The real estate market has been booming since the pandemic. The United States has seen the median home price increase by 16.2% in the last year or so.
For those of you reading this, you may be curious if the market will continue to see this surge, especially in the Chicago area.
Here is where the last quarter of the Chicago real estate market looks to be trending.
Neighborhood Comparison
Let’s look at how the rent in certain Chicago neighborhoods has affected Chicago real estate. This report analyzes rent prices in certain Chicago neighborhoods from August of 2021.
What is notable? Let’s start with the Illinois median rent price being $1,175 to use as a basis of comparison.
Some of the biggest rent increases came from the neighborhoods of Schaumburg, Naperville, Oak Park, and Palatine. The former saw a 10% increase while Naperville and Oak Park saw a 9% increase and Palatine an 8% increase.
There were two neighborhoods where the rent price actually decreased. These were Chicago and Skokie, where the rent actually went down by 3%. However, Skokie did see a 1.8% increase from July to August and a 5% increase in that time span for two-bedroom apartments.
Also, two other notable monthly increases and decreases came from Schaumburg and Aurora. The former saw a 4.6% increase from July to August while the latter saw a 5% decrease.
Fewer Homes, More Demand
This seems to be a problem for buyers across the United States but a good thing for sellers. This is the fact that 9% fewer homes are being listed than there were last year.
What does that mean? It means that buyers have fewer options and more may be going to one place, and the average time each house spends on the market certainly indicates that. The average time on the market is just 18 days.
When it comes to monthly sales comparisons from the same time as last year, there are similar results. In June and July, there was between a 5-6% increase compared to the same time in 2020.
Last year, the average value of a home increased by 16.3% in the first six months.
Buyers appear to be taking a little more time to look around compared to last year. If you need fast cash or your house is more of a fixer-upper, find out more about getting a cash offer.
Lumber Cost
This plays into how much a house may cost a buyer because a percentage of the houses that get sold every year are built from the ground up. The price of lumber has gone up for five straight weeks after seeing a temporary drop.
What does this mean? It means that it may still cost more money to build new houses and fix up older houses than it would have a couple of months ago.
The price has increased 27% since the end of August, and that could be passed onto a builder.
See More Chicago Real Estate Market Trends
This is just the latest quarter trend report in the Chicago real estate market. Read more and decide if now is the right time to buy or sell a home for you.
For more related information, see our Home and Office section.