Chicago homes sales experienced their typical fourth quarter slump at the end of 2011, settling to about 7,600 houses and 4,500 condominiums and townhomes sold within the city between October and December. Fourth quarter sales have typically been lower than third quarter sales in the last five years, and this year was no exception. Total sales settled about 19% below the number of sales in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, median selling prices of houses were down 5% for houses (to $155,000) and 15% for condominiums and townhomes (to $245,000). The median selling price of condos is the lowest since well before the housing boom in the early 2000s.
But the medians mask a wide disparity in sales across the city. A quarter of houses sold for below $80,000 and a quarter of condominiums sold for below $52,000, representing the fallout from the large number of units left vacant when sales collapsed.
The median selling price of a house is down 43% from its peak in 2007 and the median price of a condo is down 32% from its peak in 2008.
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.