A new report issued by the Illinois Association of Realtors [1] (IAR) found a decrease in home sales and an increase in median price in February. The IAR noted that median prices increased 6.9 percent, while home sales decreased by 6.2 percent last month.
Statewide, home sales for February totaled 7,868, down from 8,388 in February, 2013. The available inventory of homes on the market dropped 19.2 percent from the previous year.
"The start of the year has been bedeviled by bad weather," said Phil Chiles, president of the IAR. "Increasing prices should prove attractive to homeowners who may have hesitated to sell in the past because they felt their homes were undervalued."
The statewide median price for February was $132,500, up 6.9 percent from the previous year when the median price was $124,000.
The state also experienced a monthly decrease in the average mortgage rate from the previous month.
Rates for February, 2014 were reported at 4.32 percent, down from 4.46 percent in January of the same year. Yearly, rates rose from the previous year’s figure of 3.49 percent.
The report commented, "In the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), home sales (single-family and condominiums) in February 2014 totaled 5,574 homes sold, down 8.2 percent from February 2013 sales of 6,072 homes.”
Specifically in Chicago, the median home price was $156,000, higher than the statewide average. Chicago's median home price represented an 11.4 percent increase from February, 2013.
Home sales declined in the city by 3.5 percent year-over-year in February, with median prices increasing to $175,000 from $156,050 in February, 2013, an annual increase of 12.1 percent.
"February's weather was not anymore welcoming to buyers than January in Chicago. People do not want to go shopping for homes in unseasonably cold weather,” said Matt Farrell, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors.
"Buyers are, however, ready to move and as homes come on the market, they are aggressively making their best offers. Median pricing is up, signaling a strong market on the rise. As sellers get their homes show-ready for a spring market, we believe these homes, too, will move quickly, if priced right," Farrell added.