Who ever thought that we could transition so quickly from high to low inventory?

Of course, there are still houses for sale. For instance, Winnetka currently has 46 listed homes, some of which have not sold after several months on the market.

Exactly half of the those homes are priced over $2 million which necessarily means that they will take longer to sell. Of the 23 homes under $2 million, some are overpriced and even in this hot market buyers will push back when they sense price exceeds value.

In Wilmette where there are 69 homes for sale, 38 have been on the market for over 30 days. Price seems to be the issue for many of those, or location or condition. Which all comes down to price.

With all five villages taken together there are 181 homes for sale priced between $325,000 and $18,000,000. Sixty-nine of those homes are under $1 million and 60 are under $2,000,000. Inventory might be historically low (I remember during the recession having 200 homes for sale in Winnetka) but there are still plenty of good homes for sale.

And, there are 64 more homes for sale in the MLS Private Network*. Not all are available for sale right now, but many, if not most, are and help to alleviate the strain on inventory.

Most popular homes are those that are newer, remodeled, and priced under $1 million. The median price for all homes sales in Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth, and Glencoe in the past six months is $930,000.

For just homes priced over $1 million, the median price is $1,450,000.

How low has inventory gone in the past year for the five North Shore villages listed above?

Right now the focus is on buyers getting the home they want. But it’s sellers who control the market in so much as inventory goes. If they decide to stay put, the problem of low inventory will persist.

One reason people are not selling is because they need to buy a house themselves. Some don’t want to enter that brawl and prefer to stay in their current homes until the rush is over.

So we have a chain reaction that results in an impasse which may be where we are now. But don’t be mistaken – there are many determined buyers who are still hoping to find the right home and they’ve probably made other, unsuccessful bids.

Other issues leading to low inventory are high costs of materials for new construction and the 30-year fixed mortgage which is at a 50-year low. The pandemic is still pushing a certain segment of buyers out of smaller condos and into suburban homes helping to fuel the frenzy.

Prices have risen slightly over 10% (local number, not national) in the last 12 months and as you can see from this graphic, it seems to be leveling off. But with the summer months still ahead, it’s too early to determine that for certain.

If you have the desire and wherewithal to list your home now, I can almost guarantee a quick sale and a dream price. Real estate pundits have different things to say about how long this market will last. 

And all the preparation that goes into getting a house ready for market has not changed. It still needs to be done (i.e. repairing, painting, staging) in order to get the ideal results. Most younger buyers may be discouraged but they still aren’t keen to buy a home that needs work.

While you’re here, please see:

ALL NORTH SHORE HOMES FOR SALE

*MLS Private Network Listings are homes that may be available for viewing but not yet ready for market.

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Last year was a whirlwind for the real estate industry, especially for building and construction. With lumber and other building material prices skyrocketing, sales stalling due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and the U.S. economy entering a serious recession, the housing market seemed to a sudden halt and there was no telling how it would fair.

However, the market came back with a vengeance, stronger than ever before. New home construction was able to fair well through the storm of the pandemic with the help of virtual sales and tours, as well as record-low interest rates.

Experts at Builder Magazine recently came out with their Local Leaders list for 2020, which ranks the country’s 50 largest new-home markets based on closings by the end of the year.

The top five markets were Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas; Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas; Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, Georgia; Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona; and Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, Texas. These markets have maintained their positions over the last few years and are remaining robust.

Chicago was one of only 10 markets that posted fewer home closings in 2020 than in 2019. More data about Chicago’s market (including its market share of home sales, new home closings by product type, top 10 builders, average new home prices and square footage, etc.) can be found here.

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Medical office buildings were a bright light in commercial real estate in 2020. Investors spent $11.2B last year on medical office spaces, down slightly from the previous year, but far better than overall U.S. commercial real estate sales, which declined 32% in 2020.

2021 is shaping up to be another strong year for the sector. Despite a slight slowdown in medical office investment in Q1 2021, there is a lot of capital carried over from 2020 that is expected to be deployed into the sector. Pair that with an aging baby boomer population that will need fast access to medical facilities, and healthcare office portfolios are expected to continue to attract investment.

What will that look like in practice for the real estate industry? Find out at Bisnow’s Chicago Healthcare Update. The Aug. 12 live event will offer attendees exclusive insights into upcoming trends in healthcare and advice on how to develop actionable investment strategies for medical office facilities. Register here for the event.

