Illinois Home Sales Up 10 Months in a Row, Chicago Region a Full Year

Illinois Association of REALTORS® News Release:

Home prices in Illinois are showing signs of stabilizing with continued positive year-over-year median price growth and 10 straight months of mostly double-digit sales increases; the Chicago region marked a year of positive sales activity in June. According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS® latest report, statewide total home sales (which include single-family and condominiums) in June 2010 were up 18.3 percent, totaling 13,072 homes sold compared to June 2009 sales of 11,048 homes. The median price in June 2010 was $170,000, up 2.5 percent from $165,825 in June 2009. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half sold for less.

“The tax credit has proved to be a boost to the Illinois housing market with a tremendous level of buying and selling activity for the last 10 months which, importantly, has helped to stabilize home prices statewide,” said REALTOR® Mike Onorato, GRI, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS® and broker-owner of Onorato Real Estate in Coal City. “As the stimulus winds down, job growth and improved consumer and business confidence will be required to keep on a path toward recovery. People need stable job prospects to feel secure in their purchasing decisions.”

In the Chicagoland Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), year-over-year home sales were positive for 12 consecutive months, up 27.2 percent to 9,085 homes sold (single-family and condominiums) in June 2010 compared to 7,140 homes sold in June 2009. The median home sale price for the Chicagoland PMSA was $207,500 in June 2010, down 1.2 percent from $210,000 in June 2009.

“Continued strong annual sales growth characterized the months of April, May and June in Illinois in the Chicago region,” said Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois. “Sales are forecast to remain positive in double digits in both markets through September. Once again price changes remain more stubborn with some slight upward movement in Illinois in July and August followed by little or no change in September; in the Chicago region, the changes continue to trend down in the 1 to 5 percent range.”

Adds Hewings: “The economy is certainly not helping the housing market; the loss of over 200,000 temporary census jobs overwhelmed the private sector gains of 83,000. The unemployment rate fell nationally to 9.5 percent (from 9.7 percent in May). Illinois’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate followed the national decline, dropping -0.4 point to 10.4 percent in June.”

Read the complete news release here: http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/newsreleases/july2010