RE/MAX Analysis Offers County-by-County Look at Sales Activity in 3rd Quarter Metro Chicago Real Estate Market
Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market has improved steadily over the course of 2009 based on data available for sales through the first nine months of the year. Overall, sales activity during the third quarter of 2009 was 3.5 percent higher than during the same period of 2008, according to an analysis by the RE/MAX northern Illinois real estate network.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) November 4, 2009 -- Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market has improved steadily over the course of 2009 based on data available for sales through the first nine months of the year. Overall, sales activity during the third quarter of 2009 was 3.5 percent higher than during the same period of 2008, according to an analysis by the RE/MAX northern Illinois real estate network.
Jim Merrion, Regional Director, RE/MAX Northern Illinois
Three months earlier, at the end of the second quarter, 2009 year-to-date home sales activity in the seven-county metropolitan area was 20 percent below the comparable period in 2008.
"We have seen a broad increase in home sales activity across the metropolitan area, and given how weak sales were in the fourth quarter of last year and how active the market is right now, I wouldn't be surprised if 2009 sales exceed those of 2008 when this year is complete," said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.
At the end of the third quarter, total home sales in the metropolitan area for the first 9 months of 2009 were 11 percent lower than for the same period a year earlier.
Yet the residential market presented two very different faces when examined more closely. Sales of detached homes, primarily single-family residences, were up 11.3 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, sales of attached homes, primarily condominium apartments and townhouses, declined 7.8 percent on the same basis.
Both categories showed a considerable improvement over the first half of the year when detached sales fell 5.8 percent and attached homes sales declined 36.8 percent.
"The metropolitan Chicago housing market still faces a number of challenges in terms of achieving full recovery, but the situation is much better than it was during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of this year," said Merrion. "Median home sales prices continued to decline in some areas, but much of that may reflect the price concessions made to move distressed properties. The recent report that home prices nationally have risen for three months in row is certainly encouraging, but each local market is different, and the national trend may not reflect local reality."
The RE/MAX analysis looked at homes sales activities in seven counties in the heart of the Chicago metropolitan area, Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will, as well as in the City of Chicago itself. Here are brief summaries of what the RE/MAX analysis found in each of those counties and for Chicago.
Cook County Real Estate Market
Single-family home sales in Cook County were up sharply during the third quarter of this year, with 6,819 homes changing hands, an increase of 20 percent over the comparable period in 2008. Sales were up 10 percent through the first nine months of this year. In contrast, sales of attached homes remained soft, falling 9.3 percent for the quarter and 28.7 percent for the January-September period compared to the same months in 2008.
Outside of Chicago, total home sales in the county for the January-September period were just 1.3 percent below the comparable 2008 figure. That compares to an 11 deficit at then end of the first six months of this year.
One area where sales increased strongly was the northwest suburban communities of Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect and Palatine. There, sales of both attached and detached homes for the first nine months of 2009 topped the totals posted a year earlier. Other Cook County suburbs achieving similar across-the-board increases in home sales were Bridgeview, Broadview, Burbank, Country Club Hills, Elmwood Park, Harwood Heights, Justice, Lincolnwood, Matteson, Melrose Park, Northlake, Olympia Fields, Palos Park, River Grove, Schiller Park, Summit and Westchester.
City of Chicago Real Estate Market
Sales results in Chicago were similar to those for Cook County as a whole but revealed an even more pronounced split between activity in detached and attached homes. Detached home sales in the city were up 23 percent in the quarter and 18.6 percent for the nine-month period compared to 2008 totals. Sales of attached homes, on the other hand, were 15.6 percent lower during the quarter and 34.3 percent lower for the January-September period. Overall, sales activity in the city was down 3.7 percent for the quarter and 19.4 percent for the first nine months of the year.
Forty-eight of the city's 77 official neighborhoods experienced an increase in sales of detached homes during the January-September period, but only 16 had a similar gain in attached home sales. The areas of the city showing the most uniform gains in detached sales were on the Northwest Side, including Edison Park, Norwood Park, O'Hare, Portage Park, Irving Park, Dunning, Montclare, Belmont Cragin, Hermosa, Avondale and Humboldt Park, as well as much of the South and Southwest Sides. The south and southwest neighborhoods showing the largest increases in detached home sales relative to last year were Ashburn, Chicago Lawn, Clearing, Gage Park, Greater Grand Crossing, New City, Washington Heights and West Lawn.
