Illinois Home Sales and Median Price Jump in February

Illinois home sales rose 16.2 percent over previous year levels and the statewide median price was up 5.1 percent, marking six straight months of year-over-year gains, according to IAR’s latest housing report. Said IAR President Michael D. Oldenettel, “The February home sales numbers show that we have a good rolling start into a portion of the year where traditionally we see more people list homes.” Find county-by-county stats, the latest forecast and market talking points in Members Only Market Stats (login required). Nationally, February existing-home sales and prices rose as well, NAR reports. Below is some of the media coverage of IAR’s housing report:

Chicago-area home sales post best February in 7 years
Chicago area existing home sales jump 20 percent in February
Illinois home sales up 16.2 percent in February

Illinois sees home sales increase in December; 2012 notches 22.9 percent sales gain over 2011

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois home sales increased 15.2 percent over previous-year levels in December and median prices increased 5.6 percent, according to the Illinois Association of REALTORS®.

Statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) in December 2012 totaled 10,265 homes sold, up from 8,908 in December 2011. Year-end 2012 home sales totaled 128,436, up 22.9 percent from 104,480 in 2011.

The statewide median price in December was $132,000, up 5.6 percent from December 2011 when the median price was $125,000. The December median price reflects a 10 percent gain from the year’s low point of $120,000 in February 2012. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less. Year-end 2012 median price reached $139,000, up 0.7 percent from $138,000 in 2011.

“Throughout 2012 we saw signs the state’s housing market was recovering,” said Michael D. Oldenettel, CRS, GRI, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS® and Managing Broker/Owner with RE/MAX Results Plus in Jacksonville, Ill. “When you look at where we were in January 2012 versus where we ended up in December, you have to be impressed with the market’s resilience.”

The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the North Central region was 3.32 percent in December 2012, down from 3.33 percent during the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Last December it averaged 3.94 percent.

In the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), home sales (single family and condominiums) in December 2012 totaled 7,372 homes sold, up 19.2 percent from December 2011 sales of 6,184 homes. Year-end 2012 home sales totaled 90,365, up 26.7 percent from 71,315 homes sold in the region in 2011.

The median price in December 2012 was $151,500 in the Chicago PMSA, up 4.5 percent from $145,000 in December 2011. The year-end 2012 median price reached $160,000, down -1.5 percent from $162,500 in 2011.

“Positive signs for the housing market continue with the comparative advantage of ownership versus rental generating a significant opportunity for increased housing sales in 2013,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, Director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. “The housing market is likely to experience some bumpiness in the first quarter of the year until there is resolution of the fiscal challenges in Washington and Springfield. Declining consumer confidence reflects the uncertainties; consumers are unlikely to explore major purchases, especially of houses, when tax rates, mortgage interest deductions and pension obligations remain unresolved.”

Fifty (50) of 102 Illinois counties reporting to IAR showed year-over-year home sales increases in December 2012. Thirty-nine (39) counties showed year-over-year median price increases including Cook, up 7.7 percent to $150,000; Jo Daviess, up 3.7 percent to $169,000; Kane, 9.4 percent to $142,270; Madison, up 24.5 percent to $114,500; Sangamon, up 3.5 percent to $124,500; Rock Island, up 7.4 percent to $91,250; Tazewell, up 23.1 percent to $129,900; and Winnebago, up 6.1 percent to $79,950.

The city of Chicago saw a 14.6 percent year-over-year home sales increase in December 2012 with 1,806 sales, up from 1,576 in December 2011. The year-end 2012 home sales totaled 22,333, up 22.4 percent from 18,250 home sales in 2011.
The condo market in the city of Chicago showed a sales increase of 17.7 percent to 1,037 units sold in December 2012.

The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in December 2012 was $185,000 up 19.4 percent compared to December 2011 when it was $155,000. The year-end 2012 median price reached $185,000, up 5.7 percent from $175,000 in 2011.

“December showed positive indicators across the board at the height of the holiday season, which is typically a quiet time for home sales,” said REALTOR® Zeke Morris, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and Operating Principal and Managing Broker, Keller Williams Realty, CCG. “In addition, the 18.9 percent decrease in market time from the same time in 2011 shows a continued clearing of inventory, of both single-family homes and condominiums, which should prompt action among buyers and sellers and continue to promote home price stabilization.”

