Metro Chicago Area Home Prices Continued Upward Trend in October, Even as Pace of Sales Moderated, RE/MAX Reports

Chicago, IL, November 26, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Home prices in the seven-county metro Chicago real estate market during October registered another year-over-year increase, continuing the upward trend that began in early 2013, according to an analysis by RE/MAX. Each month since then, a string of 33 consecutive months, the median sales price of homes in the metro area has been higher than it was in the same month one year earlier.

The median sales price this October was $201,400, 8 percent higher than in October 2014, and 44 percent above the median price of $140,000 in February 2013 when the string of increases began.

Unit sales in October totaled 9,057 homes, 1 percent fewer than the total in October of last year. The average time that those homes spent on the market before finding a buyer was 96 days, down from 97 days during the prior October.

“In our view, the Chicago-area housing market is actually stronger than the October unit numbers might suggest,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. “New federal regulations governing closing procedures took effect in October, and that almost certainly slowed down the closing process for many transactions, pushing them back into November.”

Merrion also pointed out that the inventory of attached homes is quite limited, with just a 3.4 month supply of attached units on the market. Such a tight supply probably constrained sales in a category where demand is strong.

“The impact of that limited supply can also be seen in the fact that the average market time for attached homes sold in October was just 79 days, which suggests a favorable market for sellers,” he said.

October sales activity varied considerably among the seven metro-area counties. Sales rose in four counties: DuPage sales climbed 3 percent, Kendall was up 2 percent, McHenry rose 12 percent and Will gained 4 percent. In contrast, sales dipped 1 percent in Cook County, while falling 16 percent in Kane County and 8 percent in Lake County. Sales in Chicago increased less than 1 percent.

The October median sales price for all homes rose in each of the seven counties, led by Lake with a 20 percent increase and Kane with a gain of 15 percent. The fact that both counties have sharply higher median prices but lower total sales suggests that limited inventory may have constrained sales activity. Other counties with increases in the median sales price were Cook, up 5 percent; DuPage, up 6 percent; and both McHenry and Will up 9 percent. The median price in Kendall County rose 3 percent, while Chicago gained 2 percent.

Helping boost the median sales price has been the continuing decline in the percentage of closings involving short sales or foreclosures. These distressed sales totaled 1,747 units in October, 26 percent less than a year earlier.

RE/MAX agents consistently rank among the most productive in the industry. In the United States, RE/MAX agents averaged 15.6 years of real estate experience and 16.0 transaction sides in 2014. RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989 and is continually growing. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network, with headquarters in Elgin, Ill., consists of more than 2,250 sales associates and 105 independently owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of residential and commercial brokerage services. Its mobile real estate app, available for download at www.illinoisproperty.com, provides comprehensive information about residential and commercial property for sale in the region. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX, a global real estate organization with 100,000+ sales associates in 90+ nations.

The home sales data used in the RE/MAX analysis is collected by MRED, the regional multiple listing service and covers detached and attached homes in the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.