Crib Chatter

Two years ago, June sales were at new highs. It was so hot, that June 2021 was better than even the bubble year Junes. But last year, mortgage rates spiked over 5% in June and that pushed down sales. In 2023, mortgage rates were even higher, over 6%. And June sales fell again. It was […]

As other major metros come down off their red hot pandemic highs, Chicago, which has lagged for years at the bottom of the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller 20 largest metros index for price appreciation, has finally come in on top. In May, Chicagoland single family homes rose 4.6% year-over-year, to top the list, followed by Cleveland […]

It’s time to talk about the May sales data. It’s been trending the same for most of this year with sales down sharply year-over-year, median price coming down and inventory continuing to fall. It was the slowest May since May 2020 which got hit as the market froze up when COVID hit and the lock […]

The Illinois Association of Realtors is out with the April sales data. It remains at multi-year lows. Sales were at their lowest since April 2020 when the COVID pandemic spooked home buyers and sales ground to a halt. From the IAR: The city of Chicago saw a 37.6 percent year-over-year home sales decrease in April […]

March sales were down again. But last March was the month the Fed first started raising rates in this cycle. Mortgage rates started sharply rising in March 2022. Those rates quickly cooled the housing market. But is the slowdown playing out as we all thought? From the Illinois Association of Realtors: The city of Chicago […]

The New York Times reported on some recent Zillow data that has everyone all abuzz. A new study by HouseFresh examined average daily search traffic for more than 108,000 active Zillow listings in the 100 largest U.S. metros as of Oct. 25, 2022. The company, which specializes in air purifiers, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, initially pulled the data […]

Sales continue to be anemic in 2023 as 30-year mortgage rates remain over 6%. Sales were the lowest in February since 2011, which was, gulp, during the housing bust. From the Illinois Association of Realtors: The city of Chicago saw a 37.3 percent year-over-year home sales decrease in February 2023 with 1,207 sales, down from […]

We can say one thing about January 2023 sales: at least they weren’t as bad as January 2009. They managed to stay above 1,000 in Chicago. From the Illinois Association of Realtors: The city of Chicago saw a 41.2 percent year-over-year home sales decrease in January 2023 with 1,076 sales, down from 1,831 in January […]

The Illinois Association of Realtors is out with the December data. We already know that it was another slow month from Gary’s monthly updates. From the Illinois Association of Realtors: The city of Chicago saw a 41.2 percent year-over-year home sales decrease in December 2022 with 1,425 sales, down from 2,422 in December 2021. Annual […]

We already know from Gary’s data that November’s sales were down sharply compared to last year, which was a 15-year record high. They were at the lowest since 2011’s housing bust market. All of us watching the Chicago housing market know that sales have ground to a halt thanks to higher mortgage rates. From the […]