One Housing Market on the Rebound:  Taylorsville, KY

One hard hit area from the real estate market debacle was Taylorsville, Ky in Spencer county.  From 1990 to 2000 Spencer Co. grew 73% earning it the title of fastest growing county in the state (http://www.censusscope.org/us/s21/rank_popl_growth.html).  It was the favorite destination for people in the Louisville Metro area who wanted affordable land.

When the market unhitched in 2005 the contraction hit developing areas like Taylorsville hard.   When I analyzed the area for my spring 2010 blog post prices had dropped -14% since the beginning of the year.

Fast Forward to the end of 2012.  The median house price in the 40071 zip code rose 7.1% which is the best gain I have on record with my 10 years worth of data.  Marketing times are way down too.  In 2011 the average home took 112 days to sell but in 2012 it only took 65 days.  One more positive factor is that there is only an 8 month supply of houses on the market when most of Louisville's outlying rural-burbs are well over a year from selling out.

A sobering fact remains.  It's only thanks to last years strong performance that prices are only now break-even for homeowners that purchased seven years ago.

Taylorsville had a great 2012 but its continued recovery is only tenuous.  The market is in partial hibernation which is normal for these dim winter months.  Success or failure awaits for the new spring prices and buyer behavior when the market picks back up in the spring.