Illinois Home Prices Steady, Mortgage Activity Slows
Home prices in Illinois held steady in the first quarter of 2007, but sales plummeted more than 14 percent from the year-ago figures, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors.
Association figures for Kane County show a slightly greater dip in single-family home sales: down 16.7 percent compared to first-quarter 2006 sales.
The median home sale price in Kane County was $243,000, down about 3 percent over the same period last year. If this trend continues, it can at least be expected that Illinois mortgage seekers become more willing to buy.
The average home sale price in Kane County for the first quarter of 2007 was $282,377, off about 2.2 percent over last year.
The slump in condominium sales in Kane was not nearly as severe - 8.8 percent less, compared to first-quarter ‘06 figures. The IAR pegged the average condominium sale price at $197,594 for the first quarter of ‘07 in Kane, down 2.2 percent over the same period last year.
Mary Roberts, mortgage broker/manager at Starck Realty in Elgin, conceded the market is slow and noted she and her associates now consider it “normal” if sales take a bit longer to consummate.
“We know for several years” the delay in selling a home “was out of sight, and now we’re back to the normal six-month time to sell a home,” Roberts said.
Realtors in her office, Roberts noted, have been changing strategy in order to make homes more attractive.
Instead of merely putting a house on the market, Roberts asks homeowners to submit to a pre-home inspection. “This allows owners to fix everything that might be wrong with the home and we have it ’staged’ so that it’s marketable,” she explained.
Most important, Roberts said, a home has to be priced in a range where it’s going to sell.
“Homes are still moving,” she said. “There are still buyers out there - but your home has to be one of the best if not the best in order to get chosen from all those in the marketplace.”
Roberts said some Illinois home purchase loan borrowers may seem a bit too cautious, but most simply want to see “everything that’s out there.”
“There’s a lot more for buyers to look at, which makes it very confusing, ” Roberts said.
She said the average buyer these days, knowing market conditions, is simply waiting to see whether something better is going to come along. In light of Illinois housing market conditions, Roberts said, her office works to ensure that a buyer can qualify for a mortgage.
Statewide, the first-quarter interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.24 percent in the North Central Region, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. That’s down from 6.29 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 and 6.33 percent in the first quarter of 2006.
Regionwide in the Chicago collar counties - Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will - total home sales (including single-family and condominiums) were down 16.5 percent in the first quarter to 19,921, compared to 23,846 home sales in 2006. The median home sale price in the Chicagoland PMSA increased 2 percent to $244,900 in the first quarter of 2007 compared to $240,000 in the same period one year ago.
Robert Zoretich, president of the Illinois Association of Realtors, said in a press release that:
“As home sales moderate, overall home prices will be essentially flat this year. It’s too early to measure a significant impact from tighter lending standards due to the subprime fallout, which could moderately dampen activity, but we’re still looking for existing-home sales to gradually improve during the last half of 2007.
SOURCE: The Courier News