Since my last weekly update 2 weeks ago the Chicago real estate market has continued to slowly work its way back to normal. This is week 11, which is the week ending May 16, and it appears that the market for single family homes is doing much better (for sellers) than the condo market. There are different theories about what is going on but one of the more popular ones is that, being cooped up in their homes for weeks on end, people are seeking larger spaces. Another theory is that they don’t like the idea of sharing space with other people that may be infected.

Here is how the data looks:

Detached Homes

• New listings were down 38% from last year to 318 homes
• Contract activity has improved since the last time that I looked and was only down 8% to 263 contracts written
• Inventory in absolute terms was down 17% to 2735 homes
• In relative terms inventory is also down from last year but this is the first time since the whole coronavirus mess started. The weeks of supply of homes was at 10.4 weeks vs. 11.5 weeks last year.
• For the homes that closed in that week it took 91 days for them to go under contract, down from 99 days last year. However, keep in mind that homes that closed then actually went under contract 1 – 2 months earlier so we’re always looking back in time.

Attached Homes

• New listings were down 35% to 642 homes which is a slight improvement
• Contract activity was down 30% to 328
• Inventory in absolute terms was down 15% to 4957 homes
• Inventory in relative terms was up from 12.4 weeks of supply to 15.1 weeks
• Market times only shaved off one day, dropping from 76 days last year to 75 days – barely a difference.

Illinois Real Estate Showing Activity Is Back To Normal

One of the key metrics that can tell us how strong the Chicago real estate market is is the number of showings. Unfortunately, I only have access to the Chicago specific data at the monthly level but I really need much more timely information. I do have access to Illinois data on almost a daily basis in the graph below, which is a little bit funky. All the data is shown relative to the first calendar week of the year. However, it’s close enough for government work and seems to indicate that after a huge drop in mid-March it has returned to about the same level as last year.

Showing activity should get even better starting Friday since we were just notified that they are lifting the ban on showing tenant occupied units then.

#RealEstate #ChicagoRealEstate #Coronavirus

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.