Chicago Home Sales Continue to Dip
October 27th, 2008 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
Chicago’s a resilient city when it comes to residential real estate. The city’s top neighborhoods – places like Lakeview, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park and Lincoln Square – are still filled with desirable residential real estate. Buyers still want to move to these locations.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the city is immune to the housing slump. This housing slowdown has gone on too long – and the country’s economic crisis has been too severe – for even Chicago to emerge unscathed.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised by the sales figures released late last week by the Illinois Association of REALTORS®. According to the association, sales of single-family homes and condominiums in the city of Chicago dropped 16 percent in September when compared to the same month one year earlier. In raw numbers, total home sales in Chicago hit 1,770 this September compared to 2,108 one year earlier.
You can read the Illinois association’s news release here.
The news, though, isn’t entirely bad. Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory of the University of Illinois, said that the passage of the federal government’s bailout plan provides some optimism that a turnaround in the housing market may begin in 2009.
There is also some good news nationally. The National Association of REALTORS® reported late last week that the sales of existing homes increased last month. The association credits this with the large number of affordable homes now on the market. You can read the association’s release here.
Overall, existing-home sales across the country rose 5.5 percent in September. Home sales were also 1.4 percent higher in September of this year than they were one year earlier.
Of course, you only care about your own local market. If you do have to put your home on the market now, and you can’t wait for that possible late-2009 turnaround predicted by the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, it’s essential that you work closely with a REALTOR® to set the asking price for your home that will provide you with the greatest number of fair offers. Set a price too high, and your residence will sit on the market for months. Set one too low, and you may be losing thousands of dollars.
It’s always been important to work with a REALTOR®. It’s even more important in today’s market.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
