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Illinois Association of Realtors’ (IAR)  reports that statewide home sales (including single-family and condominiums) in October 2011 totaled 8,536 homes sold, up 15.3 percent from 7,402 home sales in October 2010.

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“Unfortunately,” BofA said in a statement, “many homeowners faced with unemployment, underemployment and other economic hardships have transitioned to alternative housing situations, and in many cases, have walked away from their homes, leaving behind vacant and deteriorating properties that can cause neighborhood blight.”

I considered if I should post this in Positive Real Estate News but I guess it is positive if you are getting the homes.  http://www.bankrate.com/financing/mortgages/bofa-to-give-away-houses/#ixzz1QrpGSkKE

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Metro Chicago Real Estate Market Registers Solid 9-Month Gain in 2010 Despite Slower July-Sept. Quarter, RE/MAX Reports

Sales of detached homes were 34,922, up 10.6 percent for the January-September period in the metro area, while sales of attached home increased 11.5 percent to 19,520 when compared to 2009 results. During the third quarter, however, sales of attached homes were 5,580, 28 percent below the 2009 level, while sales of detached homes dipped 19.9 percent to 10,793.

Chicago, IL –

Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market registered a solid gain of 11 percent for the first nine months of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. That was achieved even as third-quarter transaction volume was 22.8 percent lower than the same period last year.

The sales figures, analyzed by RE/MAX, are for the seven-county Chicago metropolitan area and are based on information supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC. The seven-county metropolitan area includes the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

The median sales price for homes in the metro area during the January-September period was $190,000, 5.7 percent lower than the median of $201,500 recorded for the same months in 2009. However, the average price of homes sold was more resilient, falling just 1 percent to $255,684 from $258,354 a year earlier.

“The market can now fully appreciate the impact of the homebuyer tax credit,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. “Although it helped sales generally, especially sales of attached units (which consist primarily of condominium apartments and townhouses), once the tax credit expired, sales of attached units fell more sharply than sales of traditional detached homes. When you look at the first three quarters of 2010, attached homes registered a larger percentage sales increase than did detached homes.”

Sales of detached homes were 34,922, up 10.6 percent for the January-September period in the metro area, while sales of attached home increased 11.5 percent to 19,520 when compared to 2009 results. During the third quarter, however, sales of attached homes were 5,580, 28 percent below the 2009 level, while sales of detached homes dipped 19.9 percent to 10,793.

The average price of a detached home increased slightly $266,444 for the first nine months of 2010 from $265,639 during the same period in 2009. For attached homes the average price for the first nine months of the year slipped to $236,434 in 2010 from $245,215 in 2009, a 3.6 percent decline.

The average time on the market for detached homes sold during the third quarter was 148 days, down from 168 days a year earlier. The average market time of attached homes sold in the July-September period was 168 days, up from 165 days in 2009.

“The third-quarter slowdown in home sales was felt broadly,” said Merrion. “All seven counties in the metro area recorded an increase in sales activity for the first nine months of the year when compared to the same period in 2009, but all counties also showed declines in sales activity during the third quarter. Kane County turned in the best nine-month performance with a 31 percent total increase to 3,667 homes from 2,795 a year earlier.”

Of the 258 suburban market areas and 77 City of Chicago neighborhoods that RE/MAX tracks on a quarterly basis, 185 towns and 56 neighborhoods had increased sales activity during the January-September period when measured against 2009, but only 42 towns and 16 neighborhoods recorded gains in sales transactions when the third quarter of 2010 is compared to that same portion of 2009.
Detached Homes
Sales of detached homes rose in six of the seven counties over the first nine months of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. Only Kendall County failed to record an increase, and then only because sales fell by one unit. Kane County led the gains with a 32.2 percent increase generated by 2,995 sales. It was followed by Lake County with an 11.9 percent gain on 3,861 sales.

The results in the other counties were: Cook up 10.4 percent to 17,946 units, DuPage up 8.1 percent to 4,095 units, McHenry up 7.7 percent to 1,688 units and Will up 2.9 percent to 3,536 units. Chicago recorded a 10 percent sales increase to 6,451 units.

In the third quarter, however, sales of detached homes fell well below the 2009 pace in all counties and in Chicago. Kane County had the smallest decline at 6.8 percent on 935 transactions. Lake County was next with a 16.6 percent dip in sales based on 1,248 transactions. Other results: Cook County down 20.6 percent to 5,486 homes, DuPage down 26.3 percent to 1,242 homes, McHenry down 20.1 percent to 508 homes, Kendall down 23.9 percent to 245 homes and Will down 20.4 percent to 1,129 homes.

Attached Homes
For the first three quarters of this year, sales of attached homes rose in six counties and in Chicago. Only Will County saw a decline in its total attached sales for the period. Kendall County, with just 313 sales, recorded the largest year-to-year increase at 41 percent. Kane was the other county showing a major increase for the nine-month period, with sales up 31 percent to 672 units.

More modest increases were recorded in four other counties: Cook County saw sales of attached homes rise 12.1 percent to 14,154 units. DuPage County sales rose 6.8 percent to 2,004 units. Lake County scored a 9.9 percent increase on 1,009 sales, and McHenry County experienced a 10.4 percent rise in attached sales to 435 units. Sales in Chicago rose 10.1 percent to 9,117 units.

Results for the third quarter, on the other hand, revealed a much slower market, with total attached sales in the metro area off 28 percent from the same three months of 2009. Only Kendall and Kane Counties recorded sales declines of less than 10 percent for the quarter, with Kendall falling 3.9 percent to 99 units and Kane down 5.9 percent to 207 units.

In Cook County, which accounted for about 80 percent of all sales of attached homes during the quarter, sales fell 26.9 percent to 4,085 units. More than half those sales took place in Chicago, and there transaction activity declined 28.1 percent to 2,617 units.

Other third-quarter results: DuPage County recorded 554 sales, a 33.2 percent decline; 251 sales were completed in Will County, a 40 percent decline, and 264 sales in Lake County represented a 37.1 percent reduction. In McHenry County, 120 sales netted a decline in activity of 26.8 percent.

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“This is the first time in almost three years that we’ve seen price increases,” says Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who helped design the home price index. “So when we see a break in the downward trend that’s definitely encouraging news.”
“Well, I think the worst is probably behind us — the worst pace of decline,” he says. “We were going down at 2 percent a month for a number of months in a row nationally. That was really something. Now home prices relative to rents or construction costs are back at normal levels.”

Many Realtors are seeing multiple offers making some speculate that we have reached a housing bottom.

“Well, I think it very much depends on what city you’re in,” says William Wheaton, a housing economist at MIT. “There are really two types of markets right now.”

Wheaton notes that in states with 50% drops like Arizona, California and Florida that indeed we may be at a bottom.

“If you’re in a market like California, where prices have fallen 50 percent and transactions have picked up and you ask your friendly professor ‘Is this the bottom?’ I would say pretty much so,” Wheaton says.” If you could buy a house [for] 50 percent of what you could a few years ago, I’d say go ahead and buy it.”

Source: NPR

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