ELGIN, IL—The metropolitan Chicago area housing market recorded modest gains in November. Home sales rose just 0.1% from the same month last year to 8,028 units, while the median sales price gained 4.7% to $225,000, according to an analysis by RE/MAX.
The inventory of homes stayed at a depressed level. At the end of November 28,929 were on the market, 9.6% lower than the comparable 2016 figure. As a result, homes on the market were snapped up relatively quickly. Average market time for homes sold in November was 80 days, down from 88 days a year earlier.
“Given the continued decline in inventory levels, it's encouraging to see that transaction volume was basically unchanged and home values continued to rise at a gradual pace,” says Chris Calomino, spokesperson for RE/MAX Northern Illinois. “Demand for homes remains strong thanks to a growing economy, solid job creation and attractive mortgage interest rates. Although the year-over-year increase was small, 2017 November home sales were the most for that month since 2005.”
He adds that once again in November, as was the case in October, the attached-home segment of the market delivered the strongest results. “Especially in the suburbs, we are seeing strong demand for townhouses because they generally provide a reasonable amount of living space at a moderate price, and there is a shortage of single-family homes offering that same combination.”
Distressed homes, which include foreclosures and short sales, accounted for just 9.9% of all November sales, down from 22.2% two years earlier.
“If you eliminate the shrinking number of distressed sales from the equation,” Calomino says. “November sales for the metro area were up 4%, which we think better reflects the strength of the current market.”
MRED collected the home sales data used for the RE/MAX analysis. It covers detached and attached homes in the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
