Sales of existing homes in the nine-county Chicago-area fell 9.9 percent in the first-quarter from their pace a year ago, to 12,937 homes sold, while the first-quarter median price of $155,000 was down 11.7 percent from the first three months of 2010, the Illinois Association of Realtors said Tuesday.
On a quarterly basis, all counties recorded a decrease in the number of homes sold. Only Will County had some good news, seeing a rise in the median price of 3.1 percent. (The median price is the point at which half the homes are sold for more and half are sold for less.)
Within the city of Chicago, first-quarter home sales fell 16.5 percent, to 3,540 sales, and the median price of $180,000 was down 8.2 percent from the $196,000 recorded in the first quarter of 2010. Condo sales, which made up more than half of total sales in the city, fell 16.7 percent to 1,961 units sold, and their median price fell 6.5 percent to $250,000.
During the first quarter, the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.89 percent in the Chicago area, compared with 4.44 percent in 2010's fourth quarter and 5.03 percent in 2010's first quarter, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. However, higher interest rates last year were offset by federal homebuyer tax credits of up to $8,000 for eligible homebuyers.
As a result, real estate agents expected comparisons made between the first half of this year and the first half of 2010 to look ugly.
Another report released Tuesday came from CoreLogic, a housing market data provider. CoreLogic said that Illinois was one of the five states with the greatest year-over year price depreciation of all properties in March, with prices down 10.6 percent from a year ago. Illinois' price decline was matched by Florida's, and the only states with worse results were Idaho, Arizona and Michigan.
Compared with a year ago, Chicago-area home prices in March fell 10.5 percent for all properties, including distressed sales, and were down 3.9 percent if the impact of foreclosures and short sales was excluded.
Nationally, home prices in March declined for the eighth consecutive month. They fell 7.5 percent year-over-year in March, after a drop of 5.8 percent in February. If the impact of foreclosed homes and short sales was removed from the calculation, year-over-year prices declined by .96 percent in March,
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