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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowHome-sale agreements in central Indiana nearly posted a double-digit decrease in November as sales in the nine-county metro area slid for the eighth straight month.
Pending sales of existing homes in the area fell 9.6 percent last month compared with November 2014, according to a report released Friday by real estate agency F.C. Tucker Co. The number of homes totaled 1,791, a fall of 191 from 1,982 in the same month last year.
The average year-to-date home sales price rose 4.3 percent, to $184,648, as the number of listings dropped 6.2 percent from November of last year. Tucker reported.
Agreements are still up for the year by 6.9 percent compared with the first 11 months of 2014, thanks mostly to stronger sales in January and February.
Sales agreements in November tumbled 11.1 percent in Marion County, from 866 homes to 770. Hamilton County, the area’s second-largest market, saw a similar decrease, with an 11.3 percent drop to 361 houses.
The biggest dips were in Boone and Hancock counties, registering losses of 32.1 percent and 23.7 percent, respectively. Boone recorded 55 pended sales, and Hancock slipped to 71.
Two counties logged gains for the month. In Shelby, sales jumped 36 percent, albeit with a relatively tiny percentage of the overall homes sold in the nine-county area. Shelby sales jumped from 25 to 34 homes.
The results were slightly more significant in Madison County, where sales jumped 9.7 percent—from 103 to 113.
The area’s shrinking home inventory potentially contributed to driving up prices. There were 9,646 available homes on the central Indiana market in November, a 6.2 percent decline from a year earlier.
The average year-to-date sales price in Hamilton County rose to $277,124—the highest of the nine counties. The average sales price in Marion County was 146,605, up 6.8 percent from the first 11 months of 2014.
One home priced between $1 million and $2 million changed hands in November, and 45 were priced between $500,000 and $1 million.
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