Given how bad May home sales were in Chicago it’s probably a good idea to check in to see how the real estate market is doing. We’re now in the 15th week of the Covid-19 pandemic according to my own calendar of events and the sense on the street is that the real estate market has come back.

But most realtors are always going to tell you how well the real estate market is doing so let’s see what the most recent week’s (ending June 13) data shows:

Detached Homes

• New listings are still down 20% from last year to 401 homes. This is an improvement from the last time I did an update on this but, obviously, it still kinda sucks.
• Contract activity is actually up 15% from last year to 290 contracts written so that aspect has more than recovered with some pent up demand manifesting itself.
• Inventory in absolute terms is still down a lot – 23% to 2643 homes
• In relative terms inventory is also down a lot from last year with only a 9.1 week supply vs. 13.5 weeks last year.

Attached Homes

• Whereas detached new listings were down from last year attached new listings were actually up 4%. Hmmm. Not sure what to tell you about that. Disenchantment with condos or lifestyle differences that make condo owners more comfortable with placing their homes on the market right now?
• Contract activity is doing a lot better than it was a few weeks ago. It’s now down only 2% from last year to 417 homes.
• Inventory in absolute terms was down 15% to 5268 homes – not quite as tight as detached inventory
• Inventory in relative terms is now down from 14.5 weeks of supply last year to 12.6 weeks this year. A few weeks ago it was actually up from the previous year. So the supply has really tightened.

So, basically, inventory is tight while demand is strong – especially for detached homes.

Illinois Real Estate Showings Have Made A Complete Comeback

The outlook is good too as real estate showings have not only come back but may actually be exceeding last year’s levels as the graph below indicates. If you look at the graph you may wonder why I’m hedging a bit about the exceeding part but that has to do with the funky way this graph is indexed. It’s all relative to the first of the year so you can’t directly compare the two lines – only the rise and fall of those lines.

This data suggests that for the time being the home buyer may be over the virus but, based upon the data above, we know that the home seller is far from over it.

#RealEstate #ChicagoRealEstate #Coronavirus #Covid-19

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.