The Bloomington-Normal housing market continued its sluggish start to 2018, with total sales off nearly 20 percent through February.
Only 125 new and existing homes sold in February, down from 141 in February 2017, the Bloomington-Normal Association of Realtors reported. March sales numbers are not yet available.
Overall sales are down 19.3 percent after the first two months of 2018, BNAR reported. BNAR President John Armstrong blamed low inventory for the decline.
"Locally we feel like January and February were the calm before the storm," Armstrong said in a statement. "We have a lot of buyers that are waiting for the right house to come on the market. In recent days our listings are picking up, and we are seeing some of these buyers finding what they have been searching for."
Armstrong also alluded to the potential impact of State Farm job cuts on the local real estate market.
"We hear a lot of speculation about jobs leaving Bloomington-Normal," Armstrong said. "However, it seems there are a lot of relocating buyers moving in to our market."
Meanwhile, the average price of a home sold in Bloomington-Normal has climbed to $163,364, up 4.5 percent year-over-year.
"The true test of the strength of a market is what is happening to home values," Armstrong said.
A closer look at home sales since January 2016 in Bloomington-Normal:
Housing Sales
Infogram
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