Home sales plunge in Chicago in June

Chicago home sales fell in June more than in any month in nearly two years.

Data from Illinois Realtors showed 3,087 homes sold in June in Chicago, down 8.7 percent year over year, according to Crain’s. The last drop of at least that amount was a 9.8 percent decline reported in July 2016.

“The increasingly limited inventory makes for a competitive market with faster sales and increasing prices,” Rebecca Thomson, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and principal of Thomson Real Estate Group, said in a statement. “Buyers are entering a competitive market where turn-key homes are in high demand.”

Sale prices, though, remained essentially flat, with the median price of a home sold in June in the city at $312,750, up 2 percent year over year.

Nationwide, median sale prices were up 5.2 percent in June from a year earlier, more than twice the increase in Chicago. And the number of homes sold fell just 0.6 percent, a fraction of the drop in Chicago.

For the first six months of the year, home sales are down 3.9 percent in the city and 3.7 percent in the nine-county Chicago area compared with a year ago, according to the Illinois Realtors’ data. Nationwide, sales are down 2.2 percent for the year.[Crain’s] — John O’Brien