“Consumers this spring have no choice but to be nimble as they find fewer homes on the market and increased competition for those homes,” says Illinois REALTORS® president Doug Carpenter of Mokena, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell in Orland Hills. “Many of the REALTORS® I talk to are reporting an increase in multiple offer situations, which means buyers can't dawdle when they find what they want and they may want to make sure any offer they bring is an aggressive one.”

The time it took to sell a home in March averaged 67 days, down from 77 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 52,826 homes for sale, a 15.5% decline from March 2016 when there were 62,492 homes on the market.

In the nine-county Chicago area, home sales in March 2017 totaled 9,661 homes sold, up 13.1% from March 2016 sales of 8,540 homes. The median price in March 2017 was $231,000 in the Chicago area, an increase of 10% from $210,000 in March 2016.

Sellers in McHenry County may have had the best month. Sales were up 31.1% with 468 units sold. Cook County was up 9.9% with 5,255 units sold.

“Home sales were stronger than usual throughout historically slower months, and now, with the spring market in full swing, the numbers are proving to be more robust than anticipated,” says Matt Silver, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and partner at Urban Real Estate. “As the economy improves, demand continues to grow, and while inventory shortages will possibly play a larger role, for now, we are seeing strong and favorable selling conditions, and those who are looking to buy a home should be prepared to move quickly and decisively.”

Usually a housing market with strong sales and increasing prices would be termed healthy, but this market's depressed inventory makes it a more complicated question. Migration to the state has fallen dramatically since 2000, says Hewings. That means “the fluidity we saw in the housing market in the early years of this century is absent. It's not working the way it did. It's hard to say if it's working properly, but it's definitely functional.”

CHICAGO—The state's housing market had its customary spring jump in March, but buyers were also much more active than they were one year ago. Home sales climbed 9.6% over previous-year levels and the statewide median price surged 10.7%, according to Illinois REALTORS®.

Statewide home sales in March 2017 totaled 13,274 homes sold, up from 12,116 in March 2016. The statewide median price in March was $189,900, up from $171,500 one year ago. The totals are in line with what has been seen for months: a steady increase in prices and sales, but with a depressed inventory.

“Nothing in the data suggests that we will see any dramatic changes in 2017,” Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois, tells GlobeSt.com. It is possible that changes could happen due to a resolution of the state's budget deadlock, or if the promises from the Trump Administration to overhaul the tax code come to fruition. However, “everything I've seen makes it clear that this will take much longer than originally thought.”

Still, ”In inflation adjusted terms, both the Illinois and Chicago housing markets have recovered to their pre-recession levels,” he adds. “The consumer indices still reflect a positive outlook on the economy although the home purchase sentiment index declined, reflecting some elevated concerns about job security. We will monitor this very carefully.”

“Consumers this spring have no choice but to be nimble as they find fewer homes on the market and increased competition for those homes,” says Illinois REALTORS® president Doug Carpenter of Mokena, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell in Orland Hills. “Many of the REALTORS® I talk to are reporting an increase in multiple offer situations, which means buyers can't dawdle when they find what they want and they may want to make sure any offer they bring is an aggressive one.”

The time it took to sell a home in March averaged 67 days, down from 77 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 52,826 homes for sale, a 15.5% decline from March 2016 when there were 62,492 homes on the market.

In the nine-county Chicago area, home sales in March 2017 totaled 9,661 homes sold, up 13.1% from March 2016 sales of 8,540 homes. The median price in March 2017 was $231,000 in the Chicago area, an increase of 10% from $210,000 in March 2016.

Sellers in McHenry County may have had the best month. Sales were up 31.1% with 468 units sold. Cook County was up 9.9% with 5,255 units sold.

“Home sales were stronger than usual throughout historically slower months, and now, with the spring market in full swing, the numbers are proving to be more robust than anticipated,” says Matt Silver, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and partner at Urban Real Estate. “As the economy improves, demand continues to grow, and while inventory shortages will possibly play a larger role, for now, we are seeing strong and favorable selling conditions, and those who are looking to buy a home should be prepared to move quickly and decisively.”

Usually a housing market with strong sales and increasing prices would be termed healthy, but this market's depressed inventory makes it a more complicated question. Migration to the state has fallen dramatically since 2000, says Hewings. That means “the fluidity we saw in the housing market in the early years of this century is absent. It's not working the way it did. It's hard to say if it's working properly, but it's definitely functional.”