May 30, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
The pace of home sales cooled in Illinois during April following a blistering March but still managed to stay above both the previous month and the previous year’s levels according to the latest data from the Illinois Association of REALTORS® (IAR).
An estimated total of 9,961 existing homes and condos were sold in the Land of Lincoln in April, the most sales for an April in five years. Home sales were 4.0 percent higher than the 9,575 homes sold in March and were 15.7 percent higher than the 8,606 homes sold in April 2011.
The median sales price for an existing home in Illinois increased 3.7 percent to $135,000 from $130,000 in March and was unchanged from April of last year, the second consecutive month that home prices have remained unchanged from the previous year after 21 months of price declines.
Loretta Alonzo, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, stated, “The fact that median prices remain steady and sales continue to outpace previous-year levels is a positive sign for the housing market. Despite the month-to-month increases in median prices, it’s clear that there still are very attractive deals out there.”
Forty-seven of the 99 counties that reported data posted higher home sales than a year ago, seven fewer than the previous month, while 42 of the counties posted an increase in their annual median sales price, down from 67 last month.
In the nine-county Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), sales of existing homes and condos totaled 6,814 in April, up 3.4 percent from 6,590 homes sold in March and up 19.3 percent from 5,710 homes sold in April of 2011.
The median sales price for a home in the Chicago MSA was $160,000 in April, up 5.4 percent from a median price of $151,850 in March but still down 1.5 percent compared to April of last year when the median sales price was $162,500.
Tags: existing homes, condos, sales, median home prices, Illinois
