Chicago Real Estate Market is Setting Records
The Chicago-area housing market is still going strong for a second year. There is one area that is slowing down a bit- the city condo market.
Home sales in both the city and the nine-county metropolitan area in March were well above their long-term averages- but they didn’t keep up with March 2021, which was during the strongest stretch of the pandemic-era home-buying explosion.
In Chicago, 2,287 homes sold in March. That’s down 3.7% from March 2021, but compared to the average of the five previous Marches, it’s up 26%.
Similarly, home sales in March in the nine-county metro area totaled 9,865. That’s behind March 2021 by 10.3%, but that month more homes sold than in any March going back to 2008 in Illinois Realtors’ records. Compared to the average March sales in the five years prior, March 2022’s sales volume was up 11.1%.
Similarly, home sales in March in the nine-county metro area totaled 9,865. That’s behind March 2021 by 10.3%, but that month more homes sold than in any March going back to 2008 in Illinois Realtors’ records. Compared to the average March sales in the five years prior, March 2022’s sales volume was up 11.1%.
How are Single Family Homes Doing?
Looking only at detached houses sold in the city, sales were up 1.1% in March over the same time a year ago. Condo and townhome sales fell in March by 4.6% from March 2021.
The Current Situation for Condos
The city’s condo market is also a drag on prices. According to the new Illinois Realtors data, the median price of homes sold in Chicago in March was $345,000 unchanged from a year earlier. It was the sixth month out of the past eight when city home prices were flat flatness was attributable to declining condo prices. The same is true this month.
Chicago Association of Realtors data released April 14 shows that the median price of attached homes sold in the city in March was down 2.3%, to $356,500. In the same month, the median price of houses grew by 2.5%, to $323,000.
Condo sales are about two-thirds of all city homes sold in a month, so their performance dominates in measures of the overall city real estate market.
There’s another measure where the city’s condo market is markedly weaker than its house market. In the first three months of the year, according to CAR, Chicago houses sold in an average of 61 days on the market. Condos sold in an average of 99 days.
One reason might be the slower-than-expected return to downtown working, dining and entertainment, and the perception of rampant crime in downtown neighborhoods.
The Bottom Line
In the metro area, the median price of homes sold in March was $310,000, up 5.1% from a year earlier. In four of the past eight months, home prices have risen in the 5% range from the comparable time a year earlier. That’s after a 12-month stretch of increases of 10% or more.
Chicago-area home prices are not growing at the bubble-like speed of the nation’s. A report released separately today by the National Association of Realtors said home prices in March were up by 15% from March 2021 nationally.
Nationwide, March was the 121st consecutive month of year-over-year increases, the report said, the longest streak on record.