The Illinois Association of Realtors just released the February home sales numbers (as someone posted to yesterday in the comments- so thanks for the reminder.)
Once again, Chicago home sales jumped sharply as compared to February 2009 sales while median price fell again.
In the city of Chicago, February total home sales (single-family and condominiums) were up 41.5 percent to 1,225 sales compared to 866 homes sold in February 2009, the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains. The city of Chicago median price in February 2010 was $176,500 down 19.3 percent compared to $218,625 a year ago in February 2009.
I know many of you aren’t paying much attention to the median price right now as the sheer number of distressed sales are wrecking havoc with that number.
How much of the increase is due to the tax credit?
“A positive upward trend was seen in the month of February as condo sales in the city increased over 40 percent from the same period in 2009,” said REALTOR® Genie Birch, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and a broker associate with Koenig & Strey GMAC, Chicago. “The tax credit has been a tremendous help for those homebuyers on the fence. With interest rates still favorable, and a month left before the tax credit expires, those considering making a purchase should do so now, to take advantage of these great opportunities while they are still available.”
Meanwhile, Crain’s is reporting on new life in the upper end custom home business. However, the examples in this latest article only talk about suburban building (no mention of new city mansions).
“Houses around here have started selling again. We’re coming out of this dark period we’ve been in,” says Patrick Richter, 58, owner of Richter Builders LLC in Libertyville. He founded the firm in 1978 — by his calculation, five recessions ago. At one time in the 1990s, Mr. Richter was building in a dozen local subdivisions simultaneously. A year ago, he didn’t have a single new client in sight.
“The phone had stopped ringing,” he says.
Now he has nine active clients and is so encouraged that he’s breaking ground before summer on his first spec house — with no contract buyer — in nearly three years. It will be spread over 4,400 square feet and carry a price of nearly $1.5 million. “By the time it’s finished, I’m confident there will be a buyer,” he says.
Mike Avis, a Lake Bluff homebuilder, sold his last new house in Highland Park two years ago for $2.6 million. The phones went silent all last year, but now he’s working on plans for homes for three clients.
“The banks are putting them through the ringer and the loans aren’t all finalized yet, but this is the most hopeful I’ve been in a long while,” says Mr. Avis, 45.
One big impediment is the pool of luxury houses still for sale. Christopher Huecksteadt, director of Houston-based market researcher Metrostudy, estimates there are 386 new homes priced above $800,000 for sale around Chicago. Only 322 new homes priced above $800,000 sold all of last year. “We’ve got over a year’s supply of luxury homes available already,” he says. “So why build more this year?”
Have we seen the bottom in the upper end market?
Illinois Home Sales in February Mark Sixth Consecutive Gain; Up 15.7 Percent from a Year Ago [Illinois Association of Realtors, Press Release, March 22, 2010]
Housing market shows some activity at high end, despite glut of unsold homes [Crain’s Chicago Business, H. Lee Murphy, March 22, 2010]
