Where Indianapolis' housing market stands heading into 2024
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The biggest obstacle Indianapolis' 2023 real estate market faced: high mortgage rates.
Why it matters: The year's record-low housing affordability might not be drawing to an end.
The big picture: Steep interest rates "exacerbated our long-term inventory challenges," causing sales to slump, Mark Fisher, the Indiana Association of Realtors CEO, tells Axios.
Zoom in: The number of metro-area listings available to buy dropped from around 10,000 to roughly 7,400 between October 2019 and October 2023, according to the latest Redfin data.
Zoom out: U.S. home sales have cratered as many owners clamp down on their lower interest rates.
- "If there's nothing out there for me to buy, why would I sell? We are all kind of stuck in that paradigm right now," chief economist Matthew Gardner at Windermere Real Estate said at a November conference.
Between the lines: The income needed to afford a typical Indy metro-area home was close to $82,000 in August. That's nearly a 24% jump from a year ago, according to a recent Redfin report.
What we're watching: Mortgage rates would need to slide significantly to loosen homeowners' golden handcuffs and boost listing activity, real estate experts say.
- America's housing shortage is particularly concerning for the wave of younger millennials and Gen Zers in the homebuying pipeline, Gardner said.
More on housing from Axios:
🙅♀️ Indiana homeowners won't let go of their lower mortgage rates, keeping houses off the market.
💨 Affordable homes have all but disappeared in Hamilton County.
🔥 A big chunk of Indy homes in July got snapped up within two weeks, a sign that our market is one of the country's fastest-moving.
👷♀️ About that tight summer market: Home shoppers found the scales tipped further toward new construction.
🏗 More supply is in the hopper. Homebuilding is booming in Central Indiana, especially for apartments.