The inventory of listed Chicago houses for sale continues to drop. There were 5,790 houses for sale in Chicago in November down 24.8% from November 2011 when there were 7,697 houses for sale.*
In May I wrote about how the number of Chicago houses for sale in the first quarter was at a 3 year low. As shown below the inventory of Chicago houses for sale has continued to drop monthly.
In November the median sale price rose 13.3% to $158,500. The number of closed sales was up 5%. The average days on market for pending sales was down 60%. Pending sales were up 61%.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CHICAGO HOUSE BUYERS
It’s still a buyer’s market, but you don’t have nearly 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 HOUSE 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.
CHICAGO HOUSES QUICK SEARCH
QUESTIONS?
Call Fran at 773-793-4516, text or email
*Information is based on data from Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED).
Fran Bailey specializes in downtown Chicago, Lincoln Park and Lake View condos, co-op apartments and houses. She has shared home buying and selling advice since 2006 and written about over 130 Chicago high rises. To schedule showings for any listings, get a 
