While sales declines for the North Shore are comparable to the greater Chicago area (-19.1% vs. July 2009), the picture is not as bleak if you look only at single family detached homes, which decreased only 11% in July. The good news for the North Shore market is that the median price is up 21% for all single family homes and up 8% for detached single family homes.

Here’s how the trends compare:

Illinois

Home Sales  -29.7%

Median Price  -4.3%

Chicago area

Home Sales -25.0%

Median Price -9.6%

City of Chicago

Home Sales -19.5%

Median Price -19.8%

North Shore*

Home Sales -19.1%

Median Price +21.0%

*Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka, Northfield, Kenilworth, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Lake Forest

This was not surprising because the tax credit expired June 30. The towns which had the biggest decreases were the ones where the tax credit had had the most positive  impact: towns where home prices tend to be under $700,000. Although unit sales were down this month, the good news is that prices are up modestly vs. July of last year and time on market is down.

The towns that showed the best performance overall were Wilmette and Lake Forest. Wilmette had a 15% increase in unit sales and a 15% increase in median selling price, as well as a 4% decrease in time on market. Lake Forest doubled in unit sales from July of last year and decreased in market time, while prices stayed flat.

The weakest performer for the month of July was Highland Park. Sales were down 22% vs. 2009, median selling price declined 27% and days on market increased 4%.

Evanston’s average days on market is down to 69 days while several other markets are down to five months. Kenilworth time on market is still just under one year due to its high average price point.

North Shore Market Update – July 2010

Source: MRED LLC- Single family detached homes – Deemd reliable but not guaranteed

Every one of the nine towns covered in the chart below showed an increase in unit sales, with the big gainers being Kenilworth (+280% off a very small base), Highland Park (+99%) and Wilmette (+85%).

Pricing was more of a mixed bag. Kenilworth, Glenview, Highland Park and Lake Forest showed healthy increases in median price, while Winnetka, Northfield and Glencoe were down.

Market time was also mixed. Wilmette, Lake Forest and Evanston showed improvement, while days on market for Kenilworth Winnetka, Northfield and Glenview continued to increase.

Are we on the road to recovery? I sure hope so. The market seems to be turning the corner, but it will continue to be impacted by unemployment and short sales/foreclosures.

North Shore Market Update – 1st Half 2010 vs. 2009*

*Source- MRED LLC. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Single family home data.

If you would like to see more North Shore real estate data, you can go here.

In terms of homes sold, the big winner this month was Glencoe, which increases 333% over last May. Winnetka and Wilmette also had big increases of 150% and 125%, respectively. The only market that did not increase this month was Lake Forest.

Glencoe’s median price increased 77% over last May, driven by the fact that its only three sales in May 2009 were at a very low price point ($435,000), whereas this year the median price of the thirteen homes sold was $770,000. Glenview also had a big jump, from $368,750 last year, to $635,000 this year. Evanston had a modest increase of 9%. The other towns had odest declines.

Several markets showed decreases in time on market of homes sold: Glencoe, Northfield, Wilmette, Evanston, Highland Park and Lake Forest. Winnetka had a big increase in time on market of properties sold. This indicates that homes that had been overpriced finally came down to a realistic level and were able to sell.

North Shore Market Update – May 2010 vs. May 2009 (Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed)

Every town except Glencoe had a significant increase in sales vs. last year. The biggest winners were  Winnetka and Highland Park. Winnetka, which had only 2 sales in April of 2009 (the worst month for Winnetka real estate in recent memory), had 12 ales this April. Highland Park had 8 sales last year and 42 sales this year. Highland Park also had the largest decrease in median price for sold homes. Winnetka, on the other hand, had a median price increase of 14%.

North Shore Market Update – April 2010 vs. April 2009*

Source: MRED – Deemed relaible but not guaranteed.
* Single family detached homes

Evanston Home Sales

Home sales in March were up 129% over last month and up 67% over March of last year. Sales for the first quarter are running 46% ahead of the same period last year. In both 2009 and 2010, 80% of home sales were below $500,000.

Evanston Home Prices

Consistent with surrounding suburbs, the increase in sales has been accompanied by a decrease in prices. The median sales price for single family homes (houses, condos and townhomes) was $274,900, down 13% from February and down 3.2% from March of last year. The average sales price was $335,065, down 8% from February and down 3% from March of last year.

Inventory and Months Supply

There were 793 homes for sale in Evanston as of March, up 9% from last month (typical seasonality) and down 7% vs. March of last year. The months supply of homes, which indicates how long it would take to sell all of the homes that are currently on the market, was 12 months, down from 22 months last March. Although the months supply is higher than we would like to see (6-7 months is a “balanced” market), Evanston’s months supply is lower than most of the other North Shore markets.

Market Time

The average days on market (DOM) is how many days a property is on the market before it sells and an upward trend indicates a move towards a buyer’s market. The DOM for March was 113 days, up 21% from last month and up 21% vs. march of 2009.

