After a powerful surge in home and condo prices in Chicago during January, growth settled down in February and is expected to keep a moderate pace through the spring selling season.
Single-family home prices in Chicago rose just 3.4 percent over the previous year in February to a median $185,000, according to Illinois Realtors. In contrast to the huge 17.7 percent leap condo prices made in January, during February they settled down to a moderate 4.6 percent increase over February 2016.
That brought the median condo price in Chicago to $298,000 in February, in significant contrast to $311,250 in January.
In February, sales of homes in Chicago also slowed, dropping 4 percent from a year ago. In February there were 1,505 homes sold compared with 1,567 during the same month in 2016.
For the full Chicago metro area, sales also declined compared with a year ago, according to Illinois Realtors. Sales were down 5.2 percent, as 5,891 homes were sold. Yet in February prices in the metro area climbed significantly on both single-family homes and condos compared with the same month a year earlier. The median price of a single-family home rose 12.5 percent to $225,000 this February, and condos jumped 12.1 percent to $185,000.
Matt Silver, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors had described the market in Chicago — especially for condos — as hot in January, and said it was one of the strongest periods he'd experienced in years. Despite the cooling off in gains more recently, he said it's still an "active home-sales environment," with increased consumer confidence, better wages and a hot stock market driving purchases.
In the metro area, home prices are almost fully recovered from the depressed levels seen in the housing crash in 2008, according to Geoffrey Hewings, director of the Regional Economic Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The median price in February 2008 in the metro area was $184,000. When Hewings adjusts prices for inflation, the recent median price was 99 percent of the 2008 level.
Hewings is expecting home prices to climb 11.8 percent this month in the metro area, 7.2 percent in April and 10.3 percent in May.
The scant inventory of homes for sale has caused prices to climb while sales have been down as potential homebuyers have had limited choices, according to Doug Carpenter, Illinois Realtors president.
In Cook County, sales declined 3.5 percent in February as single-family home prices rose 7.9 percent to $204,900 and condos climbed 10.1 percent to $215,000.
Lake County experienced a huge surge in prices, with the median single-family home jumping 35.7 percent in price to $250,000. Condos climbed more modestly, 7.9 percent to $149,500, while sales of homes and condos dropped 9.9 percent.
DuPage County's surge came in the condo market, with prices jumping 25.4 percent to $175,000. The price of the median single-family home was $300,000 in February -- an increase of 6 percent over a year ago. Meanwhile, the number of sales slipped 8.2 percent.