Sales and price information is generated by Multiple Listing Service closed sales reported by 31 participating Illinois REALTOR® local boards and associations including Midwest Real Estate Data LLC data as of Jan. 7, 2013 for the period Dec. 1 through Dec. 31, 2012. The Chicago PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

The Illinois Association of REALTORS® is a voluntary trade association whose 41,000 members are engaged in all facets of the real estate industry. In addition to serving the professional needs of its members, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® works to protect the rights of private property owners in the state by recommending and promoting legislation to safeguard and advance the interest of real property ownership.

Find Illinois housing stats, data and the University of Illinois REAL forecast at http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/marketstats.

Market Stats and Research

Market Stats and Research
Illinois Sales, Median Prices Show Gains in November
Statewide home sales jumped 30.6 percent over previous-year levels in November and the state median price increased 7.7 percent, according to IAR’s latest housing report. Statewide home sales in November 2012 totaled 10,135 homes sold, up from 7,758 in November 2011. The state median price was $140,000 in November. Said IAR President Michael D. Oldenettel: “All of the measurements we are seeing in this report point to a housing market that is not losing strength. In fact, we have seen a respectable momentum in a part of the year when the real estate business tends to slow down for the holidays.”

title=”Local Monthly Market Update for November 2012″ target=”_blank”>http://www.iarbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/November2012.jpg

Illinois Association of REALTORS® | 522 South Fifth Street | Springfield, IL 62701
Ph. 217/529-2600 | FAX 217/529-3904 | http://www.illinoisrealtor.org | iarnews@iar.org

Market Stats and Research

Illinois Home Sales Soar 37.3 Percent In October
It was a banner month as Illinois home sales soared 37.3 percent over previous-year levels in October and median prices increased 3.0 percent, according to the latest IAR report. In October, Chicago PMSA home sales climbed 44.1 percent while the city of Chicago saw a 53.1 percent increase. “The rebound we have seen so far this year is impressive by any measure,” said IAR President Michael D. Oldenettel.  Find county-by-county statistics, talking points and the forecast in Members Only Market Stats (login required). Also download and share an infographic on the October home sales trends. Nationally, year-over-year existing home sales rose 10.9 percent in October, NAR reports.

Consumers More Confident About Home Buying
Fewer Americans are putting off their decision to buy a home because of the economy, according to a survey by FindLaw.com. While 63 percent of survey respondents in 2010 said they were holding off because of the economy, only 30 percent said that now. Read more from NAR.

Above information provided by Illinois Association of Realtors

Encouraging Signs

We’re seeing a lot of encouraging signs in the housing market across the country. NAR’s latest existing–home sales report shows there’s not inventory to meet the demand in many areas and that’s driving up prices and creating multiple bidding situations. These findings vary greatly from what we’ve had before. Hear more from an interview I did recently with XM radio, and be sure to share it with your clients.

Listen to President Moe Veissi’s radio interview

Home values rise for first time in 5 years

By Les Christie @CNNMoneyJuly 24, 2012: 5:16 AM ET

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Home prices hit a bottom and are finally bouncing back, according to an industry report released Tuesday.

Nationwide, home values rose 0.2% year-over-year to a median $149,300 during the second quarter, the first annual increase since 2007, real estate listing site Zillow reported. Prices were up 2.1% from the first quarter.

Even though June marked the fourth consecutive month of home value increases, overall home prices are still down almost 24% since April 2007, when Zillow began to track home values.

“[I]t seems clear that the country has hit a bottom in home values,” said Zillow’s chief economist Stan Humphries. “The housing recovery is holding together despite lower-than-expected job growth, indicating that it has some organic strength of its own.”

Last winter, Zillow projected that the housing market turnaround would not arrive until the end of the year.

Other home price indexes have also recorded gains lately, including the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. In it latest release, it reported that home prices in 20 major markets rose 1.3% in April, the first monthly increase in seven months.

Where home prices are rising the fastest

Zillow uses a different methodology in calculating home values than other home price indexes like Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Sales of foreclosed, bank-owned properties, for example, are not factored into Zillow’s data. Zillow does include short sales, however, which are more difficult to distinguish from conventional sales.

