients, he said.
“As a buyer, it’s not, ‘is there the perfect time to buy?’ There’s never a perfect time to buy,” Hemrick said. “If rates are low, the demand is high, you’re going to pay more. If rates are high, demand is going to be low, and you’re going to get a better deal, which is kind of where it is now. So there’s always that option to refinance.”
Hemrick also doesn’t expect there to be a market crash either, which some investors are buyers are hoping and waiting for, he said.
What buyers, sellers should know
There have been trends in the market that Hemrick has noticed. Buyers are starting to understand that houses are sitting a little bit longer, and in turn, they’re less willing to inherit sellers’ problems or deferred maintenance on the homes, he said.
During COVID, it didn’t matter what was wrong with the house as buyers would take it as long as they could get the house and deal with the issues later. Now, if major items pop up — like a roof that needs replacing — buyers are less willing to overlook these things. Instead, they’ll ask the sellers to fix it, Hemrick said.
“So, advice for sellers is to take care of all the deferred maintenance before coming to market,” he said. “Make sure the house is show ready. Give it a fresh paint job and paint the front door and take care of the landscaping and all those little things. You can’t get away [without] that anymore.”
He also encourages sellers to listen to their agents on pricing. Some sellers are still thinking they can price it high and still get an offer like it was three or four years ago, he said.
“But in this market, if you price it high, you’re not going to get an offer, and you’re not going to get showings either,” Hemrick said.
When speaking with first-time home-buyers, when there is a more balanced market like now — where rates are high and demand is lower — Hemrick recommends that buyers take advantage of the opportunity to negotiate. They can always negotiate price, but they could also negotiate an interest rate buy-down — where the buyer asks the seller to buy the rate down, essentially subsidizing the rate for a short period.
He often recommends the “2-1 buy down,” where the seller buys down the buyer’s loan by 2% for the first year and 1% for the second year before it goes back to the market rate, he said.
“Anytime during those two years, if rates were to drop lower than what that rate is, they can still refinance, and they can still capture that money that the seller gave them to buy that rate down and use it as a principal reduction on their loan,” Hemrick said. “So that is a great product, great option right now for buyers.”
Buyers looking at new construction homes could do something similar. If they use the lender suggested by the home builder, some are offering “huge buy downs” on rates into the 5% range. They’re also offering to cover closing costs and free upgrades, Hemrick said.
There’s also the added benefit of not having all the maintenance costs that come with a home at first, as it would be under warranty, he said.
“Even if it is a little bit more expensive in terms of purchase price, the incentives and the rate and money that you’re not gonna have to put into maintenance kind of balances out oftentimes,” he said.
He also recommends that these buyers take their agent with them when working with a builder so they can have someone there to advocate for them.
Additionally, buyers should know their financing options and start the process ahead of time. If looking in a hot area, they should get out and look and know exactly what they want, and then put their best foot forward so they don’t miss out, Hemrick said.
“A lot of people start when they see that house they love, and then they’re not willing to go all in and put their best offer out, and they miss out on that,” he said.