Reports Continue to Show Strong Sioux Falls Housing Market

Buyers and sellers say it’s true: Now is a good time to get a new house in the South Dakota housing market. And according to the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, the figures back up the claim.

Currently, mortgage interest rates hover around 6 percent. What that means favorable home loans for buyers. And there are not many homes listed in the $100,000-200,000 range, which is good for homeowners trying to sell.

The Sioux Falls housing market year-end numbers for 2006 hit a record high with 3,600 homes sold, five more than in 2005, the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire reports. At the same time, residential home values increased by more than 2 percent.

The good news doesn’t necessarily extend to all segments of the home loan market.

Homes at some price levels are moving slowly, and because there are more homes on the market than needed, a slight building slowdown has occurred.

But for the most part, Sioux Falls’ housing market continues to churn on, unlike the situation in other parts of the country where reports of declines in sales and prices are common, said Barton Hacker, CEO of the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire.

Pointing to figures collected from sales and purchases, Hacker said that although there are a lot of homes in the Sioux Falls regional inventory, sellers continue to get more than 98 percent of their listing price.

“We’re seeing increased inventory of homes, but prices are not dropping. What’s happening is that now there are more choices for buyers to select from, but the prices are remaining stable,” he said.

Depending on location and price, homes also are selling more quickly than a year ago. A home valued at $150,000-200,000 took 7.3 months to sell at this time last year, compared with 1.5 months today, according to local reports.

Keller wants to sell fast, since she already bought a new home in Hartford and doesn’t want double South Dakota mortgage payments. Before her $143,900 home was even listed a couple of weeks ago, there were several groups of people at her open house. During a Saturday blizzard.

“I have never sold a house before, so all this has been nerve-wracking for me,” Keller said.

Her house hit the multiple listing service through Dunham Co. late last month, and her Realtor is optimistic.

“I get e-mails from different lenders in town and noticed that the mortgage rates just went under 6 percent,” Don Dunham III said. “So that means that with our inventory of homes on the market, it truly is a great time to buy or sell, depending on your price range.”

“The middle price range has been selling very slowly this winter, but I think that when the sun comes out, we’ll see a lot more interest and traffic,” Clark-Zellmer said.

Statistics show it takes an estimated 3.9 months to sell a home valued at $300,000-350,000, down from the 13-month average sale time last year.

Sioux Falls has demonstrated a steady growth rate in recent years as South Dakota mortgage costs have remained relatively affordable.

“Sioux Falls is kind of the rabbit and turtle story: We’re the turtle,” Hacker said. “We’re slowly moving forward, and because of that, we’re beginning to see better trends here than you would see in California or Florida because we have that slow and steady growth.”

Follow the link to continue reading in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader …