Metro Chicago Housing Market Continued Spring Advance in May, RE/MAX Reports
CHICAGO (PRWEB) June 22, 2016 -- The metro Chicago housing market backed up strong April results with solid gains in May, RE/MAX reports. Home sales in the seven-county area rose 9 percent in May compared to May 2015, with 11,616 units changing hands. The median sales price climbed 5 percent to $235,000.
The average time homes sold in May spent on the market before finding a buyer was 87 days, down from 99 days in April and 94 days in May last year. The declining market time was caused in part by a limited inventory of listings. At the end of May, 37,696 homes were listed for sale in the seven-county metro area, 9 percent more than a month earlier but 5 percent fewer than May 2015.
“I’m optimistic we’ll see an expanding inventory, especially in the middle ranges of the market where supplies are the tightest,” said Jack Kreider, executive vice president and regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois network.
“Chicago-area home sales activity so far in 2016 is at its highest level since the pre-recession year of 2006. Prices are rising but haven’t fully recovered area wide. The median sales price in May this year was below the May 2008 median of $255,000, but well above the $201,000 recorded in May 2009,” he said.
The RE/MAX analysis of Chicago area home sales uses data for the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will collected by MRED, the regional multiple listing service.
May home sales rose in six counties and Chicago; three counties posted double-digit gains. Lake led with a 16 percent increase from May 2015, while DuPage and Kendall were up 13 percent. Cook gained 9 percent, McHenry 8 percent, Kane 5 percent and Chicago 6 percent. Will had a 2 percent decline.
The median sales price rose in all seven counties, led by McHenry, with a year-over-year gain of 13 percent. In Cook, DuPage and Kane, the gain was 4 percent. The median rose 8 percent in Will, 5 percent in Kendall and 3 percent in Lake and Chicago.
Detached Homes
Detached-home sales across the seven-county area totaled 7,340 units in May, up 9 percent from the year-earlier level. The median sales price rose 6 percent to $250,000. Average market time was 98 days, down from 104 days.
Gains in sales activity were spread unevenly. Four counties had double-digit increases, with Lake up 18 percent, DuPage up 14 percent, Cook up 11 percent and McHenry up 10 percent. Kendall gained 7 percent and Chicago rose 8 percent, but sales fell 3 percent in Kane and 1 percent in Will.
Increases in the median sales price of detached homes in May were led by an 11 percent increase in McHenry. Results elsewhere were: Cook up 8 percent, Kane and Will up 7 percent, Kendall up 5 percent and Lake up 1 percent, while Chicago gained 9 percent. DuPage fell 2 percent.
Attached Homes
Sales of attached homes increased 9 percent over May of 2015 to 4,276 units, and the median sales price advanced 5 percent to $200,000. Average market time was a speedy 68 days, compared to 77 days a year earlier.
Unit sales rose in five counties and in Chicago, but results varied widely. The biggest gains were 40 percent in Kane and 36 percent in Kendall, while DuPage gained 11 percent, Lake 9 percent and Cook 8 percent. Sales rose 6 percent in Chicago. However, attached sales fell 7 percent in Will and 1 percent in McHenry.
The median sales price rose in six counties: 13 percent in McHenry, 11 percent in DuPage, 10 percent in Kane and Kendall, 8 percent in Will and 5 percent in Lake, while Chicago gained 1 percent. Cook County recorded a 1 percent decline.
RE/MAX agents consistently rank among the most productive in the industry. In 2015, RE/MAX Northern Illinois agents averaged 18 transaction sides. RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989 and is continually growing. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network, with headquarters in Elgin, Ill., consists of more than 2,250 sales associates and 106 independently owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of residential and commercial brokerage services. Its mobile real estate app, available for download at http://www.illinoisproperty.com, provides comprehensive information about residential and commercial property for sale in the region. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX, a global real estate organization with 104,000+ sales associates in 90+ nations.
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Stephen Johnson, RE/MAX Northern Illinois, +1 (847) 428-4200, [email protected]
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