(Tribune) Sales of existing homes in the Chicago area managed to rise 1.3 percent in 2011, with December home purchases increasing a robust 17 percent due to mild weather and record-low mortgage interest rates, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported Friday.
The city of Chicago did not enjoy an annual sales increase, however, as the 17,715 homes sold within the city was a 7.2 percent decline from 2010. In December, city home sales rose 6.4 percent on a year-over-year basis.
While sales volume showed improvement in December across the board, with many areas recording double-digit gains, median sales prices continued to slide from their year-ago comparisons, reinforcing a market that overwhelmingly benefits home purchasers. "Buyers are finding deals that are simply too good to pass up," said Loretta Alonzo, a real estate agent at Century 21 Alonzo & Associates in La Grange Park. "People are gravitating toward foreclosures and short sales right now and that's causing the median prices to drop."
In the nine-county Chicago area, the median price of the 6,090 homes sold in in December was $145,000, a 13.6 percent decline from a year ago. The pricing decline within the city was not as severe; the median price of $156,000 was a 6.2 percent drop from December 2010.
Some parts of the Chicago area showed dramatic improvements in demand for housing in December from a year ago. Sales volume rose 12.3 percent in Cook County, 15 percent in DuPage, 21 percent in Kane, 26 percent in Kendall, 20 percent in Lake, and 33 percent in Will. However, in all those cases, median sales priced declined.
"A trend nowadays is so hard to define," said Tom Krettler, a real estate agent at Re/Max United Northwest in Palatine. "You can have a one-month trend. I think there is some momentum. There's stuff going on right now. There's people who are interested in buying."
Within the city of Chicago, sales of condos and single-family homes both gained momentum last month from their December 2010 comparisons. Sales of condos posted a 5.3 percent gain, albeit with a 18.7 percent decline in the median price that brought it down to $183,000. For single-family homes within the city, sales rose 7.8 percent during the month, while the median price fell 1.7 percent from December 2010, to $135,000.
For the year as a whole, median prices declined 11.9 percent and 13.8 percent for the Chicago area and the city, respectively.
"Until these foreclosed properties and additions expected in 2012 clear the market, sustained upward movement in prices will be unlikely," said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, an economist at the University of Illinois, in a statement.
The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the Chicago area was 3.94 percent in December, compared with 4.8 percent in December 2010, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
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