Chicago-area home sales down 25% in July

By Staff, Aug. 25, 2008

(Crain's) — Home sales in the Chicago area fell 25% in July, according to the Illinois Assn. of Realtors.

The decrease over July 2007, while steep, marked a slight improvement over recent periods. In the second quarter, Chicago-area home sales were down 29% compared with the second quarter last year.

"While most housing-related indicators reveal continued problems, there is some increasing evidence the supply and demand may be moving more into balance, especially in many metropolitan markets in Illinois," Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois, said in a Realtors’ release Monday.

In the nine-county Chicago region, single-family and condominium sales totaled 7,274 in July, a drop of 25.2% compared with 9,730 sales in July 2007, the Realtors’ group said in the release.

In the city of Chicago, home sales fell 20.9% in July, to 2,167 compared with 2,738 in July 2007.

The median home sale price in the Chicago area was $254,900 in July, down from $262,500 in the same period last year. The median price in the city of Chicago was $299,000 in July, down 0.3% compared with $300,000 in July 2007.

The median is the price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

Statewide sales also fell 25.2% in July, to 11,021, compared with 14,738 in July 2007, the Realtors’ group said. The median sale price statewide was $199,900, a decrease of 4.8% compared with the same month last year.

“While July typically is the slower summer month for home sales in Illinois, this year the drag on the housing market is amplified by overall economic uncertainty among consumers," Kay Wirth, president of the Illinois Assn. of Realtors, said in the release.

The Realtors group's sales figures include new and existing homes. The nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

Meanwhile, sales of existing homes rose 3.1% in the U.S. in July, easily beating Wall Street's expectations, as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties in parts of the country hit hardest by the housing bust.

However, the number of unsold properties hit an all-time high, the latest indication that the worst housing market slump in decades is far from over.

The National Assn. of Realtors reported Monday that sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units. Sales had been expected to rise by only 1.6%, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

Home sales were 13.2% lower than a year ago and prices were down dramatically. The median price for a home sold in July in the U.S. dropped to $212,000, down 7.1% compared with July 2007.

Despite the third monthly sales jump this year, the number of unsold single-family homes and condominiums rose to 4.67 million, the highest number since 1968, when the Realtors group started tracking the data.

That represented a 11.2 month supply at the July sales pace, matching the all-time high set in April.

Sales were up in all regions of the country except the South, which posted a 0.5% decline. Sales rose by 5.9% in the Northeast, 0.9% in the Midwest and 9.7% in the West.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.