Getting Real

Chicago Housing Market: Further Signs Of Strengthening In April

Here’s what the Illinois Association of Realtors is going to tell you in about 2 weeks: April sales were really strong compared to last year, with median prices up and distressed sales down as a percent of the total sales. Of course, I don’t pay much attention to median prices because it is NOT an... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
May 7, 2012 at 6:37 am

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How The Chicago Housing Market Really Did In February

As expected the originally reported February home sale numbers for Chicago were wrong. After I contacted the Illinois Association of Realtors they discovered that the original data they received from the Chicago MLS only included 28 days. That damn earth orbit just complicates everything! This actually makes a comparison with February of last year rather... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
March 23, 2012 at 7:32 am

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I Think The February Chicago Home Sales Numbers Are Wrong

A few minutes ago the Illinois Association of Realtors reported February home sales for Illinois and Chicago. The numbers for Chicago just look plain wrong to me. According to IAR Chicago sales were up only 2.2% to 1079. But even back on March 7 I was showing at least a 12.5% increase for Chicago’s February... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
March 21, 2012 at 8:35 am

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December Home Sales In Chicago Slightly Better Than Originally Thought

A few days ago I reported on Chicago home sales for the month of December along with contract activity and distressed property sales. I just found out that the data source that I use to gather that data had a bug in it that has since been corrected. This bug only affected the sales count... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
January 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

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Chicago December Home Sales: Strong Contract Activity But Flat Sales

In two weeks the Illinois Association of Realtors will be releasing December home sales figures for the Chicago area and all of Illinois. What the Chicago numbers will show is basically flat sales relative to last year – up only 1.3%. That’s the smallest year over year increase in the last 6 months – probably... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
January 8, 2012 at 8:40 pm

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October Another Weak Month Of Home Sales In Chicago

In two weeks the Illinois Association of Realtors will release their home sales stats for Chicago for the month of October and they will once again trumpet the increase – this time 8.7% – over last year. But the truth of course sounds like a broken record: last year at this time sales had been... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
November 8, 2011 at 7:18 am

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Don't Let The August Home Sales Numbers Fool You

In about 2 weeks the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) will be releasing their August home sales figures for Chicago with much fanfare. The reason for the rejoicing: August home sales in Chicago will be up around 20.4%. over last year. But let’s put that in perspective. If you will recall 2010 was not a... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
September 7, 2011 at 6:57 am

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July Chicago Home Sales The Lowest In 14 Years...Sorta

Next week, on Thursday, the Illinois Association of Realtors is going to release their sales statistics for the month of July, unless of course there is another delay associated with their famous goof. With pretty high certainty the July home sales numbers for Chicago are going to be about 4.6% higher than last July. But... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
August 9, 2011 at 10:10 pm

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The Summer Real Estate Market Is In The Doldrums

On July 20 the Illinois Association of Realtors is going to pretty much tell you what I’m telling you now: June home sales for Chicago were down 28.5% from last year. Given that the government mucked up the housing market last year with their lame Kcash For Shacks (home buyer tax credit) program this is... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
July 8, 2011 at 7:10 am

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Is Chicago's 2011 Real Estate Market Turning Into Another Dud?

I was reasonably optimistic about the early trend for Chicago’s 2011 real estate market but then I pulled May’s data and it’s not such a rosy picture. Of course, as we all expected, when compared to last year’s government induced frenzy, Chicago’s home sales numbers for May are down by more than 18%. The official... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
June 8, 2011 at 8:21 am

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