Chicago Condo Directory

January 27, 2009 - The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index report made public this week gave a sobering and realistic view of the troubled housing market. The report showed that home prices in 11 of the 20 biggest U.S. markets experienced record annual drops. All of the 20 cities in the report showed price decreases from November 2007 to November 2008. Overall, November year to year prices (2007 to 2008) fell a record 18.2%.

Locally, Crain’s reports that the Illinois Association of Realtors found that Chicago area homes sales were down 26% from last year. The median home price also fell about 5.5% in 2008. There were a total of 68,676 single-family homes and condos that sold in 2008. That number is down from the 92,657 that sold in 2007.

For in-town Chicago, sales of single-family homes and condos were down 25.9% in 2008. A total of 20,589 residential units sold, down from the 27,503 that sold in 2007. The median sale price for a residence in-town Chicago was $290,000 for 2008. That is only a 0.5% drop from the 2007 median prices of condos in Chicago and single-family homes.

The city of Chicago also fared better than the nation as a whole when it came to sales in the last month of 2008. From December 2007 to December 2008, home sales in-town Chicago dropped 17.5%.

Chicago real estate seems to be retaining value better than many of the markets across the U.S. While Chicago home sales and values have declined, the gap hasn’t been as big as Florida, Nevada or California. Home owners can take some encouragement from that.

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