Chicago-area home sales continue upswing in January

Cook and Kane counties boasted the largest percentage gains of home sales in January, according to a report released Friday by the Illinois Association of Realtors.

Kane saw its home sales soar 43.3 percent and Cook jumped 35.8 percent, compared to January 2009. Other area counties also saw healthy double-digit increases. Will County had the smallest increase at 5.4 percent.

Still, compared to the tough recession and the foreclosure crisis, those counties enjoyed its gains nonetheless. Sales were fueled by the ongoing federal stimulus credit for first-time homebuyers and prices that continue to drop, according to experts.

"The biggest driver has been the first-time homebuyer credit, so we're expecting to see a lot of activity in March and April," said Mike Drews, president of the Mainstreet Organization of Realtors and a Realtor with Charles Doss Realtors in Oswego and Aurora.

The homebuyer credit expires April 30 and likely won't be extended again, said Drews, a 30-year real estate veteran.

"So it's going to be very busy. A lot of homebuyers are going to be scrambling," he said.

This was the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year home sales increases, while the statewide median price logged its first uptick since September 2007, the Illinois Association of Realtors report said.

Statewide, home sales - which include single-family and condominiums - in January 2010 were up 14 percent, totaling 5,483 homes sold compared to January 2009 sales of 4,809 homes. The median price in January was $145,300, up 0.2 percent from $145,000 in January 2009. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half sold for less.

In the Chicago area, including related counties, year-over-year home sales were positive for the seventh consecutive month, up 29.2 percent to 3,922 homes sold in January, compared to 3,035 homes sold in January 2009. The median home sale price for the region was $175,000 in January, down 5.4 percent from $185,000 in January 2009.

Foreclosures continue to force prices downward, but prices could see a bounce over the next three months, Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory of the University of Illinois, said in a statement.

"The forecast indicates sales for February through April increasing in Illinois in the one to 14 percent range and in Chicago in the 18 to 50 percent range on an annual basis," Hewings said.