Chicago luxury homes for sale at 4 year low in 3rd quarter

The number of listed Chicago homes for sale for $1M or higher in the 3rd quarter was down 17.2% from 3rd quarter 2011.^* There were 1,044 Chicago luxury homes for sale compared with 1,261 a year earlier. The percent of distressed sales (short sales and foreclosures) dropped from 2.9% of the inventory to 2.3%.

As shown below, the number of Chicago luxury homes for sale in the 3rd quarter was at a 4 year low. The previous 4 year low was in 4th quarter 2011 when there were 1,120 such homes for sale.

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Quarterly Inventory of Chicago Luxury Homes For Sale 3rd Qtr. 2009 - 3rd Qtr. 2012

The number of Chicago luxury homes sold in the 3rd quarter was up a whopping 41.1% from a year earlier! There were 223 sales, a 4 year high.

Chicago luxury home pending sales were up 25.2%, so sales should do well in the 4th quarter. The average days on market for pending sales was down 29.4%.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CHICAGO LUXURY HOME BUYERS

It’s still a buyer’s market, but you don’t have the choices that you had a year ago. You won’t be able to negotiate as much since there aren’t as many sellers competing against each other.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CHICAGO LUXURY HOME SELLERS

Given that the market appears to be forming a bottom, I don’t recommend selling unless
1. you really need to
or
2. you want to move up to a more expensive home It’s probably come down more in value in the past few years than your current home. As always, if your home is priced right when it goes on market, it will sell in a reasonable amount of time. Luxury homes do take longer to sell on average than lower priced homes since there is a smaller market for them.