The number of homes sold in Chicago increased slightly in the second quarter of 2011, but the pernicious influence of distressed sales has been dragging down the median price of a home sold to just $142,000, or about half the peak of $275,000 in Q3 2007. Condominium selling prices and sales volume both increased slightly in Q2. The median price of a condo sold was $216,500.
Sales volume often increases in the second quarter, as it did this year; even so, the city’s sales volume is anemic. The 7,048 single family homes sold and 4,666 condominiums sold are well below the sales pace even during the recession of 2009 and 2010. Tighter lending standards and homeowner paralysis seem to have taken hold in the fourth quarter of last year and the sales pace has not recovered.
In future posts, I’ll break down the latest numbers by 20 top neighborhoods. All data will be included in a quarterly market report, to be released in coming weeks.
Jeff Baird is a real estate valuation consultant based in Chicago. He founded Lakeshore Analytics to bring comprehensive, understandable housing data and analysis to Chicago-area readers. The site features a blog with free market news and charts, summary data on 20 top neighborhoods, and quarterly data subscriptions.