The recent surge in home sales was likely due to a dip in mortgage rates in December and an increase in housing supply nationwide. According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), total inventory in Chicago grew 5.9% month-over-month and 10.3% year-over-year to 1.07 million units, for a 2.9 months’ supply at the current sales pace. Buyer demand remains robust, but the limited supply of inventory helped push the median existing home sales price up 5.7% year-over-year to $384,500, the eighth consecutive month of annual price increases.
The market time for home listings decreased by 7.1 percent year-over year for detached homes, moving from 84 to 78 days, and decreased by 18.1 percent for attached homes, moving from 93 to 76 days. The inventory of detached homes in the City of Chicago declined by 19.8 percent, dropping from 2,256 to 1,809. In attached homes, there was a 12 percent decrease, from 3,212 to 2,828.
On a national level, existing-home sales showed improvement for the second month in a row in March, jumping 9.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.38 million units. This activity exceeded economist’ expectations and marked the largest monthly gain in a year, according to. This rebound comes amid fluctuating mortgage rates and elevated sales prices, signs that there is plenty of buyer demand heading into the spring selling season.