24-Sep-16 – More homes were sold nationwide in July 2016 than in any July since the Great Recession began nearly a decade ago, according to a new report by the U.S. Census Bureau. While the Chicago area is still in recovery mode, many other cities across the country are doing much better, experts say.

RE/MAX Northern Illinois reported that Chicagoland home sales totaled 11,802 units in August, up eight percent from August 2015.

The median sales price rose to $231,806, a five percent gain over August a year ago. The average on-the-market time for a home sold in August was 76 days, the lowest figure for August since 2005, the year before the housing market crashed.

Chicago and Cook County accounted for 55 percent of all August home sales in the nine-county Chicago area. Unit sales in Cook County gained seven percent while the median sales price climbed three percent to $235,000.

In August, 1,048 detached single-family homes were sold in Chicago, a gain of seven percent over the same month a year ago, according to RE/MAX. However, median sale prices gained only one percent. Sales of condos, co-ops, and townhouses accounted for 1,748 units, up two percent over August 2015.

“The increase in home sales was particularly encouraging in light of the fact that a relative shortage of inventory continues to be an issue for the Chicago-area housing market,” explained Jack Kreider (right), executive vice president and regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois. “The inventory of homes for sale was ten percent lower at the end of August than it had been a year earlier. That limited inventory certainly helps explain why homes are selling so quickly right now.”

Kreider also noted that the Chicago-area housing market continued to burn off its backlog of distressed homes. In August, distressed sales, which include foreclosures and short sales, represented only 12.2 percent of all home sales. Two years earlier, distressed sales accounted for 20.4 percent of the total.

The home sales data used for the RE/MAX analysis is collected by Midwest Real Estate Data, the regional multiple listing service. It covers detached and attached homes in Chicago and the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.

Chicago still shaky compared to nation

Despite the positive spin put on Chicago-area housing numbers by Realtors, the truth is the local market is far from robust by national standards.

WalletHub, the personal finance website, conducted an in-depth analysis comparing 300 U.S. cities across 16 key metrics. The data set ranges from median home price appreciation to housing affordability to job growth rate. Here’s how the health of Chicago’s residential real estate market ranks, with a score of 1 being the best, 150 average, and 300 the worst…

Chicago may be a “world-class” city, but its residential real estate market ranks 256th overall and 53rd among large cities, according to WalletHub.