What’s the Latest Housing Update in Chicagoland?

By John Lyons

John Lyons, a distinguished broker associate at Baird & Warner, has carved a niche in the Chicago real estate market with his comprehensive, client-first approach. With over $130 million in career sales, Lyons has a proven track record in assisting a diverse range of clients, including luxury home buyers, first-time buyers, sellers looking to move up, and investors.

We are now in the second half of the year, and once more, I am here to give you a Chicago real estate market update focusing on the area south of Rogers Park, east of Western Avenue, and down to Chinatown.

The median sales prices for these areas continue to rise in all market segments. Compared to last year, single-family homes rose to 8.7%, which is the most drastic increase out of all market segments, followed by townhouses with a 3.6% increase, then detached single-family homes with a 1.5% increase, and lastly, condos with a 1.3% increase.

While days on the market are fluctuating, they’re all below 30 days. Starting with 21 days for a detached home, 20 days for a condominium, 19 days for an attached single-family home, and 14 days for a warehouse. This trend is caused by a low supply of homes, not only in the areas that I pulled up but across the country as well. This also indicates that we are deeply into a seller’s market.

But what is a seller’s market? A seller’s market is based on supply and demand. In real estate, a normal market has six months of supply or inventory. Anything below six months of inventory is a seller’s market. Looking at the current market supply of the areas I’ve pulled, all of them are less than 3.5 months, which means that there’s pressure for prices to continue to increase and days on the market are low. Right now, our inventory for single-family homes is 3.5 months, 2.9 months for condominiums, 2.8 months for attached single-family homes, and 1.9 months for townhouses.

The last point for this update touches upon negotiations for these types of properties. Today, there is a 98.5% to 99% chance that sellers get their asking price with very little negotiation. Given that the property is priced and marketed correctly, it will sell fast.

Properties that are disproportionately priced are expected to sell a bit longer, but still within 30 days. Because there are few properties on the market, you might be able to get a premium for your home, but buyers will most likely go to another home seller in the neighborhood that they think has properties that are more appropriately priced.

I hope this helped shed light on today’s market conditions. If you have any questions about buying or selling a property in the Chicago area, call or send me an email. I’ll be here to help.