Lincoln Park market times up, price trends mixed

Yo’s Lincoln Park week is over, but we didn’t want to call it quits without a closer look at some neighborhood stats we started posting on Friday.

According to Coldwell Banker sales agent Karen Stierwalt, more homes generally sold during the first six months of this year in Lincoln Park than during the same period last year, but market times were up. Prices for single-family homes and one-bedroom condos fell, but median prices for larger condos saw healthy increases.

Stierwalt analyzed stats she compiled from the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois for Jan. 1 to June 28, 2006 and the same period during 2007:

• The average market time for a single-family house in Lincoln Park was 185 days during the first six months of this year, up more than 29 percent over the 143-day average recorded during the same period last year.
• The median price of a single-family house during the first six months of ’07 was around $1.3 million in Lincoln Park, down more than 9 percent from the median of $1.42 million during the same period in 2006. Ten percent fewer houses were sold during the first half of ’07, according to MLS figures – 90 so far this year and 100 during the first half of last year.
• The market time for two-bedroom condos was up about 14 percent, to 118 days, but the volume of units sold and their prices were up too. The median price of a two-bedroom condo was $407,900 during the first half of ’07, up 4.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. The number of two-bedroom condos sold increased to 315 during the first six months of 2007, up 12 percent from the 282 sold during the same period last year.
• Condos with three or more bedrooms sold slightly faster than twos – a 100-day average market time so far in ’07 compared to 109 days during the same period last year – and their median price was up 5 percent, to $629,900.
• Prices fell slightly for one-bedrooms as average market times rose for these units in Lincoln Park, according to Stierwalt’s figures. The median price of a one-bedroom was $245,000 during the first six months of ’07, down 1.6 percent from the same period in ’06. The average market time for these units has been 80 days so far in 2007, up from 67 during the first half of last year.