Cooper: Indiana housing market remains steady
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowDespite a cooling housing market nationally, Indiana is more than holding its own. Realtor.com ranks Indiana as one of the hottest housing markets in the nation, with Fort Wayne ranked No. 5 on the website’s Top 20 list for November, which also includes Elkhart-Goshen and Lafayette-West Lafayette. “I cringe when I get up in the morning and I see some headline about how horrific the housing market is because Indiana is not falling,” said Greg Cooper with Compass of Indiana. “If you’re waiting for prices to fall, you’re going to be disappointed.”
Cooper talked about what the future holds for Indiana’s housing market in an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.
“California is down 48% in units of sales. We are not down that much. We are at a plateau. We are not going way down,” said Cooper. “And so that’s a strong message that both buyers and sellers need to understand but use accordingly based on their goals.”
Cooper says Indiana’s housing market has a very good balance right now with buyers able to get a mortgage, which was more difficult in early 2021.
“They don’t have to have cash. They’re allowed to have an inspection. They can have an appraisal, and the home has to appraise out. So those are three things that are really important for the health of homeowners in Indiana. The second side of that – on the seller side of it – is that you can’t take it for granted anymore [that] you’re going to slap a sign up and get 12 offers. You need to be ready. If you are a perfect fit for the demands of the market, you can still get full list price out of your home.”
After what he calls the “sticker shock” of mortgage prices in mid-2022, Cooper said he expects rates to to ease in 2023, with small spikes or drops along the way.
The home building market has seen many challenges with the supply chain over the past year. Cooper says, though, that demand for new homes remains high and he doesn’t expect that to change this year.
“Labor costs are still high. Supply chain costs are still high. It’s getting a little better. It has not changed the overall pricing on new construction,” he said. “So, don’t think that just because it’s a little better than it was a year ago, you’re going to walk in and somebody’s going to dramatically reduce the price of a new home.”