INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — There is relief for homebuyers as interest rates fall.

Dan Brown, a realtor with FC Tucker, joined Daybreak on Tuesday for the monthly Real Estate Rundown, where he discussed the data in F.C. Tucker’s housing market report for July.

Mortgage rates continued to trend down through July and recently reached their lowest point in over a year, averaging just under 6.5%.

“For the first time in a long time, we’ve got really good news for homebuyers other than just apologies for it being tough out there – because it is. Affordability is still an issue. It’s twice as expensive in payments to buy a house than it was just four or five years ago. So it’s still some rough road, but interest rates have dropped to their lowest point in a year – and that just was last week. So some of the July numbers were still in effect, but those rates were falling and now they’ve fallen to 6.5 nationally and that’s a full point under where we were at just last year. That’s a huge improvement,” Brown said.

According to the report:

• Homes sold in 13 days (27.1% faster than this time last year.)
• The available housing inventory increased by 32.5% compared to July 2023.
• The average home sale price for the 16-county central Indiana region increased 12.5% compared to July 2023, to $353,581. Year-to-date 2024 home sale prices increased 4%.
• Pending home sales decreased, down 4.8% compared to this time last year.

“As the interest rates tend to come down, more people look around and go ‘Ok. Now we can afford to move.’ So remember those buyers are sellers. So if they’re out there looking, they’re also putting their house on the market that frees up more inventory for other buyers to look at,” Brown said.

July proved an interesting twist with home prices. Average prices rose, along with the number of homes sold, but median prices fell.

“Median measures the most common price. It’s the most common price paid. So what that means is frankly, normal people are going back into the market buying normally priced houses. Because affluent buyers always have those means. You can have an average price, but if it has a bunch of million-dollar houses in it, that doesn’t mean everybody’s out there buying. What this means is – yes – prices are still rising and that’s good for everybody, especially homeowners. But with the median price coming down, that simply just reflects – because we sold more houses – that they’re being sold at a lower price point. It means average people are buying houses again. And that’s great news for Central Indiana,” Brown said.