RE/MAX Reports Home Sales Activity in Metro Chicago Real Estate Market
ELGIN, Ill. – October 20, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Home sales in the seven-county metropolitan Chicago real estate market continued their third-quarter surge in September. RE/MAX reports that home sales for the month were 12.6 percent higher than in the same period of 2010, while sales for the full third quarter of 2011 were up 19.3 percent from the same period last year, based on an analysis of sales reported by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC (MRED).
Sales of detached homes rose 11.1 percent in September, and the median sales price was $175,000, a reduction of 6.8 percent from the median of $187,750 achieved in September 2010.
In the category of attached homes (primarily condominium apartments and townhomes) sales were 15.4 percent higher than the same month last year. The median sales price was $133,000, representing a decline of 14.7 percent since September 2010.
The average time required to sell a detached home rose six days to 158 days, while the average market time for those attached units that changed hands was 184 days, an 11 day increase from September 2010.
For the full third quarter, the RE/MAX analysis shows that sales of detached homes rose 18.4 percent to 12,927 units, and sales of attached homes rose 21.1 percent to 6,879 units.
The median price of detached homes slipped 5 percent for the quarter to $190,000, compared to a median of $200,000 in the third quarter of 2010. The market for attached homes saw a greater downward trend, with the median price falling 15 percent to $142,000 from $167,000 a year earlier.
The average market time for homes sold during the third quarter was 166 days, 10 days longer than during the same period in 2010. Market time is the period between the date a home is listed for sale and the date it goes under contract.
Distressed properties, a category that includes foreclosed homes and short sales, represented 7,277 or 36.7 percent of all homes sold in the metro area during the third quarter, down from 39.4 percent a year earlier. In September alone, distressed properties accounted for 39.7 percent of the total or 2,378 sales, down from 42.6 percent during the same month in 2010.
Individual Counties
All seven counties in the metro area registered third-quarter increases in home sales activity compared to 2010. In five counties, the increase in sales for the quarter exceeded the metro-area average. Sales activity for the quarter increased 37 percent in DuPage County to 2,486 units; 27.3 percent in Kane County to 1,469 units; 30.8 percent in Kendall County to 459 units; 25.5 percent in Lake County to 1,917 units and 32.5 percent in McHenry County to 840 units.
Cook and Will counties experienced increases in sales activity somewhat below that of the metro area as a whole. Cook County sales totaled 10,988 units, a 13 percent increase, and they represented 55.5 percent of all sales in the seven-county area. Sales in the City of Chicago rose just 9.2 percent for the quarter to 5,107 units.
In Will County, 1,643 units changed hands, yielding a 17.8 percent increase.
In contrast to its below average increase in transactions, Cook County delivered the best results in terms of the change in its median home price. The county had a third quarter median price of $172,000, 4.4 percent lower than during the same period a year ago, and the City of Chicago saw the median home price increase 2.5 percent to $194,800.
Below are third-quarter median prices of all seven counties and the percent change from the same period in 2010:
Cook: $172,000 -4.4 percent
DuPage: $212,500 -10.7 percent
Kane: $150,000 -12.8 percent
Kendall: $151,000 -11.2 percent
Lake: $200,000 -7.6 percent
McHenry: $155,000 -12.4 percent
Will: $164,000 -11.4 percent
Year-to-Date Activity
Homes sales through the first nine months of 2011 in the metro area have totaled 52,672, which is 4 percent lower than during the same nine months of last year.
However, the third quarter increase in sales activity suggests that by year-end, 2011 is likely to generate total sales exceeding those of 2010, according to Laura Ortoleva, a spokesperson for RE/MAX in the Northern Illinois region.
About RE/MAX Northern Illinois
RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network consists of 2,200 sales associates and 105 individually owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of brokerage services throughout the northern one-third of Illinois. Its www.illinoisproperty.com and www.remax.com websites are leaders in consumer visits among real estate franchise brands. Its mobile search, m.illinoisproperty.com, allows users to conduct real estate searches on any mobile device with Internet access. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX LLC, a global real estate organization with 89,000 sales associates in 85 nations.
