Housing sales continue to soar

Region’s numbers ‘still astonishing’ even as national housing market trends downward

The Region’s housing market continued its hot streak in March, with the median selling price of existing homes soaring by double digits year-over-year and more modest hikes in the number of houses sold.

“The numbers are still astonishing for us locally,” said Peter Novak Jr., CEO of the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.

The median selling price of an existing house in Lake County jumped by almost 25% year-overyear, from $188,250 to $235,000, while Porter County sale prices rose 16.5%, from $227,000 to $264,450, according to GNIAR’s monthly report on existing home sales.

The median selling price for the seven counties together increased by more than 25%, from $189,900 to $238,000, according to the GNIAR report.

The report includes existing single-family houses, condominiums, town houses and duplexes in GNIAR’s seven-county region, which also includes LaPorte, Jasper, Newton, Starke and Pulaski counties.

Sales also continued to increase, despite an ongoing lack of inventory.

In Lake County, 528 houses were sold, an 8.6% jump over the 486 houses sold the previous March. In Porter County, 194 houses were sold, 11.5% more than the 174 in March 2021. In the seven counties combined, 903 houses were sold, 4.3% more than the 866 sold the previous March.

The Region once again bucked the national trend, with the National Association of Realtors reporting a 4.5% drop in year-overyear sales. It was the second month in a row in which year-over-year sales fell on the national level.

“The housing market is starting to feel the impact of sharply rising mortgage rates and higher inflation taking a hit on purchasing

power,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Still, homes are selling rapidly, and home price gains remain in the double-digits.”

With mortgage rates expected to rise further, Yun predicted transactions to contract by 10% this year, for home prices to readjust and for gains to grow around 5%.

Novak said the Region hasn’t seen the slowdown in demand as yet.

“I don’t think we’re there locally yet regarding demand,” Novak said.

He said nationally there is a two-month inventory supply, while locally it’s at 0.7 month. Also, there are more houses on the market today than this time last year.

“The number of new listings were up by double digits the first three months of the year,” Novak said of the GNIAR region.

According to the NAR report, the national median selling price for all housing types was $375,300 in March, up 15% from the $326,300 median price in March 2021. This marks 121 consecutive months of yearover-year increases, the longest-running streak on record, NAR reported.

Still, Yun issued a warning to sellers.

“Home prices have consistently moved upward as supply remains tight,” Yun said. “However, sellers should not expect the easyprofit gains and should look for multiple offers to fade as demand continues to subside.”

Novak said this statement could be misleading, however.

“If sellers were used to having 12 offers on their house, and now have 10, that’s still not bad,” Novak said.