23-Jul-17 – A total of 14,631 existing housing units were sold in Chicago during the first half of 2017, a gain of 2.8 percent over the same period last year, reported RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

Some 5,405 single-family homes were sold in the city, a slight gain over the first half of 2016. However, the attached-home market posted better results. Condos, co-ops, and townhomes accounted for 9,226 units sold, up 4.4 percent over the first half of last year.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the way the market has performed during the first half of this year despite the relative scarcity of listings,” explained Jack Kreider (left), executive vice president and regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois. “Average market time for homes sold during that period was 87 days, the lowest number for any first half since 2005, but in June it was just 69 days, the shortest market time for any month since we began tracking that data 13 years ago.”

With homes selling quickly and prices rising, it has been a good year for sellers, noted Kreider. “I don’t expect that to change soon. If the Federal Reserve raises interest rates slowly that should help maintain the strong demand for homes that we’ve seen over the last several years.”

Affordable home loan rates at or below four percent interest also have helped attract buyers to the marketplace, experts say.

Benchmark 30-year fixed mortgages averaged 3.96 percent for the week ending July 20, down from 4.03 percent a week earlier, reported Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. A year ago, 30-year fixed loans averaged 3.45 percent.

“Continued economic uncertainty and weak inflation data pushed rates lower,” said Sean Becketti (right), chief economist for Freddie Mac. “The 10-year Treasury yield fell five basis points this week. The 30-year mortgage rate moved with Treasury yields, dropping seven basis points to 3.96 percent.”

According to RE/MAX, home sales activity in the seven-county Chicago metro area increased four percent to 58,275 units in the first half of 2017. The median sales price gained 6.6 percent to $239,900 over the past six months.

Sales of detached homes rose to 36,566 units in the first half of 2017, a three percent gain over the same period last year. The median sales price gained 6.7 percent to $256,000, and average market time fell by seven days to 98 days.

Sales of condos, co-ops, and townhomes rose 5.9 percent to 21,709 units in the first half of the year. The median sales price gained 5.8 percent to $201,000. Average market time in this category fell to just 67 days for the six-month period.

Those increases were achieved despite a limited supply of homes for sale, RE/MAX noted. The number of listings on the market on June 30 was down ten percent from a year earlier, and the 33,704 homes on the market equaled just a 2.4-month supply.

The home sales data used for the RE/MAX analysis is collected by MRED, the regional multiple listing service. It covers detached and attached homes in the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.