Metro Chicago Real Estate Market Registers Solid 9-Month Gain in 2010

November 10, 2010 - Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market registered a solid gain of 11 percent for the first nine months of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. That was achieved even as third-quarter transaction volume was 22.8 percent lower than the same period last year.

The sales figures, analyzed by RE/MAX, are for the seven-county Chicago metropolitan area and are based on information supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC. The seven-county metropolitan area includes the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

The median sales price for homes in the metro area during the January-September period was $190,000, 5.7 percent lower than the median of $201,500 recorded for the same months in 2009. However, the average price of homes sold was more resilient, falling just 1 percent to $255,684 from $258,354 a year earlier.

"The market can now fully appreciate the impact of the homebuyer tax credit," said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. "Although it helped sales generally, especially sales of attached units (which consist primarily of condominium apartments and townhouses), once the tax credit expired, sales of attached units fell more sharply than sales of traditional detached homes. When you look at the first three quarters of 2010, attached homes registered a larger percentage sales increase than did detached homes."

Sales of detached homes were 34,922, up 10.6 percent for the January-September period in the metro area, while sales of attached home increased 11.5 percent to 19,520 when compared to 2009 results. During the third quarter, however, sales of attached homes were 5,580, 28 percent below the 2009 level, while sales of detached homes dipped 19.9 percent to 10,793.

The average price of a detached home increased slightly $266,444 for the first nine months of 2010 from $265,639 during the same period in 2009. For attached homes the average price for the first nine months of the year slipped to $236,434 in 2010 from $245,215 in 2009, a 3.6 percent decline.

The average time on the market for detached homes sold during the third quarter was 148 days, down from 168 days a year earlier. The average market time of attached homes sold in the July-September period was 168 days, up from 165 days in 2009.

"The third-quarter slowdown in home sales was felt broadly," said Merrion. "All seven counties in the metro area recorded an increase in sales activity for the first nine months of the year when compared to the same period in 2009, but all counties also showed declines in sales activity during the third quarter. Kane County turned in the best nine-month performance with a 31 percent total increase to 3,667 homes from 2,795 a year earlier."

Of the 258 suburban market areas and 77 City of Chicago neighborhoods that RE/MAX tracks on a quarterly basis, 185 towns and 56 neighborhoods had increased sales activity during the January-September period when measured against 2009, but only 42 towns and 16 neighborhoods recorded gains in sales transactions when the third quarter of 2010 is compared to that same portion of 2009. source: www.sfgate.com