There were two months of available inventory in the Chicagoland PMSA during September, according to the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS® — which is about four months shy of a healthy market.
However, the organization noted that the picture looks different suburb to suburb. “I worked with buyers in the western suburbs who put in multiple offers over asking before they decided to take a break from the market,” Mainstreet President Tim Ryan said in a press release. Meanwhile, that’s not the case in south and southeast suburbs where homes remain a bit lower.
“I told them if they were willing to expand their search to more communities, they could find a very similar home and they would be able to close on it almost right away,” Ryan continued. “For some serious buyers, expanding their search to include a broader geographic area may be the way to go.”
Mainstreet CEO John Gormley also offered some suggestions. “In addition to the Fed halting rate increases, there are things that municipalities can do to free up inventory and encourage the construction of new homes,” he said. “Modifying impact fees and zoning laws, thinking differently about big box retail properties and providing tax incentives for purchasing vacant properties are a few of the options.”
Overall though, amid low inventory, both detached and attached homes were down in September.
Detached home sales dropped 20.8% year over year to 2,410 sales, while prices inched 6.8% higher. The median price for a detached suburban home was $360,000 in September. Meanwhile, time on market shrank a single day to 34 days.
Attached home sales dropped 17.5%, year over year with 1,240 September sales, and the median sale prices grew 11.1 to $240,000. Time on market also decreased from 34 to 23 days.
In some suburbs, however, time on the market was up. The suburbs where detached homes saw increases were, in order: Midlothian (a 166.7% increase), Hinsdale (148.9%), Villa Park (80.8%), Brookfield (60.9%), Park Ridge (57.1%), Calumet City (54.4%), Chicago Heights (50.0%), Zion (37.1%), Oak Lawn (31.6%), West Chicago (29.2%) and Addison (20%).