Though home sales continued shrinking across Chicagoland’s suburbs, last month showed a slight uptick, according to new data from the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®. With 2,344 detached homes sold in October 2023, sales dipped 5.8% year over year — an improvement from the double-digit decreases seen throughout 2023.
Several suburbs even saw an increase in home sales. They were, in order: Park Forest (up 115.0% year over year), Niles (110%), Oswego (85.7%), Brookfield (70.0%), Westmont (69.2%), Homewood (44.4%), Park Ridge (40%), Hazel Crest (33.3%), Aslip (20%), Markham (17.7%), Naperville (16.1%), Hoffman Estates (13%), Wheaton (12.1%) and the Long Grove-Lake Zurich-Hawthorn Woods-Kildeer region (5.7%).
Meanwhile, time on market was down to 38 days, a four-day decrease year over year, and the median sales price increased 7.7%, to $349,900.
Attached homes, however, demonstrated typical 2023 trends. In October 2023, attached-home sales were down 14.2% year over year with 1,121 homes sold. Time on the market last month fell 31.3%, from 32 days last October to 22 days this October, and prices were up 13% from $215,000 to $243,000 this year.
“It’s hard to say if the even-out in number of homes sold from this October to last October is something we will continue to see in future months, but what I can say is … buying a home in today’s market is becoming more and more challenging,” Mainstreet President Tim Ryan said in a press release that accompanied the report.
The press release also highlighted recent data from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), which found that, between July 2022 and June 2023, the homebuyers’ median income increased 22% to $107,000: a record-high for both income and yearly growth.
Down payments for first-time buyers also soared to 8% of the home price, according to NAR, the highest percentage recorded since 1997. For repeat buyers, the typical down payment was 19%, the highest percentage recorded since 2005.
“The only people who are looking to move are doing so because of a change in life circumstances that is leading them to have to move right now. However, because of such low inventory, homes are still moving quickly,” Ryan concluded.