Home prices continued to climb across Iowa last month. Don Marple is President of the Iowa Association of Realtors (IAR), which keeps track of the average price of homes sold in the state.
“From March of last year to this year, we’ve gone up 4.4%…from about $138,000 to $144,000, which has been consistent that way for the last three years,” Marple said. A total of 2,672 homes were sold in Iowa last month.
That’s up less than one-percent compared to March 2012 (2,654 homes sold). Marple is slightly concerned with the statewide inventory of homes as there are roughly 1,000 fewer homes on the market today in Iowa compared to a year ago.
“We need to start going out there and telling people now is the time to put your home on the market because they are getting such a great value for them – a lot better than they were two to three years ago,” Marple said. “And they’re getting a quicker value because they seem to be getting a lot of offers out there from the pent up demand of buyers wanting to buy.”
The average days a home sold in Iowa spent on the market in March was 107 days. That’s down from 120 days a year ago. Marple says while it’s a good time for sellers to enter the market, it’s also a good time for buyers as interest rates on home mortgages are below four-percent.