Housing Sales Are Up, But Prices Still Affordable In Chicago
April 27th, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Sellers, Housing Market
If you’ve bought a home in Chicago during the last 18 months, consider yourself lucky. You’ve purchased your condominium, townhome or single-family home during one of the best times to buy residential real estate in the city.
Look at all the factors that have been in buyers’ favor in the last year and a half: Because they bought during the long national housing slump, they dealt with sellers who were often desperate to move their condos or single-family homes. They bought at a time in which sales prices were falling. And, even better, they had plenty of high-quality homes on the market from which to choose; they rarely had to worry about getting into bidding wars with other buyers.
But what about today? Is Chicago still in the middle of a strong buyers’ market?
Yes, it most certainly is. You only have to look at the median sales prices of Chicago homes to prove this.
According to the latest sales data released by the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, the median sales price of existing homes in Chicago stood at $209,000 in March. That’s a solid figure, but it’s down 4.6 percent from the $219,000 median sales price of March of 2009.
For January through March of this year, the median sales price hit $196,000. That’s down 8.8 percent from the $215,000 median sales price the city saw for the first three months of 2009.
This means that buyers shopping for homes in Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood and other top Chicago neighborhoods can buy more home for their dollar this year than last. And they can certainly afford more home for the same amount of money than they could even 2 years ago.
To me, that’s the definition of a buyers’ market. And while home sales in Chicago have increased for seven consecutive months, there is still a lot of inventory in the city for buyers to choose from.
If you want to buy a home in Chicago, then, don’t put it off. This is a still a great buyers’ market, and it’s still possible to get a terrific city home for a solid price.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
