An association of Realtors in the Chicagoland area tallied results for the area’s 2015 business, and the picture was rosy for Chicago suburbs real estate.
The Mainstreet Association of Realtors, or MORe, represents more than 200 communities in Dupage, Lake and suburban Cook counties. Numbers from a suburban group such as this one point to the ways that pockets of a large metro’s real estate market, like Chicago’s, can stand far apart from the rest of the region.
For MORe-affiliated folks, the year ended on a high note, with a full year of growth in the market.
For December 2015, all the key numbers lifted.
A greater number of houses sold, 5.4 percent more to be exact. The median sales price for suburban Chicago real estate upticked by more than 11 percent.
Apparently a lot of Chicago suburbanites in communities served by MORe-affiliated agents found house keys in their stockings. Even though it was December, there was a more than 18 percent increase in the number of houses that went under contract.
MORe also reported that 2015 was a stellar year for their agents. Sales totaled a little north of 38,000 homes. The year-to-date sales price at the end of the year beat that of Chicago proper, which, according to real-time data from Altos Research. MORe communities recorded an average sale price of $269,442, while the city saw an average of about $210,000.
For the year, the median sales price in the MORe communities ticked up 5.2 percent.
As the MORe site correctly says, Chicago is a patchwork city cuffed in suburbs. While the Chicago metropolitan real estate market is usually reported on in its entirety, the reality is that the suburban real estate market is splintered into sub-markets, which often perform contrary to the area’s larger trends.
And that certainly does prove true when comparing a smaller group’s numbers with the whole.
Mainstreet Association of Realtors has been dedicated to anticipating and serving the needs of Realtors, affiliates and licensed appraisers throughout the Chicagoland area for more than 90 years. The Association has steadily grown and it is now the largest Realtor member organization in Illinois and the fourth largest in the nation, with more than 15,000 members on its roster.
MORe offers continuing education and other services to it members, and operates four offices with its main headquarters located in Downers Grove.