On the Far North Side, the West Ridge neighborhood was one of the few in the city to record gains in both detached and attached sales for the January-September period. Other neighborhoods in that category were Ashburn, Avalon Park, Burnside, Clearing, East Side, Greater Grand Crossing, New City, O'Hare, Pullman, Roseland, South Chicago, South Lawndale, West Elsdon and Woodlawn.
DuPage County Real Estate Market
DuPage County home sales activity increased 4 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, thanks to an 8.6 percent gain in sales of detached homes. That represented a marked change from the 21 percent decline in sales record during the first six months of 2009. In the third quarter, 1,676 detached homes were sold in DuPage, compared to 821 attached units. Attached sales declined 4 percent.
For the January-September period, 12 towns in the county saw an increase in residential sales, with Addison achieving the largest percentage gain, 44 percent. Other communities showing substantial increases were Bensenville, Glendale Heights, Villa Park and Hinsdale.
Lake County Real Estate Market
Through the first nine months of 2009, home sales in Lake County were running 9.8 percent behind the 2008 pace, with attached sales down 23 percent and detached sales off 4 percent. However, sales in the third quarter rose 3.6 percent, led by a 4.7 percent increase in detached sales, while attached sales matched the 2008 total for the quarter.
Detached home sales showed improvement both in communities offering more moderately priced homes such as Round Lake (up 7.5 percent) and Waukegan-Park City (up 21 percent), and those with higher median prices, such as Deerfield (up 11 percent) and Lincolnshire (up 35 percent). Sales of attached homes rose modestly in many towns when compared to the third quarter of last year, and Lincolnshire was the standout in this category, with sales more than doubling from a year earlier.
Will County Real Estate Market
Sales activity in Will County increased slightly during the third quarter, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, and for the first nine months of the year sales activity fell just 9 percent, which is the second strongest showing among the seven counties covered in the RE/MAX analysis.
Sales of detached homes rose 0.5 percent and Will County defied the broader trend in attached sales by posting a 5.6 percent increase, the second largest in the seven-county metro area. Attached sales were up 51 percent in Romeoville, which account for 10 percent of all 935 attached sales in the county during the third quarter. Bolingbrook, Lemont, Manhattan and Mokena all recorded strong growth in sales activity for detached homes.
McHenry County Real Estate Market
McHenry, along with Kane County to its south, turned in the weakest home sales results in the third quarter. Sales of all homes fell 5.5 percent, with detached sales down 1.7 percent and attached sales off 17.8 percent when compared to July-September 2008. For the first nine months of this year, McHenry home sales fell 13.3 percent compared to the same period in 2008.
Detached sales have shown strength in Spring Grove (up 35 percent), Crystal Lake (up 7.4 percent) and Huntley (up 6.7 percent) through the first nine months of the year. Spring Lake, Wonder Lake and Union were the only three communities to report an increase in total home sales during that period.
Kane County Real Estate Market
Kane County had the sharpest decline in home sales among the seven counties covered by the RE/MAX analysis. That was true for both for the third quarter and the first nine months of the year. Total sales in Kane dropped 10 percent for the quarter and 15.2 percent for the January-September period when compared to 2008 results.
During the third quarter, detached sales were down 10.7 percent and attached sales were off 30.7 percent compared to last year. Elgin was a bright spot, with total sales up 9 percent to 656 homes. In the Hampshire-Pingree Grove submarket, sales rose 35 percent to 93 homes.
Kendall County Real Estate Market
Kendall County turned in the strongest performance among the seven counties, with total sales up 18.3 percent for the third quarter and down only 2.8 percent through the first nine months of the year. Sales of attached homes played a key role in the encouraging third-quarter results, rising 23.5 percent.
For the January-September period, detached sales rose 1 percent in the county while attached sales were off 14.6 percent. Aurora and Plano have been to two market areas producing the best sales results in 2009 relative to 2008.
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