More than 700 homes were built this year in Johnson County, continuing an upward trend since the recession that crippled the country’s housing market a decade ago.
Many of the new homes built this year — 38 percent — were built in Greenwood, the fastest-growing area in the county. Center Grove and Clark-Pleasant schools are still the most popular choices for local families, Greenwood realtor Ron Rose said.
That limits their search to the north side of the county, in Greenwood, Bargersville and parts of Whiteland and New Whiteland, where fewer established homes are on the market and more developments are going up, he said.
New home construction jumped nearly 60 percent following the recession in 2010 and has been on the mend ever since, according to data from the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.
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During the recession in 2009, new construction dipped 46 percent — only 241 homes were built that year.
But it still isn’t what it was two decades ago. In 1999, 1,447 homes were built in Johnson County, and more than 14,000 went up across central Indiana that year.
Now, between picky buyers, an aging population and a low inventory of established homes, more people are having homes built.
Recent design changes have made homes built in the late 1990s and early 2000s less popular among buyers, Rose said.
Millennials are looking for an open floor plan, sparkly white kitchens and clean lines due to the popularity of shows on HGTV, he said.
"That’s their idea of a modern home today. That’s the style," Rose said.
Older homes — even homes that are 10 to 20 years old — tend to have more defined floor plans with closed-off rooms and dark stained woodwork, he said. On the flip side, those older homes come with larger lots. Buyers who can afford it will purchase an older home and spend $100,000 to $200,000 to update it with that modern look. But most can’t, he said.
Younger couples can’t afford it, which is why they lean toward new builds. They’re cheaper and can be designed the way they want them, he said.
Inventory of established homes is low, meaning people are also paying more for those homes these days. The average sales price for a home in Johnson County during the last quarter of 2018 was about $212,000, up from $197,000 during the last quarter of 2017 —an increase of more than 7 percent, according to data from MIBOR Realtor Association.
The average sales price in November across central Indiana was $219,000, data showed.
And nearly all homes — 96 percent – are selling at or above the list price.
A decade ago, the average price for a home in Johnson County was $140,000, data showed.
"In 2018, we were all caught off guard a little bit with the lack of inventory. Some people, after they lost two or three houses, would drop out of the home shopping market, re-sign their leases and put it off again," Rose said.
"We would have sold more homes if there were more homes for sale."
Because of the limited market, subdivisions are filling up quicker than they did in the past, he said. Lennar at Morningside and Glenmore at Saddle Club, both in Bargersville, are extremely popular new developments.
"It appears to me that those two neighborhoods are going to sell out very quickly," Rose said.
Bargersville is about 20 miles southwest of downtown Indianapolis, which points to another trend. A lot of people want brand new homes in a country setting, a trend Rose said he’s seen over the last couple of years.
"I guess it’s just natural progression, and people wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city," he said.
The suburbs are expanding, with new developments as far out as Franklin to the south, Greenfield to the east, Westfield to the north and Danville to the west.
A lot of older folks want newer homes too, because they’re easier to take care of, Rose said. They want less maintenance. They no longer want the big house to clean or yard to take care of.
"With the aging population, we’re seeing a lot more housing geared toward low maintenance — those easy to walk away from and go to Florida for three months kind of homes," he said.
Looking forward to next year, Rose expects this year’s trends to continue, but he also expects a lot of people will sell their established homes because they’re hearing what their neighbors’ homes sold for and want in on the hot housing market.
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Here is a look at single-family building permits issued through November of 2018 compared to all of 2017 in each municipality in Johnson County:
Bargersville
2018; 110
2017; 114
Edinburgh
2018; 6
2017; 2
Franklin
2018; 157
2017; 131
Greenwood
2018; 276
2017; 289
Prince’s Lake
2018; 5
2017; 1
New Whiteland
2018; 0
2017; 0
Trafalgar
2018; 25
2017; 19
Whiteland
2018; 36
2017; 28
County
2018; 729
2017; 657
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