Chicago Area Resales Rise 34% in Month

Existing-home sales in the seven-county Chicago metropolitan region rose 34% in May from the same month a year ago. Despite the gain, however, the average price dipped 2% and the median was down 2.5%, according to an analysis of resale activity by Jim Merrion, regional director of Re/Max Northern Illinois network. But two other key benchmarks-time on the market and the number of distressed sales-point to an improving marketplace. On average, houses that sold in May were on the market for 164 days. That's still more than five months, but it's down from the 184 days recorded in May 2009. Moreover, only a third of the houses sold in May were either foreclosures or short sales, down from 35% in the same month a year ago. Nearly 2,500 distressed properties were sold in May, 71% of which were repossessions and 29% were short sales. Though distressed sales were a smaller share of the market, their number was actually up 22% year-over-year, with short sales jumping 49%, according to Merrion. "We'd like to believe that the increase in short sales suggests lenders are finally beginning to master the process of evaluating and approving short sales, but the average market time for short sales actually has been higher during the first five months of this year than during the same period last year, " he said. "When average market times for these properties show a downward trend, it will be a positive indication, but we aren't there yet."