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Home sales up, but not necessarily their prices
Prudential realtor Jeannie LaPlaca (left) and homeowner Susan Lunz discuss where Susan will live once the town house is sold in Hinsdale. | James C. Svehla~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 4, 2013 6:16AM
HINSDALE — Realtor Dawn McKenna sees good things happening in the housing market in 2013.
“I think the market is really improving,” said McKenna, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker who concentrates her sales efforts in Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Burr Ridge and Oak Brook.
The most interest was shown in the $800,000 to $1.2 million market.
“That’s the sweet spot. We don’t have enough inventory,” McKenna said.
Linda Feinstein, owner of ERA Team Feinstein, said sales were up 20 percent this year at her real estate agency. That’s an increase in the number of transactions.
“I can’t say the prices have increased that much,” Feinstein said.
From January through November this year, 254 single-family homes sold in Hinsdale, compared with 218 in the first 11 months of 2011, according to statistics from the Mainstreet Organization of Realtors.
But the average selling price during that same period was $883,540 this year, lower than the two previous years. The average sale price was $944,624 in the first 11 months last year and $939,053 in 2010.
“There was a burst of activity in March and April, but July and August were very slow,” Feinstein said.
“It’s still very much a buyer’s market. But if sellers are very, very realistic in their pricing, (their home) will sell quick with multiple offers,” Feinstein said. Sellers “who are waiting for the golden apple of real estate are missing the boat.”
The Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills real estate markets “are almost one and the same,” Feinstein said, although “the inventory was really down this year in Clarendon Hills.”
Eighty-two single-family houses sold in Clarendon Hills from January through November this year, five more than the same period last year and the same as in 2010. But the average sale price during that period declined 15 percent from $640,314 in 2011 to $543,384 this year, according to MOR data.
Condominiums and townhouses in Clarendon Hills show similar trends. Thirty-five units were sold from January through November, more than double the 16 sold during that period last year, but the average sale price fell: $134,598 this year, compared with $175,136 last year and $158,336 in 2010. This year’s average price includes a foreclosed condo bought for $25,000 and a short sale of a condo for $33,500.
“The condo market has been hit pretty bad, but things are moving along,” said Realtor Jeannie LaPlaca of Prudential Rubloff, who has listings in Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills and Burr Ridge.
In Hinsdale, both the number and price of attached residential units sold climbed this year. From January to November, 43 units sold compared with 14 during that period last year and 29 units in 2010. The average sale price, too, grew from $237,074 in 2010 to 244,212 last year to $291,737 in the first 11 months this year.
“I think buyers are tired of waiting,” LaPlaca said, and with low interest rates, it’s a good time to get a good deal.
