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Illinois Home Prices on the Upswing as Sales Continue to Increase

The Illinois housing market showed signs of sustained stabilization in June as both home sales and prices continued to increase during the month, the ""Illinois Association of Realtors"":http://www.illinoisrealtor.org/ (IAR) recently reported.

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IAR said statewide total home sales â€" including single-family and condos â€" totaled 13,072 transactions in June 2010, jumping 18.3 percent from one year earlier. This marked the 10th consecutive month of mostly double-digit sales increases.

Additionally, IAR said June's median home price of $170,000 was up 2.5 percent from the same month last year. This was the fourth month in a row that Illinois home prices have increased on a year-over-year basis.

According to the IAR report, total home sales in June 2010 compared to June 2009 were up in 47 of 102 Illinois counties reporting, and 38 of 102 counties posted median price increases from one year to the next.

""The tax credit has proved to be a boost to the Illinois housing market with a tremendous level of buying and selling activity for the last 10 months which, importantly, has helped to stabilize home prices statewide,"" said Mike Onorato, IAR president.

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In the Chicagoland primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA), year-over-year homes sales increased for the 12th consecutive month in June. A total of 9,085 homes sold during the month, surging 27.2 percent from last year. However, the region's median home price of $207,500 was down 1.2 percent from June 2009.

In the city of Chicago, June home sales totaled 2,526 transactions, jumping 27.5 percent compared to the year-ago level. IAR said this marked the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains. But like the Chicagoland PMSA, the city's median home price in June fell 3.2 percent from last year to $234,250.

""We see an increase in the number of units sold in June 2010 over the same period last year, increasing the year-to-date number of homes sold in Chicago by 41 percent for the first half of 2010 versus 2009,"" said Genie Birch, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors. ""We believe this is a positive indicator that Chicago's housing market is stabilizing. Motivated buyers and sellers are working toward realistically closing deals at current market values.""

Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the ""Regional Economics Applications Laboratory of the University of Illinois"":http://www.real.illinois.edu/, said continued strong annual sales growth characterized the months of April, May, and June in Illinois and in the Chicago region. Going forward, he said sales are forecast to remain positive in double digits in both markets through September.

As for prices, Hewings said changes will remain more stubborn with some slight upward movement in Illinois in July and August followed by little or no change in September. In the Chicago region, he said prices will continue to trend down in the 1 percent to 5 percent range.

About Author: Brittany Dunn

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