Indianapolis Property Management Update: Rental Statistics Q2, 2018

Share this post

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Updated, fresh from the oven, Indianapolis rental statistics are in for Second Quarter, 2018.

Mostly, things were steady, but a couple of interesting numbers appeared that are worth some discussion. 

Quick Central Indiana Rental Market Overview

Indianapolis, Central Indiana’s largest rental market by far, saw 748 homes rent through the local MLS system. As expected, this was slightly higher than homes rented during Q1 of this year, but down from the same quarter last year, where 833 homes rented.

From a percentage standpoint, that’s more than a 10% drop in rented homes from Q2 2017 to Q2 2018. 

Interesting, though, is that average rent price is up significantly. 

Rental update Q2 2018The average rent for this past quarter in Indianapolis came in at a steamy $1,236. That’s the highest average rent we’ve seen since we started tracking rental stats several years ago. 

Small caveat: this quarter also saw a home in Indianapolis rent for $9,500.

Yes, Nine-Thousand, Five-Hundred Dollars. 

For those of you who don’t live in Central Indiana, that’s a big outlier. 

The next highest priced home, for example, came in at $3,500. 

Even tossing out this outlier, average rent was still up in a big way. 

Average Days on Market (DOM) trended up a bit as well, as it took 38 days to rent homes during Q2 of this year. That’s up for Q2 last year, where homes took just 33 days to rent.  

Related: The Definitive Guide to Investing in Indianapolis

 

Investors are Selling

One reason for the downturn in homes rented could be the result of investors, many of which purchased rental homes 3-5 years ago, are now selling in droves.

Some of these homes are being sold to other investors, but many are fetching prices above what investors are willing to pay, and are being purchased by owner occupants.

So, when owner occupants purchase, they obviously aren’t renting the house they buy, or any other house, for that matter. 

The natural result is fewer rental homes. 

 

But, Is Now the Best Time to Sell?

We get calls from our Owner Clients like this all the time:

“My Tenant gave notice and I’m thinking about selling. What are your thoughts?”

Of course, we provide the Client with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) and, in many cases, there is a nice chunk of equity available. 

Some decide to sell and, in most cases, have little trouble doing so. 

In some cases though, we advise the Client to hang on for a bit. It’s difficult to absolutely know where this market is heading. Interest rates are rising, but home prices seem to be rising faster.

Rents too. 

Within our own Portfolio, we’re taking a “wait and see” attitude. We’re curious where things will go from here. 

 

T&H Realty Services’ Perspective 

Our business continued to churn out some impressive numbers as we continue to plow through our busy season.

In fact, the number of rental applications we took in June matched the 3rd highest month in our history. 

There’s clearly still a hot demand for quality rental homes out there. 

Our DOM, for the quarter, came in at just 17, with June coming in at only 13. We’re very proud to continue reporting that our Client’s homes are renting, on average, 3 weeks faster than the general market. 

 

Central Indiana is Experiencing a Heat Wave

As noted at the top of this blog, our weather here in Central Indiana has been downright oppressive. Indianapolis, in an average year, will suffer through 18 days above 90 degree or higher weather. So far, we’ve already had 20 days at 90 degrees or above. 

As a result, air conditioning systems are running virtually non-stop during the daytime hours. 

If you are an Owner Client of ours and are not signed up for a bi-annual clean & check, but would like to be, please contact us and we’ll get you set-up.  

About the Author

Jeremy Tallman

Jeremy is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Broker for T&H Realty Services. He has been active in the Central Indiana real estate market since 2000 and leads one of the most successful single-family property management companies in the state.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Articles

Subscribe for the Latest Real Estate Insights

Skip to content