Here’s a graphic representation of recent market activity in the central Indiana, nine-county, Indianapolis Metro area as complied by the F. C. Tucker Company using figures from all member companies of our local real estate board MIBOR. It shows the number of homes on the market vs. homes sold over the last thirteen months. An absorption rate is one way to quantify how strong the market is and also tends to show if it is a Sellers or a Buyers market. Another name for an absorption rate is called a monthly supply of homes. It is calculated by taking the total number of homes for sale in any given month, and dividing by the number of homes that were sold. For instance, in November ’08, there was a 11.64 month supply. A year later in November ’09, there was a 10.94 month supply which shows improvement compared to activity in that same month a year earlier. November supply ratios are usually higher than warm weather months in Indiana as sales slow down that time of year. In contrast in June ’09, the monthly supply was 6.73 which shows a lot more active market. Analysts typically agree that a Sellers Market is considered to be when the supply of homes for sale in a given price range is less than a 4-month supply. A Neutral Market is considered to be when there is a 4 to 7-month supply. A Buyers Market is considered to be when there is a 7-month supply or greater. The numbers used here are taken from all price ranges of homes and would be different for certain specific price ranges. Or you can further define and change it by using only homes in a certain area. Generally, homes in upper price ranges have had a much lower absorption rate recently than those priced in lower price ranges. Some analysts think that sales in higher price ranges should start to improve the first half of this year.
Absorbtion Rate
Posted on January 7th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate PerspectiveWhite River’s Cool New Look
Posted on January 6th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Community Feature
After a number of days in a row of unrelenting, below freezing weather, White River displays the effects that the elements have on it as well. The water still flows beneath the sheet of ice that caps the surface, but the river is sporting a fashionable winter topcoat these days. This shot is north on White River, towards the pedestrian bridge that spans the river between areas of the White River State Park, with the IUPUI campus in the background.
Conventional Wisdom
Posted on January 5th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Community Feature, Downtown, Public Buildings & Sites
If you travel down Capital Avenue near downtown, it’s easy to forget that the Hoosier Dome was ever there at all. The building that was so much a part of the downtown landscape and sports history has vanished. That was part of the deal put together to build Lucas Oil Stadium. By the way, I like it’s nickname ‘The Luke’. Has a bit more swagger don’t you think? Like it’s ‘one of the boys’ now. The Dome didn’t vanish overnight. It took a while. Of course there was the day when they imploded the Dome. That was dramatic. But day by day the area where the Dome used to stand is being transformed into part of an expanded Convention Center. This photo above is of the new entrance under construction. The Convention Center expansion is part of Indianapolis’ bid to be a major player for convention business and sporting events destination. That will translate into many millions of dollars of income for area businesses over time which will dwarf the cost of construction. Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse, Victory Field, several new hotels close by, all the White River State Park attractions and Circle Centre is all a part of the vision. You never really know for sure how the success of all the planning will measures up until you look back later with hindsight. But conventional wisdom says they have gotten it right. (pun intended!)
Another shot below taken few days later. It will be interesting to see the changes again at completion.
Zero Handicap
Posted on January 4th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Just for Fun, Nature
Bet it was not too difficult to get a tee time today? No waiting. I took a quick spin into Sahm Park as I was headed for an appointment. I didn’t expect to find anyone around. Just wanted to take in the scenery. This Green looked kind of frosty. Wondering if that would make it fast…or slow? Yeah, the weather has been kind of cool lately. Yesterdays low was zero and today’s wasn’t that much warmer. But hey…it’s January…it’s supposed to be cold. It’s been humorous to read articles in the newspapers and listen to the weather reporters on TV come up with all of the worst words they can think of to describe it. They don’t have any words left if it actually gets really cold…or more snow, which could happen. It’s really not THAT bad out there. Coats, hats and gloves seem to work well for this. And they love to talk about the windchill temp…mainly because it sounds worse than the real temperature. I think the goal is to get us all afraid to go outside…or maybe just afraid in general. No…sorry. If you have lived in Indiana long, you know that this is normal stuff, and just go about your business.
Funny but on days like these you don’t hear many people talking about global warming.
Off and Running
Posted on January 3rd, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Market Conditions, Real Estate Perspective
Having a new year has some great benefits. The best one might be that you can leave last year’s baggage behind and start off with a clean slate. A lot of people would probably like to do that with last year. It’s going to be interesting to see how 2010 unfolds. Each one seems to have a distinct personality. It feels like there is even more of a change because it’s a new decade as well. No more single digits finally. I’m feeling very positive about the possibilities that 2010 has in store for all of us.
