Corcoran Urban Real Estate

Monday Real Estate Round-Up

Monday Real Estate Round-Up

With the spring selling season well underway the question that often comes up is when's the best time of the year to go home-shopping?

Zillow recently crunched the numbers and price data from last year and compared the total number of listings, the percentage of homes selling above list price and listings with price reductions.

The found that during the late summer months that during late summer there were the most listings and that listings that were lingering on the market from the spring may be discounting their homes to sell before the cold months.

In Chicago, listings peaked in August last year with a total of 60,000 listings and nearly a fifth were discounted from their original list price.

Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.

While there's been recent good news for sellers, that home values are soaring in year-over-year numbers, the good news for buyers is that home values in most of Chicago and across the country remain below their peaks set in 2006.

In Chicago, only 7.6 percent of homes have reached their pre-recession peak. The median home price in the city was $225,051, well below the pre-recession peak of $274,092. 

And while many sellers are feeling confident with the Spring selling season in full swing, there are still many bargains out there for buyers.

Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.

Single family homes in Humboldt Park and Garfield Park have appreciated the most year-over-year, according to the latest data from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul.

Those two neighborhoods posted increases of 21.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. The organization's executive director, Geoff Smith, told Chicago Tonight that the increase was indicating a pattern of investment, development and gentrification.

“What we’re talking about is housing demand, which can stem from amenities like transportation, education or lakefront access, and can really help us understand the economic health of a neighborhood,” Smith said.    

Read the report at Chicago Tonight here.

According to the latest data, the first quarter of 2017 has been the best time to sell a home since 2007.

Homeowners who sold in the first three months of the year saw the highest average gains since the third quarter of 2007, per a report from ATTOM Data Solutions. Sellers saw an average gain nationwide of $44,000, a 24 percent return on their original investment. 

The average seller had owned their property for just under 8 years, just slightly under from the record high set in the fourth quarter of 2016. 

“The first quarter of 2017 was the most profitable time to be a home seller in nearly a decade, and yet homeowners are continuing to stay put in their homes longer before selling,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president with ATTOM Data Solutions told Chicago Agent Magazine. “This counterintuitive combination is in part the result of the low inventory of move-up homes available for current homeowners, while also perpetuating the scarcity of starter homes available for first-time homebuyers.”

Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.