Illinois Housing Market Continues Down the Road to Recovery

April proved to be a month of continued stabilization for the Illinois housing market, as both home sales and prices jumped on a year-over-year basis, the ""Illinois Association of Realtors"":http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/ (IAR) recently reported.

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According to IAR, statewide total home sales--including single-family homes and condominiums--totaled 10,323 transactions in April 2010, jumping 34.4 percent from April 2009. In addition, the association said the median home price in April was $157,450, up 5 percent from the same month last year.

On a year-over-year basis, total home sales were up in 57 of 99 Illinois counties reporting, and 47 of 99 counties posted median price increases, IAR said.

In the Chicagoland primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA), 7,072 homes sold in April, surging 47.1 percent

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from one year earlier. And the median home price in this region was $190,000, down just 0.5 percent from April 2009.

Stabilization was also apparent in the city of Chicago, where April home sales totaled 1,985 transactions, soaring 41.1 percent compared to a year ago. This, IAR said, marked the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains. Additionally, the city's median home price in April was $225,000, up 3.2 percent from the same month in 2009.

""It is great to see the Chicago market's resilience with a steady increase of volume absorption of properties, as well as traditional sales increasing at a moderate pace,"" said Genie Birch, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors.

According to Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the ""Regional Economics Applications Laboratory of the University of Illinois"":http://www.real.illinois.edu/, the housing markets in Illinois and the Chicagoland region presented positive indicators almost across the board for the first time since the recession began.

Going forward, Hewings said forecasts suggest a continuation of these trends through July. He said median prices are anticipated to increase in the 3 percent to 5 percent range for the Illinois market as a whole, while the Chicagoland area will see little or no change over the next few months.