National Association of REALTORS® – Washington D.C.
Why Spring Home Buyers Need to Hurry
Home buyers are expected to outnumber home sellers this spring, which likely will drive up asking prices, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, told The Wall Street Journal.
“Given that prices are rising, more people will be pushed on the borderline of conventional mortgage limits and may need a large down payment or a jumbo mortgage,” Yun says.
Nationwide, the median price for an existing single-family home in January was $213,800 – up 8.2 percent just from a year ago, according to NAR’s housing data. Home prices are moving at the highest rate since April 2015.
“There’s a decade of pent-up demand,” Bob Walters, chief economist of Quicken Loans, told The Wall Street Journal.
Illinois Association of REALTORS ® – Springfield, IL
Illinois housing market — Strong starts for 2016
Seen as the strongest January market in several years, Illinois home sales and median prices posted robust year-over-year increases, despite lower inventory levels, according to the Illinois Association of REALTORS®.
The statewide median price in January was $164,000 up 9.3 percent from January 2015 when the median price was $150,000. Statewide median prices have notched year-over-year increases for the last 41 months. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
“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. “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.”
The time it took to sell a home in January averaged 79 days, down from 83 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 55,447 homes for sale, a 12.6 percent decline from January 2015 when there were 63,461 homes on the market.
The City of Chicago saw a 1.1 percent year-over-year home sales increase in January 2016 with 1,363 sales, up from 1,348 in January 2015. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in January 2016 was $230,000, up 4.5 percent compared to January 2015 when it was $220,000.
