By Greg Halbleib
BLOOMINGTON – Fewer single-family homes were sold in the Bloomington-Normal area last year than in 2016 because of price and availability.
That’s according to Bloomington-Normal Association of Realtors president John Armstrong, who says a large factor in the lower sales numbers was builders focusing on homes around $300,000 when most potential home buyers are looking for something half that price.
“A lot of our new construction kind of fell in the same price range,” Armstrong explained. “That price point wasn’t really as active as the $150,000 to $250,000 price range that has been the meat and potatoes in Bloomington-Normal.”
BNAR reports about 2,804 existing home sales in 2017, down 55 from 2016, and 138 new homes sold last year, down 28.
“A large part of that was because we just didn’t have the inventory to sell,” Armstrong added. “We didn’t have that many homes on the market that were listed in 2017. We had a lot of actual buyers who didn’t find the property they were looking for because of a lack of selection.”
Armstrong says the good news is that the low inventory increased the average sale price of an existing single-family by 4.4 percent during 2017 to nearly $169,000. Armstrong says that means many buyers will have more equity in their current homes and be more willing to enter the market.
“We needed to have the type of year we had with the low inventory because supply and demand really dictates where prices are headed,” Armstrong said. “When you have a good, strong demand and a low supply, prices shoot up, which we desperately needed in Bloomington-Normal.”
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
