* Home sales up in 3rd quarter. Neighborhoods’ homes are selling steadily, according to the Peoria Area Association of Realtors (PAAR), which reported that the Peoria market’s third-quarter home sales were up 2.4 percent, to 1,440. Also, the average home sales price was up 5.4 percent, to $152,407, and the median sales price (with half the prices above and half below) increased 2.6 percent to $125,219.
A slightly lower inventory of homes – down 6.7 percent to 2,577 – pushed up prices in some price ranges.
PAAR board president Phil Harvey said, “This is a welcome scenario as it benefits both home sellers and homebuyers equally.”
Apart from the quarter, from July through September, September itself showed mixed results, with a 1.5 percent increase in closed sales from a year earlier, a median sales price down 1 percent to $119,500, an average sales price up 4.6 percent to $142,587, and new listings up 3.8 percent to 705.
The biggest challenges in the home real estate market remain qualifying for a loan because of student debt and having the cash required for the down payment.
September’s inventory of available homes was up 38 from August.
In the last decade, the lowest level of home sales was in 2010, when 1,028 homes sold, and the lowest average sale price was in 2005, which recorded a $133,301 price.
* Rolling Acres Neighborhood Association’s Virginia White says that representatives from the Peoria Fire Department spoke at the group’s October meeting at Rolling Acres School.
The neighborhood organization meets at the school at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month.