Illinois Home Sales Up Three Percent

January was a vibrant month for home sales in Illinois, according to new data from the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR). Statewide home sales, including single-family homes and condominiums, totaled 8,247 transactions last month, a three percent year-over-year increase. This is the most successful January for home sales since 2013, when 8,654 homes were sold.

The statewide median price in January was $164,000, up 9.3 percent from a year earlier. January was the 41st consecutive month of year-over-year increases in median prices. The time it took to sell a home in January averaged 79 days, down from 83 days a year ago. However, the level of available housing inventory totaled 55,447 homes for sale, a 12.6 percent drop from last year’s 63,461 homes on the market.

As for the state’s largest metro market, the city of Chicago saw with 1,363 sales, up 1.1. percent from the 1,348 sales in January 2015, while the local median price of a home was $230,000, up 4.5 percent compared to January 2015 when it was $220,000.

"The year appears to be getting off to a strong start, in no small part due to a mild winter," said IAR President Mike Drews, broker-associate with Charles B. Doss & Co. in Aurora. "Sellers are getting very good overall prices due to diminished inventories. The strong consumer demand which was evident throughout 2015 seems to be holding firm as we start off 2016."