Area home sales stay on upward path in February

Sales of existing homes in the Indianapolis area continued their upward swing in February, according to statistics released Monday by F.C. Tucker Co.

Purchase agreements in the nine-county area tracked by F.C. Tucker hit 1,728, a 14.7-percent increase over February 2011. The increase marked the 10th straight month of year-over-year improvement.

January's pending sales were up 13.4 percent from the previous year.

"Nationally, the real estate market is showing positive activity, and that movement is being mirrored here in central Indiana," F.C. Tucker President Jim Litten said in a prepared statement.

In Marion County, sales agreements climbed 16.5 percent, from 702 in February 2011 to 818 in February 2012. Pending sales rose 7.6 percent in Hamilton County, to 312 and were up 28 percent in Johnson County, to 150.

Madison County saw a whopping 45-percent increase in February, with potential buyers reaching agreements on 107 homes.

Sales activity is ramping up, even as the number of available homes is down. Inventory in the nine-county area dropped 14 percent over last February, to 12,487 houses.

Johnson County saw inventory decrease 23.2 percent.

The average sale price in the area declined 3.3 percent, to $132,967. Ninty-two percent of the area's sales agreements in February involved homes priced at $299,000 or less. Agreements were reached on four homes priced at more than $1 million.