MUNCIE, Ind. — It has become more expensive to buy a home, and places like Delaware County have seen some staggering growth even in the last few months.
As sale and sold signs continue to pop up in Muncie and Delaware County, the prices have hit a number that Delaware County hasn’t seen in quite some time.
Newly released data from realtor.com for December showed that potential buyers and sellers in Delaware County saw higher house sale prices than the previous month.
“They have been on the rise for quite some time,” said Ryan Kramer, a broker and owner at ReMax. “We’re seeing lots of positive things happening in Delaware County, and so I think that is a culmination of the market in general.”
The latest figures available show that the average home sold for just over $187,000 in December, up from $158,000 the previous month. That’s an increase of over $29,000, or 18.6%.
So why is Delaware County seeing such a big jump?
“I think the population is certainly a big help for where we’re at,” Kramer said. “We had been in population decline for some time. So to have any kind of positive of growth and population is a win for our community.”
For single-family homes, the selling price in Delaware County was up 18.8% in December. Condos and townhomes actually got a little more affordable in December, but those properties have gotten more than 37% more expensive in the last two years. Some of that could be credited to more people moving to Delaware County.
“The Muncie MSA has increased over a thousand people,” Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour said. “That’s unique for us because we went 50 years where there was a decline in population.”
Mayor Ridenour said they will work to have enough residential space for everyone.
“If it continues, we’re going to have our work cut out for us. I know we had 207 new residential permits in ’24 inside the city limits. That was a record for us.”
Kramer said he does expect to see prices for homes continue to rise, but not all at once.
“I don’t think we’re going to see large amounts of growth, but I think some steady growth over the next several years would be the goal.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
