Anyone involved in the sale or purchase of a home has likely dealt with some effects of a tight inventory, which has been coloring the residential market across the country this year. Housing data shows that whenever homes do go on the market, they’re often sold very quickly and for higher prices to buyers who are willing to shell out the cash needed to beat their competition.

The Chicagoland market is no different — in fact, conditions may be even more extreme, with recent numbers from RE/MAX Northern Illinois showing that the amount of times home spent on the market in the third quarter of 2017 was the lowest in more than 10 years.

Homes spent an average of 68 days on the market in that time, the shortest time since the organization began tracking that metric in 2005. That’s more than double the national average; according to the National Association of Realtors, homes typically stayed on the market for just 30 days in August, which was the same as July and lower than August 2016’s average of 36 days.

Meanwhile, the tight inventory led to a slight dip in sales — down 2.1 percent to 32,418 from last year — if only because there were fewer homes available to be sold.

“Lower inventory levels clearly had an impact on third-quarter housing sales, helping boost prices and reduce market times, while leading to a small reduction in total sales,” said Chris Calomino, marketing communications manager for RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

Prices grow while inventory shrinks

The old supply-and-demand model of economics is at play in the housing market right now — the smaller the supply, the bigger the demand. That’s causing home prices in most parts of the country to grow, especially in Chicagoland, where inventory dipped 7.8 percent in August 2017 from August 2016.

The median sales price of homes sold in the region in the third quarter rose 4.8 percent to $241,000 from the same time last year. According to the brokerage, sales for the last quarter were 88.7 percent of the total in the second quarter, marking the first time since 2010 that third-quarter sales were less than 94 percent of the previous quarter.

Cautious optimism in 2018

Although Illinois’ precarious political outlook and uncertainty in how state taxes will affect its economy, some predict that the housing market will improve next year in both the number of homes sold and their prices. In a recent address to the Main Street Organization of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said he expects sales volume to jump 10 percent in 2018, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.

The volatile nature of the state government may continue into the new year: Gubernatorial primaries will be held in March, with the proper election next November, and the outcomes could have a huge role in how homeowners are taxed and how confident people are in buying new homes. But there are reasons to be positive in the housing market.

Yun said the state is experiencing slight job growth. The number of jobs in Illinois are now about 2 percent above the peak before the Great Recession, and Yun said he expects that number to keep growing.

Calomino ultimately is optimistic that the state’s market will overcome its inventory obstacles and won’t encounter the same problems it faced in 2010.

“What’s holding the market back now is a lack of entry-level and mid-level inventory. Interest rates remain attractive, and the job market continues to improve.”