With homes selling quickly and prices rising, it has been a good year for sellers, he adds. “I don't expect that to change soon. It sounds as if the Fed will raise interest rates slowly, which should help maintain the strong demand for homes that we've seen over the last several years.”

MRED, the regional multiple listing service, collects the home sales data used by RE/MAX. It covers stand-alone single-family dwellings, condominiums, cooperative apartments, and townhouses in the IL counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

Compared to the first half of 2016, sales activity gains for the first half of 2017 ranged from 6.8% in McHenry to 2% in DuPage, while increases in the median sales price varied from 11.4% in Lake to 5.6% in Kane.

Metro Chicago home sales in June totaled 13,958 units, 3% more than during June 2016. The median sales price for the month was $239,900, a gain of 6.6%.

ELGIN, IL—The metropolitan Chicago housing market continues its steady acceleration, according to an analysis of the first half of 2017 by RE/MAX Northern Illinois. Compared to the first half of 2016, home sales activity in the seven-county metro area increased 4% to 58,275 units, while the median sales price gained 6.6% to $239,900.

At the same time, the number of homes on the market at the end of June was down 10% from the year-earlier total and represented just a 2.4-month supply based on the June sales pace. The depressed inventory has encouraged buyers to snap up homes quickly.

“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,” says Jack Kreider, executive vice president and regional director of Elgin, IL-based RE/MAX Northern Illinois. Still, he was “pleasantly surprised by the way the market has performed during the first half of this year despite the relative scarcity of listings.”

Economists agree the housing market will continue on an upward trajectory, but also sound a note of caution about possible weaknesses in the state's economy.

With homes selling quickly and prices rising, it has been a good year for sellers, he adds. “I don't expect that to change soon. It sounds as if the Fed will raise interest rates slowly, which should help maintain the strong demand for homes that we've seen over the last several years.”

MRED, the regional multiple listing service, collects the home sales data used by RE/MAX. It covers stand-alone single-family dwellings, condominiums, cooperative apartments, and townhouses in the IL counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

Compared to the first half of 2016, sales activity gains for the first half of 2017 ranged from 6.8% in McHenry to 2% in DuPage, while increases in the median sales price varied from 11.4% in Lake to 5.6% in Kane.

Metro Chicago home sales in June totaled 13,958 units, 3% more than during June 2016. The median sales price for the month was $239,900, a gain of 6.6%.