Average Home-Sale Time Drops Below 100 Days for First Time Since 2006

The average market time for homes sold during July to only 97 days in the seven-county metropolitan Chicago real estate market. It is the first time the monthly average has dropped below 100 days since September 2006, the height of the housing boom, RE/MAX reports.

In Kane County, the news is mostly positive, as well. The median price for a single-family home is up 19 percent year over year, to $173,000 in the month of July. The cost for an attached home — a townhome or condominium, for example — the median price rose 16 percent to $125,058.

Again, the RE/MAX analysis compared July sales this year to those of July 2012. 

Home sales in the metro area totaled 11,739 units, up 36 percent from the prior July, while the median sales price climbed 19 percent to $204,975. The July results yielded the largest percentage increase in both transactions and median sales price of any month this year.

“What seems to be driving the housing market right now is a combination of factors, starting with strong demand from buyers and an inventory that remains quite limited compared to that demand,” said Laura Ortoleva, spokesperson for RE/MAX in northern Illinois. “Rising mortgage interest rates are another motivating factor for buyers. Rising rents are making the option of home ownership more attractive to renters.”

According to Ortoleva, home prices have moved higher, and while they may not be back to the levels of 2007 in most areas, they are encouraging homeowners interested in selling to list their properties. 

“That has helped the inventory level a bit, but we are seeing what amount to sellers’ markets emerging in some parts of the metro area,” she said.    

Sales of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) represented 29 percent of all July home sales, compared to 36 percent a year earlier and just 28 percent in June of this year. 

SOURCE: RE/MAX press release