January brings uptick in Illinois home sales and prices

The start of a new year brought renewed interest from homebuyers who drove home sales and the statewide median prices higher in January, according to Illinois Realtors.

Statewide home sales, which include single-family homes and condominiums, totaled 8,502 homes sold in January, up 1.2 percent from 8,404 in January 2016.

The statewide median price in January was $172,000, up 5.5 percent from the same month in the previous year when the median price was $163,000. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

"The bitter winter weather everyone anticipates in January never really materialized, and as a result it looks as if plenty of buyers were out looking for homes," said Illinois Realtors President Doug Carpenter of Mokena, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell in Orland Hills. "Because inventories are still so tight, January was seen by many as a good opportunity to get out in advance of the busier spring selling season."

The time it took to sell a home in January averaged 69 days, down from 79 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 49,724 homes for sale, a 15.5 percent decline from January 2016 when there were 58,830 homes on the market.

The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.15 percent in January, a decrease from 4.20 percent the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. In January 2016, that rate averaged 3.87 percent.

In the nine-county Chicago region, sales in January totaled 6,159 homes sold, up 0.6 percent from January 2016 sales of 6,125 homes. The median price in January was $210,000 in the region, an increase of 10.5 percent from $190,000 in the previous January.

The Chicago region includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.

"Illinois median prices have already recovered to the pre-bubble levels while those in the Chicago (area) are very close," said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. "Forecasts for median prices and the REAL Housing Price Indices also indicate moderate annual growth for both Illinois and the Chicago (region) with a slightly stronger growth forecast by the REAL HPI for the next three months."

According to the data, 43 Illinois counties reported sales gains for January over previous-year numbers, including Winnebago County, up 16.6 percent with 218 units sold; St. Clair County, up 15.4 percent with 165 units sold; and Cook County, up 4.1 percent with 3,493 units sold.

Forty-nine counties showed year-over-year median price increases including Lake County, up 15.4 percent to $225,000; Peoria County, up 14.0 percent to $112,900; and DuPage County, up 8.2 percent to $250,000.

The city of Chicago saw a 9.3 percent year-over-year home sales increase in January with 1,528 sales, up from 1,398 in January 2016. The median price of a home in Chicago in January was $256,000, up 12.4 percent compared to the previous January when it was $227,750.

"We came out of the gates blazing, with greater activity this January than in years past, as consumers emerged from the holidays educated, prepared and ready to make decisions," said Matt Silver, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and partner at Urban Real Estate. "Our year-over-year numbers continue to demonstrate the strength of the Chicago market, as properties are being snatched up at a pace rarely seen, with higher prices across the board and rising interest rates - trends that will continue (barring ongoing inventory concerns) into the active spring season."

Sales and price information are generated by Multiple Listing Service closed sales reported by 28 participating Illinois Realtor local boards and associations including Midwest Real Estate Data LLC.