August home sales in suburbs show promise

Realtors around the suburbs were optimistic with higher home sales boosted by first-time buyers, the stimulus credit and favorable mortgage rates during August. But those homes sold at much lower prices, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Association of Realtors.

In the Chicago metropolitan area - that includes nine counties - home sales were up 1.3 percent to 7,009 homes sold, compared to 6,917 homes a year ago. However, the median home sale price for this region was $205,000, down 18.7 percent from $252,000 a year ago.

In the city of Chicago alone, total home sales were 1,928, down 7.2 percent or 2,078 homes a year ago. The Chicago median price in August 2009 was $229,476, down 22.9 percent from $297,500 a year ago in August 2008.

"We're continuing to flush out those distressed sales through the system," said Pat Callan, the association's immediate past president and owner/broker of Realty Executives Premiere in Wheaton.

The Realty association provides monthly reports on the statewide market. Its August report released on Thursday showed that statewide homes sales, including single-family and condominiums, reached 10,595, down 3 percent from August 2008 sales of 10,923. The Illinois median price for the same period was $165,000, down 14.8 percent or $193,750 in August 2008. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half sold for less.

Nationwide, existing-home sales in August also were above year-ago levels, said the National Association of Realtors.

The national group's data, which includes single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, declined 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million units in August from 5.24 million the prior month. But it remains 3.4 percent above the 4.93 million-unit level in August 2008.

"Home sales retrenched from a very strong improvement in July but continue to be much higher than before the stimulus. The first-time buyer tax credit is having the intended impact of bringing buyers into the market, allowing them to take advantage of very favorable affordability conditions," Lawrence Yun, Natonal Association of Realtors' chief economist, said in a statement.

In addition, the supply of unsold homes on the market dropped 11 percent to 3.6 million in August.

"At current prices, it would take roughly 7.5 months to absorb the supply of homes on the market," Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Harris Bank, said via e-mail. "That's remarkable considering that more than a year's supply of inventory sat on the market as recently as January."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=323818">Existing home sales drop 2.7 percent last month <span class="date">[09/24/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>