More homes hit the market; sales up around Chicago

After posting sharp gains in home sales and values during March, the seven-county Chicago-area real estate market maintained its upward momentum in April.

RE/MAX reports April home sales totaled 9,037 units, 7.5 percent more than in April last year. The median home sales price was $210,000, an increase of 11 percent over the prior April. The median is the price at which half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

"Just as important as the larger number of sales and higher median sales price is that the inventory of homes listed for sale on our regional (multiple listing service) was 10 percent higher this April than last," said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. "Inventory has been so tight in some areas that it has created a frustrating lack of choices for buyers. What we're seeing now is that rising home values are encouraging a growing number of homeowners to sell."

Merrion noted that after the exceptional gains seen in March, with transactions up 13 percent and the median sales price rising 16 percent, the more moderate pace in April is welcome.

"The gains we see for April represent a more sustainable pace of housing market improvement, which benefits both buyers and sellers," Merrion said.

The home sales data used in the RE/MAX analysis is collected by the regional multiple listing service and covers condominium and single-family homes in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

April also saw a continued reduction in the percentage of home sales involving short sales or foreclosures. In April, those distressed properties accounted for 25 percent of all Chicago-area home sales, compared to 28 percent in March and 33 percent in April 2014.

Sales activity rose in all seven counties and in Chicago. The biggest gain was in Kendall County, where sales were up 18 percent, followed by DuPage County at 15 percent and Will County at 14 percent. Results for the other counties were: Cook, up 5 percent; Kane, up 11 percent; Lake, up 2 percent; and McHenry, up 12 percent.

The median sales price also climbed in all seven counties: 16 percent in Cook, 5 percent in DuPage, 2 percent in Kane, 8 percent in Kendall, 1 percent in Lake, 6 percent in McHenry and 8 percent in Will.

Sales activity expanded by 7 percent in the city of Chicago, which also recorded a 10 percent rise in the median sales price.

There were, however, some striking contrasts between attached and detached homes markets in April, most likely because of difference in the available inventory, Merrion said.

"The inventory of attached homes remains fairly tight with just a 3.3-month supply of units available based on the pace of April sales versus at 4.8-month supply of detached homes," he said.

One result was that while attached homes recorded a median-sales-price increase of 10 percent to $185,000 for April, transaction volume grew by only 1 percent to 3,378 units. The average market time for attached homes sold in April was just 85 days compared to 116 days for detached homes.

Moreover, six of seven counties had an increase in the median sale price of attached homes, but only DuPage and Lake registered increases in the number of attached-home sales.

In the detached-home segment of the metro Chicago market, 5,659 homes changed hands in April, a gain of 12 percent, while the median sales price rose 9 percent to $223,380.

"Right now, the detached-home market segment is relatively well balanced although there is certainly variation across the metro area," Merrion said.

For example, the April median sales price rose 15 percent in Cook County and 9 percent in Will County. In the five other counties the change in median sales price ranged from up 5 percent in DuPage to down 2 percent in Kendall.

As for transaction volume of detached homes, the April results were topped by a 29 percent gain in Kendall County and a 23 percent increase in Will. Sales volume rose 9.5 percent in Cook, 14 percent in DuPage, 19 percent in Kane and 15 percent in McHenry but slipped 1 percent in Lake. In Chicago, sales activity climbed 10 percent, and the median sales price was up 12 percent to $182,000.