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5-month decline

In November, members of the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors sold 30 percent fewer houses and condos than a year earlier, marking the fifth-straight monthly double-digit decline from last year’s volume. For the full five-month period, the decline has been almost 26 percent.

The Southern Indiana Realtors Association’s drop totaled 36 percent during the five months.

The National Association of Realtors, which tracks sales only of previously occupied homes, recorded a 23 percent drop from July to October, the most recent national number available.

The federal tax credit, which was worth up to $8,000, fueled a 25 percent sales gain in Louisville for a year. But many of those were buyers who accelerated their purchases and aren’t in the market now, said Louisville Realtors President Lamont Breland.

“You only have a finite group of individuals who are looking to buy in a given year, and I think a lot of people have already pulled the trigger,” said Breland, principal broker of the Breland Group, which has about 50 agents.

RE/MAX agent Bob Sokoler, who represents the Vancampens, said many homeowners who want to trade up to more expensive homes are saddled with a house they can’t sell.

David Bell, an agent with Kentucky Select Properties, said first-time buyers who bought up starter houses with the promise of a tax credit have “disappeared,” breaking a chain that, for a while, allowed homeowners to step up.

The tax credit “manipulated the market, for sure,” said Brad Curry, who is trying to sell a house that he fixed up with an investment partner this fall on Ash Street in Schnitzelburg.

Curry said the three-bedroom house, first listed at $104,000, hasn’t generated much interest, even though they’ve cut the asking price to $86,900.

“There’s no one looking — that’s the problem,” he said.

Strict on scores

Vancampen said he and his wife need a bigger house for their growing family.

They bought their current home five years ago for $133,000 after a bank took it over from a troubled borrower in lieu of foreclosure, Vancampen said, and they’re looking to get enough money in a sale for a down payment on the next house.