Winnetka Home Sales

Home sales were up 7% from February 67% over last March. For the first quarter, sales are running 56% ahead of first quarter 2009 when the market was at its lowest point. Although more houses sold this year than last, a larger percentage of homes sold under $1,000,000 than last year.

Winnetka Home Prices

Prices are trending up over the past few months, but are still below this time last year. The median sales price for March was $1,065,000, which was up 10% over February but down 31% vs. last March. Average sale price was $1,734,553, up 55% from February but down 25% vs. year ago.

Inventory and Months Supply

There were 221 homes for sale in Winnetka as of March, which was up 8% over February and down almost 9% from March of last year. We would expect the inventory of homes for sale to go up in March given seasonality. The more important number is months supply, which is a measure of how long it would take to sell all the homes on the market at the current rate of sale. In March of this year the months supply of homes was 14.7 months. This is higher than we would like to see but down 44% from last March and dramatically better than April of last year when the months supply reached 86 months!

Market Time

The days on market (DOM) chart shows how long the average property is on the market before it sells. An upward trend indicates a buyer’s market, while a downward trend is a move towards a seller’s market. The DOM for March was 143 days, up 22% from February and up 34% from last March.

Glencoe Home Sales

March home sales (including single family houses, condos and townhomes) were up 40% vs. March of last year (caution: low base size) and up 17% over last month.

Glencoe Home Prices

The price declines we have been experiencing since early 2008 appear to have leveled off, which is certainly good news. Both the median and the average prices were up in March versus last month and last year. The median sales price was $1,175,000, up 19% vs. last year and up a whopping 95% over last month. The average sales price was $1,162,929, up 31% vs. last year and up 99% vs. last month. Before you get excited and conclude that the market is back and prices are returning to peak levels, keep in mind that this big increase in average and median price was driven by the fact that in March there were 5 houses sold over $1,000,000 and one under, while in February there were 5 houses sold below $1,000,000 and only one above $1,000,000.

Inventory and Months Supply

In March there were 120 homes for sale in Glencoe, up slightly from last month (typical seasonality) and down 18% from March 2009. More importantly, the months supply of homes (the number of months it would take to sell all of the homes at the current rate of sale) is 17 months. This is higher than what we consider a balanced market (6-7 months), but a lot better than March 2009 when there was a 29 month supply of homes on the market.

Market Time

Days on market (DOM) is the average number of days a property is on the market before it sells. This number continues to rise, although the rate of increase has slowed, fortunately. The DOM for March was 185 days, up 64% from last month but only up 3% from last year.

Wilmette Home Sales

Sales of Wilmette’s single family homes (including houses, condos and town homes) were up significantly in March, both vs. February (+65%) and vs. March of last year (+87%). Okay, so last March the market was dead. But still, this is very positive news. Most of the action continues to be below $900,000, but we are seeing more sales in higher price points. 31% of the sales were above $900,000 this year vs. 20% last year.

Wilmette Home Prices

Here’s something we haven’t seen in a while. Median and average home prices in Wilmette were UP, both vs. last month and last year. The median sales price in March was $655,000, up almost 30% from $505,000 in March 2009 and up 7.4% vs. February. The average sales price in March was $869,313, up 31% over March 2009 and up 36% from February.

Inventory and Months Supply

The inventory of Wilmette homes for sale as of March was 275, up 7.8% from February, consistent with market seasonality.  However, it’s down 9.5% vs. last March. More indicative of the market’s improving health is the decline of the months supply of homes on the market. As of March the months supply was 9.8 months, meaning that, at the current rate of sale, it would take 9.8 months for all of the houses listed to sell. Although 9.8 months is still considered a buyer’s market, this is a significant improvement over March of last year when the months supply was twice as high, at 20 months.

Market Time

Although market time of 114 days increased 39% from February, it decreased 30.5% from 165 days in March 2009. The fact that homes are selling faster is consistent with the increase we’re seeing in unit sales and the decrease in months supply of homes on the market.

If you have any questions about this data, or would like more details about the Wilmette market, please email me or give me a call at 847-687-5957.

Housing sales on Chicago’s North Shore increased 56% in the first quarter of 2010 vs. the same period last year. All towns had healthy increases except for Northfield which had one less sale this year than last. The big winner in percentage terms was Kenilworth, which had nine sales this year vs. one last year.

Average prices for sold properties on the North Shore was down 7%. Lake Forest showed the biggest drop (-30%), followed by Winnetka (-21%). Highland Park had only a 1% decrease in average price, while Evanston and Wilmette actually showed increases. Kenilworth’s large increase in average price was driven by the fact that the only sale in 2009 was for an unusually low-priced property for this village.

Days on market for properties sold was down 8% for the North Shore, but the numbers varied widely across individual towns. The largest decreases in market time were in Wilmette (-70%) and Lake Forest (-58%). The largest increases were in Kenilworth (+48%) and Northfield (+38%).

North Shore Market Update – 1st Qtr. 2010 vs. Year Ago*

*Single family detached homes. Source: MRED – Deemed reliable but not guaranteed