Chicago-area home prices post first gain in 50 months

Source: chicagotribune.com
By Mary Ellen Podmolik Tribune staff reporter
8:28 a.m. CDT, June 21, 2012

It took 50 months to happen, but the median selling price of a home in the Chicago area posted a year-over-year gain in May.

With the city of Chicago, the median sales price increased even more, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

It was the smallest of median price gains for the nine-county Chicago area - $170,000 last month compared with $169,900 in May 2011- but the last time prices rose on a year-over-year basis was in March 2008.

"One event does not a trend make, but the numbers have been going in the right direction to this point," said Jon Broadbooks, a spokesman for the association.

That price increase accompanied a 25.3 percent increase in sales volume. Last month, 8,276 homes were sold in the Chicago area, compared with 6,605 homes in May 2011.

Within the city of Chicago, May home sales totaled 2,037, rising 19.6 percent from May. The median home price within the city, of $203,000, was up 6.8 percent from last year's $190,000.

The gain within the city came from sales of single-family homes, not condos. A 8.9 percent uptick year-over-year in the number of single-family homes sold was accompanied by a 11.9 percent increase in the median selling price, to $151,000.

While the city's condo market saw sales rise 26.8 percent, to 1,290 units sold during the month, the median price of $249,400 was a 0.2 percent decline from May 2011.

Home sales volume was expected to rise locally heading into summer. May closings reflect homes that went under contract two to three months ago, and area real estate agents were busy with showings in February and March, in part thanks to a mild winter.

"For the first time since the recession began, median house prices are increasing on an annual basis and are forecast to continue this trend through the end of the summer," said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of University of Illinois' regional economics applications laboratory, in a statement.

"The weaker than expected job figures for the last few months appear not to have affected the housing market; inventories are down, sales volumes are up and the pending sales index is at its highest point since 2008."