Clark County housing sales down slightly from 2013


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The Springfield News-Sun regularly tracks home sales and other important data that affect the local economy.

Property sales declined 11 percent between April and May in both Clark and Champaign counties, although sales have spiked in Champaign County compared to the same time last year.

Overall, home sales in both counties will likely remain relatively stable for the rest of this year due to a lack of available inventory, said Nancy Eubanks, president of the Clark County Board of Realtors.

“We have buyers in the marketplace but the issue is buyers are having trouble finding exactly what they want,” she said.

There were 126 properties sold in Clark County in May 2013, but that figure had fallen to 106 when numbers for this past month were released, said Eubanks, a real estate agent at Roediger Realty Inc. The figures include all residential and commercial sales in the county, she said, but the vast majority were single family home sales.

Champaign County fared better, with property sales this May spiking 44 percent compared to 2013. Champaign County also fared better this April than at the same time last year, with property sales jumping almost 20 percent.

However, Eubanks also pointed out Champaign County had far fewer sales overall than Clark County because of its smaller population.

A report earlier this week from the National Association of Realtors showed sales across the U.S. increased between April and May, but were still about 5 percent behind the pace set last year. The report showed sales of existing homes in the U.S. increased about 4.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million homes. That monthly gain was the fastest since August 2011.

However, the organization also released a report earlier this month showing new home construction across the U.S. remains slow, and some states could face housing shortages and affordability issues unless housing starts to match up with local job creation.

The local sales are part of a national trend in which buyers are often in the market for a new home, Eubanks said, but sometimes struggle to find the right house due to a competitive market and a lack of inventory.

“I don’t foresee it changing any time soon,” she said. “I think we’re going to see this through the rest of this year.”

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