Local home sales start 2010 with 29% rise

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(Crain’s) — Chicago-area home sales started the year with a jump, but distressed sales continued to push down prices.

In the nine-county Chicago region, 3,922 single-family homes and condominiums were sold last month, a 29.2% increase over January 2009, according to a release Friday from the Illinois Assn. of Realtors.

In the city, sales rose 31.1% last month, to 1,202 compared with 917 in January 2009, the Realtors said.

“We are seeing an accelerated spring market despite the snow and cold in Illinois with the homebuyer tax credit the driving factor for rising home sales," Mike Onorato, president of the association and broker-owner of Onorato Real Estate in Coal City, said in the release.

The median price in the Chicago area — at which half the homes sell for more and half for less — fell to $175,000 in January, a 5.4% decrease from last year, according to the release.

In Chicago, the January median price of $195,000 was similarly down 4.9% compared with January 2009. However, the statewide median price rose slightly, to $145,300 compared with $145,000 in January 2009, the Realtors association said.

“Foreclosed properties continue to exert downward pressure on median prices in Chicago but much less so in Illinois," Dr. Geoffrey J. D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois, said in the release. "There is evidence that median price increases will moderate in the state over the next three months (February, March and April), remaining about the same as those a year earlier; for Chicago, the median prices will be about six percent below comparable prices.” Statewide, sales rose 14% last month to 5,483 homes.

The Illinois Assn. of Realtors’ sales figures include new and existing homes. The nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.