Local vs. national housing markets

If you live in an Allen County neighborhood, chances are you know of at least one home in your area that's for sale. Right now, there are more than 2,500 homes on the market.

There are more homes on the market right now than there has been in a long while, according to the President of the Fort Wayne Area Association of Realtors, Rena Black.

NewsChannel 15 wanted to find out if that's in fact a good thing.

"It is a good time for buyers, and less good time for sellers," said Black.

Black said hardships in the Fort Wayne housing market pale in comparison to the national scale.

"Fort Wayne is one of the best places in the country to own a home," said Black.

Still, Fort Wayne has its fair share of struggling homeowners. Eleven percent owe more than their homes are worth, compared with a twenty percent average nationwide. The people looking to buy homes who are the ones reaping the benefits locally.

Newlywed Mike Tippmann, 25, said the housing market works to his advantage. Later this month, Tippmann and his wife will move into their new home, ending years of renting.

"It's definitely a good market out there, the lending is better than I thought it was going to be," said Tippmann. " I just really didn't feel right about all that money paying somebody else's mortgage. I'd rather build some equity in something myself."

The Tippmann's purchased a home that had been foreclosed.

"The pricing is a little better on the foreclosed homes," said Tippmann.

Rena Black said, however in this market, foreclosures aren't he only place buyers can find deals. That means sellers make less on their homes because there is more for buyers to choose from.

"People are taking that same pool of available money they they had and buying a more expensive home," said Black. "It's just a vastly larger pool of product."

Experts said it is the big picture that matters, saying compared to the national housing market, Fort Wayne's is resilient.

"We seem to weather all of the national crisis issues," said Black. "We've had our ups, we've had our downs. We always come back to a strong position."

Our snapshot of the housing market continues in Monday's edition of the News-Sentinel.

The article explored the state of real estate. Learn how the current situation has hurt those in the business.

This series continues on Monday, March 23, uncovering issues surrounding banks and credit.