MARKET SNAPSHOT — CITY OF CHICAGO
*The City of Chicago Market Snapshot represents the residential real estate activity within the 77 officially defined Chicago community areas as provided by the Chicago Association of REALTORS®.
- 1,897 properties were sold in the City of Chicago in February 2022. This is a 14.5% increase from February 2021.
- The median sales price in the City of Chicago for February 2022 was $320,000, the same as this time last year.
- The City of Chicago saw listings average 92 days on the market until contract, a 7.1% decrease from February 2021.
- Check out the February 2022 FastStats.
STATE OF THE MARKET
- The U.S. real estate market remains hot ahead of the spring selling season, with existing home sales up 6.7% as of last measure, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Experts attribute the growth in sales to an uptick in mortgage interest rates, as buyers rushed to lock down their home purchases before rates move higher. Mortgage rates have increased almost a full percentage point since December, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage briefly exceeding 4% in February, the highest level since May 2019.
- Inventory was at an all-time low of 860,000 as February began, down 17% from a year ago and equivalent to 1.6 months supply. According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, much of the current housing supply is concentrated at the upper end of the market, where inventory is increasing, while homes priced at the lower end of the market are quickly disappearing, leaving many first-time buyers behind. The shortage of homes is boosting demand even further, and with bidding wars common in many markets, it’s no surprise sales prices continue to soar.
INVENTORY
- The City of Chicago’s inventory is down 29.0%, from 8,055 homes in February 2021 to 5,719 homes in January 2022.
- The month’s supply of inventory decreased 40.0%, from 3.5 in February 2021 to 2.1 in February 2022.
