The average days on market have plummeted for listings in some of Chicago’s hottest real estate markets.

The market definitely wasn’t like this a year ago. Have the tables turned, and is Chicago’s market now a seller’s market?

Maybe. Depending on the quality of the property and location/neighborhood, it appears that many properties listed for sale are moving with lightning speed. According to Chicago Magazine, here are just a few tales of the change in selling trends.

Days on Market in Chicago’s Hottest Real Estate Markets

• A townhome in Old Town and a two-bedroom condo in Lincoln Park both sold in under a week, according to their listing agent, Joanne Nemerovski of Prudential Rubloff.
• A River North three-bedroom loft was sold in a day, and the winning bid beat out three other offers. Koenig & Strey’s Debra Dobbs, the listing agent, reportedly has a folder of 27 people to call if the deal falls apart.
• A two-bedroom loft in the West Loop had 35 showings in the ten days it took to sell,  says Scott Sasse of Quest Realty Group.

With the shortage of inventory (according to MRED, there were 40.8 percent fewer homes on the market in January than there had been a year before) and slight increase in home prices (2.2 percent according to Case-Shiller), it appears that a property’s average market time is actively decreasing. In fact, according to MRED, average days on market for condos in Lincoln Park listed in January 2012 was 142; January 2013’s average days on market is a mere 93 days. For West Town, which encompasses Bucktown/Wicker Park, these numbers are 203 and 139 – giving both areas more than 30 percent of improvement in terms of time a property is on the market before it’s

Now, the key points to make here, however, are that these properties all seem to have the best of the best – these are top-quality units in terms of layout, location, amenities and finishes. They’re not all necessarily expensive – the West Loop loft was only listed at $334,900, compared to more than half a million asking prices for the townhouse and Lincoln Park condo Nemerovski sold. It’s a race to get quality, well-priced properties in this market – how long do you think this will last?