“Our index is geared to consumers, conventional sellers deciding whether they want to put their homes on the market,” said Humphries.

The indexes that include foreclosures in their market data show larger price declines. The peak-to-trough drop for the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, for example, is about 34% compared with Zillow’s 24%.

Fewer than one third of the 167 metro areas Zillow surveyed recorded annual increases in home values, but the size of the price gains in these areas more than offset the losses posted by the remaining two-thirds of the markets.

In Phoenix, the biggest gainer, home values soared 12.1% year-over-year to a median of $136,200. Meanwhile, the biggest loss sustained by any of the 30 largest metro areas was in Chicago where median home values fell 5.8% to $158,600.

Foreclosures remain one of the biggest risks to the housing market recovery, Humphries said. In the wake of the national foreclosure settlement which clarified how banks can legally pursue foreclosures, Humphries expects the pace of foreclosures to pick up.

“That will translate to more homes on the market,” he said. “But we think demand will rise to absorb that.”

Zillow expects the housing market to continue to slowly recover, with median home values projected to climb 1.1% — relatively flat — over the next 12 months.

Most affordable cities for buying a home

Beaten down markets like Phoenix, Las Vegas and many Florida cities, will likely record greater-than-average gains over the next 12 months, said Humphries.

The results in those places, however, will be bumpy. Home price increases will cause some homeowners who have been patiently waiting for values to rebound to put their homes on the market. And those additional listings could cool prices for a while, resulting in a staircase effect with “price spikes followed by plateaus,” said Humphries.  

Housing starts in June highest in four years

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

Housing starts jumped 6.9% in June to a 3 ½-year high, underscoring the residential real estate’s slow recovery as a bright spot in a sputtering economy.

• By Matt York, AP

  Workers frame a home in a new community in Gilbert, Ariz. Real estate experts say the Phoenix metro housing market is recovering faster than other U.S. cities.

Construction of homes and apartments rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 in June, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That exceeded analysts’ estimates and was the highest level since October 2008. Single-family home starts increased 4.7% to 539,000, highest since March 2010, though activity that year was inflated by a federal tax credit for home buyers.

Building-permit applications, a barometer of future construction, fell 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted pace of 755,000, but the decline was driven by a 10.9% drop in multifamily permits, which can be volatile.

After hitting all-time lows in the recession, single-family starts began to pick up the second half of last year and kicked into higher gear the past six months. Multifamily construction began to turn up about 18 months ago as Americans who lost their houses to foreclosure, among others, turned to renting.

“We’re finally starting to get some traction and move up in a credible way,” said Robert Denk, senior economist for the National Association of Homebuilders.

Housing starts rose 36.9% in the West, 22.2% in the Northeast and 4.2% in the South, while falling 7.3% in the Midwest.

Data by YCharts

Yet the housing market is still far from healthy. IHS Global Insight expects about 765,000 homes to be built this year, up from 612,000 in 2011, but that’s about half the 1.5 million annual starts that would constitute a normal market, said IHS economist Patrick Newport. He and Denk said it will take three to four years for construction activity to return to normal.

Credit conditions remain tight and nearly a quarter of homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, keeping them from moving to new units. And foreclosures continue to dump an outsized supply of homes on the market.

But despite a slowdown in payroll growth the past three months, employers have added nearly 4 million jobs in the past two years, prompting young adults who had moved in with parents or friends to rent apartments or buy homes, Newport said. At the same time, he said, inventories of about 144,000 new homes are near record lows and less than half the normal supply.

Meanwhile, home prices have stabilized recently, giving some Americans the confidence to trade up to new homes, Denk says. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he says, adding that a weakening recovery likely would slow but not derail the construction rebound.

After hampering the economy the past few years, Newport expects the housing market to add about a quarter of a point to expected economic growth of 2% this year.

Ed Kopal, owner of Kopal Building and Design in Tyler, Tex., plans to build 12 to 14 homes this year, up from five last year as his revenue increases sevenfold to about $7 million. For the first time in several years, he’s building homes worth at least $1 million as well as a community of 32 houses that don’t have buyers yet.

Buyers, he says, want to take advantage of low-interest rates. “They feel like interest rates will go up next year,” he says, and want to act before this fall’s presidential election potentially alters the economic landscape.

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