The holidays have come and gone and for just about everyone, the work week, month and year is off and running beginning tomorrow…me included. Since my focus is on residential real estate I wanted to see where the market is at the start of 2010. I took a look at the statistics from our local real estate board MIBOR using my Realtor search tools. As of this date a search of all residential properties says that there are 13,554 active residential listings for sale right now in the nine county greater metropolitan Indianapolis area. The average listed price of these properties is $208, 189. To me that average list price number sounded kind of high vs. what I thought the average sale price has been running. So I searched for year 2009 and it says that the average sale price actually was $120,811 last year for this same area. Average sale price is always lower than average list price…but that’s a huge difference from the average listed price of properties for sale now. I have a feeling the average sale price will rise this year with the sale prices of some more expensive homes being figured into the average…and fewer inexpensive homes selling than in 2009. Last year, there were an unusual amount of financially distressed properties sold that brought the average sale price down. Just about everyone I’ve talked to says that the economy feels much stronger to them than it did a year ago at this time. Some real estate professionals are predicting that median priced home sales will be better than last year, and upper price range home sales, which were especially slow, should heat up. So it will be interesting to see how things play out. Looking forward to it.
Green Muscle Cars
Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Community Feature
Today’s post is not so much about Indianapolis or the real estate market. But in a way it is, as all sectors of the economy are tied together, and ultimately we are all in this thing together. I stopped by the Auto Show in the Convention Center a couple days ago. I hadn’t been to one in a few years and thought it might be fun to see all the changes. It didn’t take long to see that there really weren’t a whole lot of substantial changes from a few years ago. Yeah there was more technology and creature comforts and some design changes, but I was hoping that there would be more of an emphasis on fuel consumption. After reading the estimated MPG on the car stickers, I was dismayed at the number of models still offering only 12 to 18 MPG. Forget highway mileage which is a little better. Not many of us do the majority of our driving on the highway. But 12 to 18?… Come on now. I’m not sure why US auto makers especially are betting their very existence on the chances of people still buying something like that these days. Gasoline is surely going to go up in price. There were some hybrids that got 30 MPG or more…even up to 51 for the Prius which was the highest rated car I saw. The hybrid Camry for instance got 33 MPG, which saved about $250/year of fuel cost over the gasoline model Camry. But the sticker price of the hybrid was thousands more, and even if you kept it 12 years, you’d never save enough on fuel to make up for the cost difference of the purchase price. People would like to be greener if they could, but the dollars have to make sense before they will buy the cars. With all the talk about new technologies, I was also hoping to see some all-electric or fuel cell cars, but there were none. It just felt like nothing much has changed.
A car which speaks to this is the 2010 Camaro. It was kind of cool looking…a throwback to the early days. I remember the first Camaros and saw the height of the muscle car era with absolutely incredible horsepower to weight ratio. Amazingly fast and powerful cars. And here we are again with a Camaro with 400 HP. It was rated at 16 city/25 highway?? I guess it would be fun to drive around, but I would feel like I was paying a luxury tax every time I went to the pump. I have this vision in my mind of an oil sheik someplace reading about the new models in Car and Driver Magazine and laughing out loud with their buddies about Americas never changing over-indulgence. American dependence on oil has caused the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, and we are undermining the future of our children and generations to come if we continue down this path. Americans are loosing control of their own destiny. I know that with the right resolve, American ingenuity, creativity and energy could produce vehicles that use only our own fuel, whether that be electric, fuel cell or hybrid-whatever. Keep the money circulating at home instead. It’s not just cars either. This same mindset translates into all other industries and all areas of the economy.
It’s fun to look at cars and consider new car options, and we all need something to get around. Maybe if the numbers make sense, I’ll buy something else in the near future. But I’ve decided not to buy anything unless it gets GREAT gas mileage…and I’d love it if it didn’t use any gas at all. That might not be possible just yet. But the idea is to waste less money, reduce my footprint on the Earth a little…and hopefully wipe at least a small portion of the smile off the face of the oil aristocracy who have had more than their fair share of our money. By just taking small steps, all of us together could make a huge impact.
Every now and then
Posted on January 1st, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Photo Flash
When I first learned this was going to happen, I knew I had to get this photo. I mean this doesn’t happen very often. Only once in a blue moon. Literally. Almost all old expressions usually have some basis in fact, and one meaning of the term “blue moon” is when there is a second full moon in the same calendar month, then it’s called a “Blue Moon”. It’s a rare occurrence. But what is even more rare is when a Blue Moon occurs on December 31st, the last day of the year. The last time that happened was 1990…and the next one will not occur again until 2028.
So while we were busy celebrating and ringing in the new year, we also were witness to a historical moment.
