Peoria area realtors are reporting a slow start to home sales activity in the second quarter of this year.
The Peoria Area Association of Realtors says home sales were up more than three-percent for the quarter that includes April through June.
Association President Tonya Burris says sales activity didn’t pick up until May, nearly two months later than normal. But June activity helped push sales above 2013 numbers.
She says the number of homes on the market also remained low in the second quarter of this year for a couple of reasons.
“Just economics and people are staying where they are at due to their own financial situation. But we’re also still dealing with some of what we talked about last quarter and that is the rentals and some of the homes that just are not available due to the tornado that went through last November.”
Burris says many sellers rented their homes to victims of the November 2013 tornados. But she says as the areas impacted complete the rebuilding process, more homes will come on the market.
Burris says the average number of days homes stayed on the market in the second quarter was 88. That’s an increase of four days from the same time last year.