The 2008 home sales and price statistics for the Chicago metropolitan area* have been posted by the Illinois Association of Realtors.
While 2008 total sales were down 26% in the region compared to 2007, the 2008 median home price was down just 5.5%. In the city of Chicago proper, the 2008 median price was off by just .5% compared to 2007. The median price for state of Illinois as a whole was down 7.8% compared to 2007.
Nobody likes to see depreciation; however, the Chicago area has not seen anything like the numbers that we’ve seen on the coasts or in Arizona and Florida.
The key to gauging values is, as always in real estate, paying attention to location, location, location. As broker Pat Callan of Wheaton explains, “While prices in some neighborhoods remained relatively stable this year, others fell depending on their exposure to subprime loans” (iar.org).
The Barrington and Palatine areas, while they have seen some foreclosures and short sales, have not been hit as hard as other areas in Illinois.
*The Chicagoland primary metropolitan statistical area consists of Cook, Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, DeKalb, Grundy, and Kendall counties.
