January 2021 Market Snapshot

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®.
  • 1,684 properties were sold in the City of Chicago in January 2021. This is a 15.2% increase from January 2020.
  • The median sales price in the City of Chicago for January 2021 was $310,000, up 15.9% from this time last year.
  • The City of Chicago saw listings average 85 days on the market until contract, a 16.7% decrease from January 2020.
  • Check out the January 2021 FastStats.

STATE OF THE MARKET

  • January started off strong for the housing market, with healthy buyer demand and strong market fundamentals. A robust increase in housing starts in December points to an active year for new construction, but higher material costs, especially lumber, and a limited supply of buildable lots will temper the number of new units.
  • The Mortgage Bankers Association’s January research estimates approximately 2.7 million homeowners with mortgages are currently in forbearance plans. Some of these homes may eventually come to market, but given the strong appreciation in most market segments in recent years, these eventual home sales are likely to be mostly traditional sellers. However, a modest increase in short sales and foreclosures at some point this year would not be surprising.

INVENTORY

  • The City of Chicago’s inventory is down 0.2%, from 7,782 homes in January 2020 to 7,763 homes in January 2021.
  • The month’s supply of inventory decreased 2.9%, from 3.5 in January 2020 to 3.4 in January 2021.