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®.
- 2,097 properties were sold in the City of Chicago in March 2020. This is a 1.7% increase from March 2019.
- The median sales price in the City of Chicago for March 2020 was $320,000, up 10.1% from this time last year.
- The City of Chicago saw listings average 105 days on the market until contract, a 2.9% increase from March 2019.
- Check out the March 2020 FastStats.
STATE OF THE MARKET
- As COVID-19’s impact spread across the country in March, the stock market declines started in February accelerated downward before recovering a bit in the last week of the month. With volatility across all the financial markets, lenders began tightening underwriting standards and some buyers found they no longer were approved for a loan. Massive layoffs also shook the economy with 6.6 million initial jobless claims filed in a single week—double the number last week and ten times higher than any other week on record prior to this month.
- While the effect of COVID-19 is varied throughout the country, we are likely to see impacts on housing activity now and into the coming months. Its continued spread is leading many companies and consumers to change their daily activities. ShowingTime is closely monitoring the situation and releasing daily updates on changes in showing activity. See national and state showing activity trends at https://www.showingtime.com/impact-of-coronavirus/.
- “Though we likely won’t see a fuller picture of coronavirus’ impact on the housing market until April’s numbers are released, we are happy to see positive momentum in March,” Maurice Hampton, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and owner of Centered International Realty, said. “Clearly, demand kept pace, despite the pandemic, with an uptick in closed sales and sales price over last year. However, we also saw a sharp decline in inventory, something we will continue to keep our eyes on for the future, as homeowners react to the uncertainty of the current environment.”
INVENTORY
- The City of Chicago’s inventory is down 12.7%, from 8,840 homes in March 2019 to 7,717 homes in March 2020.
- The month’s supply of inventory declined 12.5%, from 4.0 in March 2019 to 3.5 in March 2020.