Louisville Housing Market Reports for February 2011

3/6/2011 – A variety of factors go into both home values and home sales here in Louisville, KY. As I chart these monthly market reports, it’s occurred to me that one factor I had not considered is something that effects the entire housing market—the number and average costs of new construction.

New home builders build what the market wants. Lately, the market wants smaller, more energy efficient homes. Gone are the days of the McMansions.

Overall home prices haven’t dropped by a huge amount, as inflation will certain push costs higher, but it is a force, especially on our areas with more new construction like Areas 20 & 21.

Monthly Reports: Period Ending February 2011

After a strong showing in January, I had hopes that sales in Area 2 would continue an upward climb. That, however, wasn’t the case. Even still, it’s good to see home values steadily increase, even more so in recent months.

Area 3 is trending in a similar manner as Area 2, in that home values are performing quite well with steady growth. All the while, sales lag behind both the previous year and other MLS areas.

Home prices in Area 6 are holding steady, if not a bit down on the one-year trend line. Home sales aren’t doing well either as February was under the previous year and not exactly showing signs of promise.

Area 7 sales were up in February! That’s the good news. The bad? They weren’t up very much. Home prices in this area are only slightly improved over a year ago.

Since last summer, home values have been consistently lower. February was the first month that showed signs of improvement in home sales however, which is something to take heart in.

The median home value for February in this area took a giant leap forward! This continues a healthy trend upward. Home sales are slightly lagging behind 2010 numbers for the same time period.

It’s very common for sales and values to move in opposite directions. This is the case here in Area 20 where sales jumped significantly in February but values have been moving downward; still up over the previous year.

Like its neighbor in Oldham County, this area improved in home sales over the previous year by a fairly significant number while home values continue to disappoint. The one-year trend is slightly lower than the year before.