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Local Realtors report rising sales
Updated: July 3, 2012 5:58PM
The latest numbers from the Illinois Association of Realtors show that things are looking up in the home sales market for the first time in years, and local Realtors are noticing the trend.
“Right now in Oak Brook, things are moving,” said Lina Shah, Realtor with Coldwell Banker Oak Brook.
Nine properties sold in Oak Brook in May 2012, compared to five in the same month the year before.
Shah said the owner of a good property that is priced right can expect it to move quickly.
Shah said she has sold four homes in the upscale Midwest Club in the last four months, including a foreclosure that was the object of a bidding war.
With demand for homes outnumbering the homes on the market, Shah said calls for showings sometimes start before she has time to put a sign in the yard.
“There is a definite uptick in sales,” said Nina Fotopoulos, vice president and managing broker at Coldwell Banker, Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills.
Like Shah, Fotopoulos said good homes in Oak Brook are selling well.
She said today’s buyers aren’t looking for fixer-uppers.
“They have to have everything,” she said.
The average time to sell a home in Oak Brook has dropped from 300 days to 186 days. But Fotopoulos said she looks forward to that time dropping even lower.
Chicago-area home prices edged up 0.1 percent in May from a year earlier — the first increase in more than four years, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported. Across the metropolitan area, home sales rose 25.3 percent, according to the report, as sales across Illinois recorded their best May since 2007.
In Oak Brook, nine properties sold in May 2012, compared to five in the same month the year before. Those homes generally sold for about 88.9 percent of their list price, averaging $1,025.
“The weaker-than-expected job figures for the last few months appear not to have affected the housing market,” said Geoffrey Hewings, the director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Inventories are down. Sales volumes are up. And the pending-sales index is at its highest point since 2008.”
DuPage drop
Despite the encouraging reports from local Realtors, overall sales in DuPage County fell by 0.7 percent. Still, Hewings predicts that year-over-year price increases will continue through the end of the summer.
Statewide, the median price rose 3.6 percent, to $145,000, the third straight month of increases.
Home sales rose 22.1 percent, to 11,984. That was the best performance since 14,493 homes were sold in May 2007.
“If there was any uncertainty about whether the housing market was going to hold up as we moved deeper into the year, that’s been dispelled,” said Loretta Alonzo, president of the association. “All the indicators seem to reflect a stabilizing housing market, which is a strong contributor to a broader economic recovery.”
Contributing: Francine Knowles
