Chicago Area Home Sales Fall 27% in October
Ask anyone who is trying to sell a home right now. It stinks out there. There is a lot on the market and very few buyers.
And no, it’s not just your imagination (maybe you shouldn’t think about firing your current real estate agent after all.)
Crain’s is confirming what every homeseller already knows: sales were down yet again in October (compared with October 2006).
For the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, sales were down 27.2% from the previous October, according to a report released Wednesday by the Illinois Assn. of Realtors. A total of 6,558 single-family homes and condos were sold last month, compared to 9,007 in October 2006.
Sales in the Chicago PMSA dropped 27% in September from the same month last year.
The Chicago PMSA includes nine counties: Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
Statewide, sales of homes and condos were down 23.1%.
Prices actually rose slightly. The Chicago area saw a 3.1% rise in the median to $250,000. October 2006’s median was $242,000. Nationwide, prices dropped 5.1% year over year.
Conclusion: Prices are holding up but sales are getting crushed.
More likely conclusion: The low end of the market is currently shut out b/c of the credit crunch and that reduces the number of low-price sales at a greater rate than the number of higher priced sales.
There is NO WAY to look at the median number, alone, and claim that “prices are holding up”. You need to look deeper into the data and, probably, at sales of the same or very similar properties. If you did that, I guarantee that you would find a softening (and some serious drops) in prices in most price brackets and in most communities.
Anon: You could be right that the low end isn’t buying but the upper end is- and that’s why prices are sticking.
There is definitely some softening. Real estate is local right? But I’ve also seen many homeowners (at least in the city) that are simply refusing to lower their prices. All of those units are sitting on the market for months. If they lower at all it is $5,000 or $10,000 and that’s it. Hence, why sales have plunged. Buyers refuse to buy at these prices.
The credit crunch is also not helping matters. Now that it’s harder to get a mortgage, a percentage of buyers is automatically going to be eliminated (those without downpayments, bad credit scores etc.)
But by next spring, I’m expecting to see more price movement as some sellers become a bit more desperate and must lower their price to sell.
Going into next year- it will be all about the price.