Earlier this week, I wrote that sales were down significantly across the city in the fourth quarter of 2010 — specifically, sales of houses were down 20% from last quarter and 22% from the same quarter in 2009. The story was similar for condos, as sales of these were down 29% from a quarter ago and 26% from the same quarter last year.
Usually, there is a fair amount of variety across the 20 neighborhoods I regularly track. This time, however, it was all one sided, as the chart at right shows. I track 20 neighborhoods, two property types each. Sales were down in 37 of the 40 metrics. Only houses in Near North Side and West Town and condos in Jefferson Park were up over the same quarter last year.
Though most median selling prices were down, it wasn’t quite as one-sided. Visit Lakeshore Analytics to find a chart showing the changes in median price by neighborhood, as well as charts that show the prices and sales volume for each of 20 top neighborhoods. I’ll follow up with more neighborhood-specific data next week.
Just as a quick follow up — I noticed right above this item is a Money magazine article titled, “Home sales grow, aided by stabler prices.”
The headline is based on comparing 4Q 2010 to 3Q 2010, which is valid, but the article goes on to mention about halfway down:
“The number of sales fell nearly 20% nationally, however, compared with the same period in 2009, when the homebuyer’s tax credit was in effect.”
Most analysis of home trends is “YOY” or, one quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago, just because of seasonality. However, it is valid to compare one quarter to the previous quarter. Money finds that nationally, 4Q 2010 had more sales than 3Q 2010, but Chicago went against this national trend. My data, which is based on public records, says the number of sales fell sharply in the city. Illinois Assn of Realtors, which tracks this by county and uses a different data source (MLS), found Cook County sales were down about 14 percent.