Illinois Home Sales Soar by 14% in December, Annual Sales Dip
Disturbing incidence of foreclosures continue to hound the housing market in Illinois, suppressing homes prices in the process but allowing for considerable spikes in sales, at least in the last month of 2011.
Latest figures from the Illinois Association of Realtors showed that home sales in the state climbed by 14% in December to 8,828, coming from the 7,746 recorded in the same month a year before.
The IAR listed the sales increase as mostly on single-family and condominium units, while noting that the surge happened against backdrops of statewide foreclosures.
Overall sales for the year reached a total of 103,785 units, a fall actually coming from the 103,899 sold in 2010. The decline, however, was a manageable flat at 0.1%, the IAR noted.
For December, the median home price tumbled by 10.4% to $125,500 after reaching the $140,000 level just 12 months before.
That final month average contributed to an annual decline of 9.2% to $137,500 for 2011, as against the $151,500 that the industry posted in the previous year.
In Chicago, the city’s December sales improved by 6.4% to 1,536 but its yearly sales declined by 7.2% to 17,715. The city saw a total of 19,089 home sales in 2010, the IAR reported.
Chicago’s dwindling homes sales in 2011 were matched by the city’s softening home prices throughout the year, sliding down by 13.8% to $175,000 from $203,000 seen in 2010.
Experts are projecting that sales will shoot up further by the first three months of the current year as foreclosed properties continue to offer bargain prices and lure more prospective buyers.
“Buyers are finding deals that are simply too good to pass up, and that coupled with stronger consumer optimism is making this an excellent way to start 2012,” IAR president Loretta Alonzo said in a report.
“Until these foreclosed properties and additions expected in 2012 clear the market, sustained upward movement in prices will be unlikely,” Geoffrey Hewings from the University of Illinois explained.
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