The following arrived via a news release from Redfin:
This past August, typically one of the hottest selling months of the year, the number of newly listed homes dropped 9.3% nationally (month over month), while the median sale price dipped 1.4% (MoM). Usually lower inventory serves as a driver of higher prices, making August 2014 one of the strangest months in recent memory.
So what’s going on? As we report in Redfin’s latest Real Time Housing Market Tracker, our take is that the seemingly incongruous August numbers reflect the mindsets of buyers and sellers. Buyers want to buy, but they’re patient, and more careful not to overpay. At the same time, sellers are adjusting to having less power, which seems to have put a damper on some listing their homes.
Dovetailing with the national trends, Chicagoland shows a marked decrease is the number of homes sold in August – the number of total sales dropped by 12.9% as compared to August 2013. And this was in the face of an incredible increase in the number of Chicagoland homes for sale – up a whopping 25.7% as compared to last year.
Which means that Chicago buyers are being picky, even as prices are relatively steady. And sellers are starting to catch on: month over month, the number of new listings in Chicagoland dropped by 9.1% in August, consistent with the national numbers.