Chicago homes prices rise but still trail major metros

Chicago single-family home prices rose 9.9 percent in April, the biggest increase for the month in seven years.

But in a bit of good news/bad news, the figure still dropped the city to last place among major metros, according to a new report. Competition is stiff, with home prices soaring nationwide.

Across the U.S., home prices shot up 14.6 percent, the 11th straight month of gains after bottoming-out in the depths of the pandemic, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index. Cities like Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego saw double-digit increases.

Still, @Properties co-founder Thad Wong called Chicago’s April number “very sustainable and palatable.” The brokerage consistently ranks at the top in Chicago sales volume. Wong added that the city has been “lagging behind but our pricing seems very rational.”

And Chicago’s housing market has been strong for months. In April, over 12,000 homes sold in the Chicago area, according to a separate report from trade group Illinois Realtors.

All 20 metro areas tracked in the report gained more in the 12 months that ended in April than they had in March, according. That suggests the uptick was driven in part by city dwellers who are still opting for more space in the suburbs.

Phoenix led all cities for the 23rd consecutive month with a 22.3 percent gain, followed by San Diego at 21.6 percent and Seattle at 20.2 percent. Minneapolis recorded an 11.3 percent increase, just above Chicago’s number.

As the pandemic wanes, Wong said he doesn’t worry about Chicago’s pricing prospects.

He said that unlike Phoenix, L.A. or New York that have large second-home and primary home markets, “Chicago is a primary home market only. Our housing stock is only purchased by locals — that’s a really big difference, especially during Covid when a lot of second-home buyers were out there.”

Home prices in summer-cottage cities in Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, jumped, he said, as Chicagoans sought out-of-town respites.

“Chicago’s housing market is very stable, very reliable and it isn’t going to fluctuate much,” he said. “If New York was only buying and selling to New York employees, it would be the same. But there’s a huge amount of international and pied-a-terre buyers there and that makes a big difference in price appreciation.”