Central Indiana home sales slip after two monthly gains

Central Indiana home transactions slipped in March after rising the first two months of the year.

Pending sales of existing homes in the nine-county area dipped 1.8 percent, to 2,528, in March compared with the same month of 2014, real estate agency F.C. Tucker Co. announced Wednesday morning.

Area sales agreements are up 7.7 percent through the first three months of this year after falling 2.6 percent overall in 2014, which broke a string of three straight annual increases.

“As we move into the second quarter, we believe home sales will increase and prices will remain strong,” F.C. Tucker President Jim Litten said in a written statement. “Though March sales were a little sluggish, we still expect to see activity gradually pick up due, in part, to recent job growth and the start of the spring selling season.”

Deals fell 1.5 percent in March in Marion County, to 1,059, compared with 1,075 in the same month of 2014.

Pending sales also fell in Hamilton County, by 1 percent, to 572.

Madison County saw a 27.4-percent jump, to 144 homes, and Shelby County reported a 9.1-percent increase, to 48.

Deals rose 5.9 percent in Johnson County, to 217.

The number of sales agreements fell 33.6 percent in Boone County, to 75; 8.5 percent in Hancock County, to 107; 7.8 percent in Hendricks County, to 224; and 5.7 percent in Morgan County, to 82.

The inventory of existing homes on the market dipped 0.9 percent last month, to 9,868.

Sales prices through the first two months of the year are up 5.4 percent over the same period of 2014, to an average of $170,732.

One home priced for more than $2 million sold in central Indiana in March. Seven homes priced between $1 million and $2 million were sold in the area. Nearly half of the sales (1,114) took place in the price range of $100,000 to $199,000.