Although the Chicago-area economy has seen 8 months of increasing unemployment, the city’s housing market showed some signs of optimism in the third quarter of 2011. Data covering July, August, and September showed a spike in single-family home sales and the third straight quarter of condominium price and sales velocity increases.
The third quarter is typically a strong quarter, especially in stable family-oriented neighborhoods, as families with children move before the school year. Even by this standard, however, this year’s third quarter was strong, with a higher increase in sales and prices than in recent years.
In sum:
This marked the third consecutive quarter of increasing selling prices and increasing sales velocity among condominiums. For houses, the third quarter saw the second-largest spike in sales velocity in the last five years. The largest was coming off the disastrous first quarter of 2009.
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.
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