The inventory of listed downtown Chicago homes for sale continued to drop in the 4th quarter.* There were 29.9% less such homes for sale compared to 4th quarter 2011. There were 2,229 downtown Chicago homes for sale vs. 3,179 a year earlier.
The drop inventory can be at least partially attributed to rising sales. The number of units sold was up significantly year over year for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters in 2012. The increase for the 4th quarter was 41%.
The median sale price was up 25%. Average days on market was down 19%. Pending sales were up 37%, so sales should do well in the 1st quarter of 2013.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DOWNTOWN CHICAGO HOME BUYERS
With a significantly lower inventory of downtown Chicago homes for sale 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. For more on the 25% median sale price increase see the next section.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DOWNTOWN CHICAGO HOME SELLERS
Before you get too excited about the 25% higher median sale price you should know that the increase in median sale price was partially due to the fact that there were slightly less bank-owned sales in the 4th quarter and a higher percent of homes sold were larger homes. Given that the downtown Chicago 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.
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO HOMES FOR SALE
Click below to see the downtown Chicago homes for sale in your desired price range.
| $3M & Above | $2M to $3M | $1.5M to $2M | $1M to $1.5M |
| $900K to $1M | $800K to $900K | $700K to $800K | $600K to $700K |
| $500K to $600K | $400K to $500K | $300K to $400K | $200K to $300K |
QUESTIONS?
Call Fran at 773-793-4516, text or email
*Statistics include co-ops, lofts, apartments and townhouses. 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 
