The city of Chicago saw sales slide a little bit since this time last year. In November 2015, 1,615 homes changed hands. That’s a drop of 1.4 percent from last November, when 1,638 homes were sold.
The median price of a home in Chicago proper was $235,000, up 2.2 percent over November 2014 when the median price was $230,000.
In the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, home sales in November 2015 totaled 6,836, a decrease of 3.9 percent from the 7,115 sales in November 2014.
But prices are still going in the other direction in the whole region: The median price in the Chicago PMSA was $196,000, up 7.9 percent from $181,690 that was registered in November 2014.
Inventories in the Chicago area dropped like the proverbial rock, with 16 percent fewer available homes in November 2015 when compared to November 2014.
“Median prices in the Chicago market posted a strong showing in November, boosted by a lower number of properties from which to choose,” said Dan Wagner, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and senior vice president for government relations for The Inland Real Estate Group, in a statement. “To see inventories drop more than 16 percent year over year in Chicago clearly signals that buyers want to start the new year in a new home.”
The Illinois Association of Realtors November figures showed that prices throughout the state continued their upward lift, and inventories remained constrained. Inventory fell by double digits statewide: year-over-year, the number of houses on the market fell by 11.7 percent.
Across the state, momentum in price gains continued its aggressive pace, with November marking 39 consecutive months of year-over-year increases.
“Median prices continued to increase even though sales declined on both a monthly and an annual basis,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois, in a statement.
“Much of this decline can be attributed to the significant drop in the sales of foreclosed properties. Adjusted for inflation, house prices in Illinois have recovered to 91 percent of their November 2008 level; the comparable figure for Chicago is 84 percent. At current rates of growth of prices, recovery will take between 12 and 18 months in both cases.”
Statewide sales slowed slightly, down 3.5 percent from November 2014 when just shy of 10,000 homes sold. The statewide median price in November 2015 rose to $165,000, a 6.5 percent gain.
According to the data, 34 Illinois counties reported sales gains for November 2015 over previous-year numbers. The winners included Kendall County, which was up 3.6 percent, with 143 units sold.
Sixty counties recorded median price gains in November 2015 over previous-year numbers. Cook County was one of that group, with a median price leap of 8.3 percent to $198,000.
The Chicago PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
