The Illinois housing market accelerated in April with statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) totaling 14,189, up 8.2% from 13,110 in April 2015, the Illinois Realtors reported Friday.
The statewide median price in April was $186,500, up 10.4% from April 2015 when the median price was $169,000.
“Any suggestion the state’s housing market was beginning to slow appears to have been premature,” said Illinois REALTORS® President Mike Drews, GRI, broker-associate with Charles B. Doss Co. in Aurora. “A buyer can’t dawdle in a market like this. Any delay can result in losing the home they want as there are so many other motivated buyers in this spring market.”
The time it took to sell a home in April averaged 68 days, down from 76 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 60,608 homes for sale, a 14.5% decline from April 2015 when there were 70,921 homes on the market.
The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.60 percent in April 2016, down from 3.70 percent during the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. In April 2015 it averaged 3.64 percent.
In the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), home sales (single-family and condominiums) in April 2016 totaled 10,216 homes sold, up 9.3% from April 2015 sales of 9,343 homes. The median price in April 2016 was $230,000 in the Chicago PMSA, up 10.6% from $208,000 in April 2015.
“The housing market news for the next three months indicates a continuation of the positive trends in both sales and prices,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. “Compared to last month, more people feel it is a good time to sell, but less people feel it is a good time to buy. Overall, consumer sentiment seems little changed with analysts pointing to the lower than expected April job growth as the probable cause.”
According to the data, fifty-four (54) Illinois counties reported sales gains for April 2016 over previous-year numbers, including Champaign County, up 27.2% with 229 units sold; Tazewell County, up 24.5% with 188 units sold; Lake County, up 18.0% with 919 units sold; and Cook County, up 6.8% with 5,528 units sold. Sixty-two (62) counties showed year-over-year median price increases including Kane County, up 21.0% to $215,000; Winnebago County, up 16.3% to $100,000; Will County, up 9.6% to $195,000, and St. Clair County, up 9.5% to $125,900.
The city of Chicago saw a 7.9% year-over-year home sales increase in April 2016 with 2,628 sales, up from 2,435 in April 2015. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in April 2016 was $287,500, up 6.0% compared to April 2015 when it was $271,325.
“After posting only modest sales gains in March, Chicago saw in April a return to what would be expected in a market marked by high consumer demand,” said Dan Wagner, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and senior vice president for government relations at the Oakbrook-based Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc. “It’s taking 47 days on average to sell a home, which is a breathtaking pace and shows why inventories have plummeted once again.”
Sales and price information is generated by Multiple Listing Service closed sales reported by 28 participating Illinois REALTOR® local boards and associations including Midwest Real Estate Data LLC data as of May 7, 2016 for the period April 1 through April 30, 2016. The Chicago PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
