Low Illinois Mortgage Rates Equate to Healthy Housing Market
Low mortgage interest rates have kept buyers in the market despite the extreme winter weather in January, a typically slow month for the Illinois housing market.
According to the Illinois Association of Realtors latest report, total home sales (which include single-family and condominiums) were down over 8% in January 2007 to 8,584 homes sold, compared to 9,206 homes sold in January 2006.
The median Illinois home price in the month remained unchanged from a year earlier, standing at $200,000.
“The current economy provides a strong base for the housing market to recover this year with growth in GDP, employment and income, and [home loan rates] that are low by historical standards,” said Robert Zoretich, president of the Illinois Association of Realtors. “As the year goes on, home sales should steadily improve. Realtors anticipate that the housing market will continue in this transitional phase during the remaining winter months and pick up as spring approaches.”
The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the North Central region was 6.29% in January 2007, up 0.09 points from the 6.20 average rate during the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Last year in January it averaged 6.23%.
In the Chicagoland Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), home sales totaled 5,950 in January 2007, down 10.6% from 6,652 home sales in the same month last year. The median home price for the Chicago housing market was $245,000, up 2.1% from $240,000 in January 2006.
“According to economists with the National Association of Realtors, we experienced the worst of the housing sales recession at the end of 2006 but we’re still in an atypical year from inventory levels carrying over to this year,” said Zoretich, broker-owner of Zoretich Realty Group in Chicago. “Fortunately, the housing market in Illinois is not as fragile to fluctuations in market conditions as other parts of the country.”
It’s true. There’s typically strong Illinois mortgage activity in this state. Reduced rates certainly don’t hurt that cause.
SOURCE: RIS Media