Real estate numbers continue to surge

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - After 49 years, Ray Rickert is selling his home in Terre Haute.

"It's been on the market since very last of August, and it's sold," Rickert said.

Rickert isn't the only homeowner whose house is off the market as quickly as it went on.

Conley Real Estate Appraisals Inc. President Brian Conley said on average, homes are sold in less than three months.

"I think the economy in the U.S. is trending up slowly, probably more slowly than we'd like it to, and I think that's reflected in our numbers too," Conley said.

Conley's sales are up by about 4 percent over last year, with 10 percent fewer homes.

Conley said, it's a balanced market, with an equal number of buyers and sellers, beneficial to both.

Plus, interest rates hit an all time low, between 3 and 4 percent.

"If you're qualified to buy a house and you know that you're going to be in Vigo County over the next three or four years, then buying is certainly the option that you should be looking at," he said.

Despite national sales dipping last month, locally, Vigo County is up.

Conley's agency sold almost one thousand homes last month.

"We don't have those deep valleys and steep mountains that you'll see in other housing markets, we ran basically flat, and I think that's not so bad."

That's why homeowners like Rickert remained positive in fair conditions like these.

"They told me they were going to look at some other properties, but I'm not sure they did," Rickert said.

Experts said the housing market usually dips when school starts, but that wasn't the case this year.