Strong Condominium Sales Keep Rebound On A Roll In Chicago In 2017
Chicago’s existing home and condominium market continued its steady rebound throughout the first half of 2017, experts report.
A total of 14,631 existing housing units were sold in Chicago during the first half of 2017, a gain of 2.8% over the same period last year, reported RE/MAX Northern Illinois. Some 5,405 single-family homes were sold in the city, a slight gain over the first half of 2016. However, the attached-home market posted better results. Condos, co-ops and townhomes accounted for 9,226 units sold, up 4.4% over the first half of last year.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the way the market has performed during the first half of this year despite the relative scarcity of listings,” explained Jack Kreider, executive vice president and regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois.
“Average market time for homes sold during that period was 87 days, the lowest number for any first half since 2005, but in June it was just 69 days, the shortest market time for any month since we began tracking that data 13 years ago,” Kreider said.
With homes selling quickly and prices rising, it has been a good year for sellers, noted Kreider. “I don’t expect that to change soon. If the Federal Reserve raises interest rates slowly that should help maintain the strong demand for homes that we’ve seen over the last several years.”
Affordable home-loan rates at or below 4% interest also have helped attract buyers to the marketplace, experts say.
Benchmark 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 3.96% for the week ending July 20th, down from 4.03% a week earlier, reported Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed loans averaged 3.45%.
“Continued economic uncertainty and weak inflation data pushed rates lower,” said Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac. “The 10-year Treasury yield fell 5 basis points this week. The 30-year mortgage rate moved with Treasury yields, dropping 7 basis points to 3.96%.”
According to RE/MAX, home sales activity in the seven-county Chicago metro area increased 4% to 58,275 units in the first half of 2017. The median sales price gained 6.6% to $239,900 over the past six months.
Sales of detached homes rose to 36,566 units in the first half of 2017, a 3% gain over the same period last year. The median sales price gained 6.7 percent to $256,000, and average market time fell by 7 days to 98 days.
Sales of condos, co-ops and townhomes rose 5.9% to 21,709 units in the first half of the year. The median sales price gained 5.8 percent to $201,000. Average market time in this category fell to just 67 days for the six-month period.
Those increases were achieved despite a limited supply of homes for sale, RE/MAX noted. The number of listings on the market June 30 was down 10 percent from a year earlier, and the 33,704 homes on the market equaled just a 2.4-month supply.
The home sales data used for the RE/MAX analysis is collected by MRED, the regional multiple listing service. It covers detached and attached homes in the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
For more housing news, visit www.dondebat.biz. Don DeBat is co-author of “Escaping Condo Jail,” the ultimate survival guide for condominium living. Visit www.escapingcondojail.com.