This is our Market 2010.

From the Illinois Association of Realtors:

In the city of Chicago, December total home sales (single-family and condominiums) were up 39.8 percent to 1,768 sales compared to 1,265 homes sold in December 2008. The city of Chicago median price in December 2009 was $210,000 down 10.6 percent compared to $235,000 a year ago in December 2008.

For the full year, sales were down in Chicago compared to 2008. Median price slid 22.4%.

For the year, city of Chicago home sales were down 7.4 percent to 19,401 homes sold compared to 20,946 homes sold in 2008. The year-end city of Chicago median price for 2009 was $225,000, down 22.4 percent from $290,000 in 2008.

“In the city of Chicago, December closed with nearly a 40 percent increase in units sold over the same period in 2009, indicating that the correction of the marketplace continues as distressed properties are absorbed by investors, and stimulus credit homebuyers continue to pave their way to making their purchases,” said REALTOR® Genie Birch, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and a broker associate with Koenig & Strey GMAC, Chicago.

“We will continue to monitor closely the impact of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, as well as the evolving lending regulations, including FHA’s new guidelines, as we serve Chicago’s homebuyers in 2010.”

Statewide, sales also improved but there are concerns about the elevated unemployment rate which reached 11.1% in December, much higher than the national average.

“The continuation of positive changes in annual sales data recorded in the last three months of 2009 is forecast to continue through the first quarter of 2010 and there is evidence to suggest that median prices might be starting to inch upwards,” said Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois. “Illinois’ March 2010 median price is forecast to be just above the level recorded a year earlier but Chicago’s median price will be down by just under 8 percent.”

Adds Hewings: “Illinois has recorded 24 months of job declines since the recession began in December 2007. Nationally, four in 10 of those currently unemployed have been in this position for more than 27 weeks.”

Illinois Home Sales in December Log Fourth Consecutive Gain; Year-End Home Sales Down 1.5 Percent in 2009 [Illinois Association of Realtors, Press Release, Jan 25, 2010]