The number of homes sold in the Peoria area is up for the third quarter of the year. The Peoria Area Association of Realtors reported home sales increased more than two percent from the same time last year. The sale price of homes throughout the region also increased.
Phil Harvey is the President of the association. He says the third quarter results reflect a stable recovery of the housing market.
“These are good steady numbers and we don’t want the big high spikes in the market and the real low-lows. We like the steady climb, this type of recovery that we’re going through right now,” said Harvey.
But he says realtors are noting a sharp decline in those wanting to buy a home for the first time.
“In a typical market for us, you know, 40% of all home sales are to first-time homebuyers and today, it’s only 28%. So those young people aren’t entering the market, especially college graduates. They have a large amount of student debt and with the tight lending conditions and recent memory for them…they’ve seen what’s happened to their parents or their friends who were in the real estate market and they’re scared off by it,” said Harvey.
Harvey says now is a good time for first-time homebuyers to enter the market as interest rates remain low and various assistance programs remain available. He says attracting more first-time homebuyers could help increase the number of people willing to put their homes on the market.
Harvey says Housing inventory remains low in the 200-thousand dollars and under cost range.