January 26, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Mary Schaefer/Ann Londrigan
217/529-2600

Illinois Median Price Down 7.8 Percent for the Year
Home Sales Down 17.5 Percent in December

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — December Illinois home sales experienced a slight rebound from November prompted in part by low interest rates and lower prices, yet the state’s housing market remained weighed down by record low consumer confidence and mounting job losses. According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS® latest report, the Illinois statewide median home sale price (single-family homes and condominiums) reached $184,500 for the year 2008, down 7.8 percent from $200,000 in 2007. In the month of December, the median home price was down 16.0 percent to $157,000 from $187,000 in December 2007. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half sold for less.

In the month of December, home sales were up 7.38 percent to 6,590 units sold compared to November 2008 totals of 6,137; sales were down 17.5 percent from December 2007 total sales of 7,990. For the year, a total of 107,680 home sales were reported in the state in 2008, down 23.3 percent from 140,378 sales in 2007.

“Some homebuyers jumped in to get the great deals in the housing market as interest rates hovered near 5 percent for most of December, yet we’re still seeing the year-long effects from deteriorating economic conditions and foreclosures continuing to depress prices,” said REALTOR® Pat Callan, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS®.

According to the University of Illinois Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL), Illinois forecasts for 2009 suggest job declines of 50,000 to 55,000.

“For the Illinois economy, the next few months will be critical,” noted economist Geoffrey Hewings, Director of REAL, “especially in the degree to which the state will be able to respond to funding initiatives associated with President Obama’s recovery package. The political turmoil in Springfield has already cost the state and the longer it continues, the greater the danger for the state suffering a deeper recession than the United States as a whole.”

Adds Hewings: “Illinois’ recovery of its prior peak employment in November 2000 is more than three years away at current levels and may be extended if job declines continue.”

The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the North Central region was 5.19 percent in December 2008, down 0.94 points from the 6.13 average rate during the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Last year in December it averaged 6.14 percent. For the year, mortgage interest rates averaged 6.08 in 2008 compared to the 6.37 annual average in 2007.

In the Chicagoland PMSA, home sales (single-family and condominiums) totaled 4,232 in December 2008, down 15.9 percent from 5,033 home sales in the same month of 2007. The Chicagoland PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. For the year, total home sales in the Chicagoland PMSA reached 68,676 in 2008, down 25.9 percent from 92,657 sales in 2007.

The region’s 2008 median price reached $240,000, down 5.5 percent from $254,000 in 2007. In December 2008, the median home sale price for the Chicagoland PMSA was $204,950, down 17.3 percent from $247,800 in December 2007.

“Several Central Illinois and downstate counties were bright spots in the 2008 Illinois housing market including the Champaign and Bloomington areas, Peoria and Knox counties,” said Pat Callan, broker-owner of Realty Executives Premiere in Wheaton. “While prices in some neighborhoods remained relatively stable this year, others fell depending on their exposure to subprime loans. The housing market that once was a leading indicator is now very much dependent on the economic recovery.”

In Illinois, 40 of 101 counties reporting recorded an increase in median home prices for the year compared to 2007 including Christian, up 4.4 percent to $69,950; Ford, up 2.2 percent to $80,450; Knox, up 1.6 percent to $63,500; Macon, up 4.0 percent to $87,000; McLean, up 3.3 percent to $157,000; Menard, up 7.3 percent to $118,000; Peoria, up 3.1 percent to $117,000; Sangamon, up 0.9 percent to $115,000.

In the city of Chicago, December total home sales (single-family and condominiums) were down 23.0 percent to 1,215 sales compared to December 2007 sales of 1,578. The city of Chicago median price in December was $235,000, down 18.2 percent from $287,450 in December 2007.

For the year, home sales in the city reached 20,589 in 2008, down 25.1 percent from 27,503 sales in 2007. The 2008 median price was $290,000, down 0.5 percent from $291,500.

David Hanna, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® said: “A lack of consumer confidence and financing continue to prevent the Chicago housing market from maintaining any recovery momentum. Low interest rates and flexible pricing are bringing buyers into the market, the continual lack of reasonable financing requirements and lender adversity to lend to the average consumer thwart our best efforts to see the housing market rebound. Lending conditions must change or the real estate market will not recover.”

Sales and price information is generated from a survey of Multiple Listing Service sales reported by 35 participating Illinois REALTOR® local boards and associations. The Chicagoland PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

The Illinois Association of REALTORS® is a voluntary trade association whose 55,000 members are engaged in all facets of the real estate industry. In addition to serving the professional needs of its members, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® works to protect the rights of private property owners in the state by recommending and promoting legislation that safeguards and advances the interest of real property ownership.

Find Illinois market stats data at www.illinoisrealtor.org, click on Market Stats.

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