Speakers will cover:

• How medical office buildings can improve the patient experience.
• The role of retail and medical office building healthcare facilities in the coming year.
• The state of healthcare development and construction plans in a post-pandemic world.
• How telehealth will continue to change the medical industry. 

The day’s keynote will be delivered by Dr. Omar Lateef, CEO of Rush University Medical Center of Chicago. Newsweek recently ranked Rush among the top 50 “smart hospitals” in the U.S. for its embrace of leading-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. It ranked among the top 150 in the world.

“Consumers are becoming more and more interested in how strongly healthcare systems embrace innovation and smart technologies in ways that improve access and add convenience,” Lateef said in a statement.

Other scheduled speakers for the Chicago event include:

• Jon Boyajian, principal with Echo Development Group.
• Deeni Taylor, chief investment officer for Physicians Realty Trust.
• Will Magnuson, senior regional manager for Autodesk Construction Cloud.
• Kenneth Bahk, co-founder and managing partner of Kaleidoscope Health Ventures.
• Jill Gewargis, director of Real Estate Strategy for Northwestern Medicine.
• Bob Chib, co-founder of Kaleidoscope Health Ventures.

Visit here to register or get more information about Bisnow’s Chicago Healthcare Update.

Please note that the summit will be in-person and follow local guidelines to ensure the safety of all attendees. The organizers will advise on any necessary precautions closer to the Aug. 12 event.

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Frank Martinez has been named director of multifamily investments for Keller Williams ONEChicago’s Multifamily Investment Advisory Services team. 

Martinez previously worked in the multifamily investments and advisory division of Marcus & Millichap.

He recently closed on the largest deal in the South Shore since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic with a six-building, 237-unit complex for $17.05 million. 

He serves on the executive board for the Leukemia Research Foundation and volunteers for a number of real estate organizations.

“Frank is a forward-thinking leader and client advocate with an impressive track record as a broker and investor,” ONEChicago Multifamily Division Executive Director Tony Hardy said in a press release. “From maximizing investor returns on market-rate and affordable housing to identifying value-add opportunities, Frank leverages his industry knowledge to identify the best and most profitable solutions for multifamily investors. We are grateful to be in business with Frank and looking forward to the benefits our clients will receive from his leadership and expertise.”  

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With high costs slowing construction and potentially lowering homeownership for many, a recent Zillow survey of economists and real estate experts found easing zoning rules to be the most effective way to increase the supply of new housing. 

Expert panelists from Zillow’s Home Price Expectations Survey say if changes aren’t made, new construction growth will stall, home prices will continue to increase, and fewer of today’s 30-somethings will have the ability to own a home.

Today’s market continues to be highly competitive, as home prices remain historically high, and inventory levels at historic lows. 

Experts surveyed said they expect new housing starts by Dec. 31 to be 2.5% below last year’s level and fall another 2% by the end of 2022, citing high labor costs, materials and land as the biggest barriers they’re facing. 

When asked how to increase the housing supply, survey respondents chose relaxing zoning rules by a wide margin. Citing previous research, “even a modest amount of upzoning in large metro areas could add 3.3 million homes to the U.S. housing stock, creating room for more than half of the missing households since the Great Recession,” according to the report. 

While a prediction of a construction slowdown is surprising, rising costs may drag down the pace of construction from the speed seen this spring, Zillow senior economist Jeff Tucker said in a release. 

“Builders have been firing on all cylinders to meet the excess demand from buyers left unmet by the existing home market, and demand appears poised to stay high for years to come,” Tucker said. “But builders will need buildable land to close the massive shortfall, and zoning changes could move the needle, with the potential to open up enough building capacity to add millions of homes.”

Other recommendations for increasing supply include easing the land subdivision process, relaxing local review regulations for certain size projects, accelerating adoption of new construction technologies and increased construction workforce training.

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If the deal is finalized, it would mark a bold wager on a downtown hotel amid a COVID-19 crisis that has sapped travel and raised questions about how long it will take for demand to recover. Murphy, who is known for redeveloping vintage downtown properties into hotels, is also betting on the future of Wolf Point, where Houston-based developer Hines has completed two residential towers and is now building a 60-story office tower that will be anchored by software giant Salesforce.

Sources said Murphy’s venture would buy the leasehold interest in the hotel from a partnership tied to the estate of late Chicago real estate developer Edward Ross, who, along with his late business partner Jerrold Wexler, founded the Jupiter Industries conglomerate that built the hotel in 1976. Murphy is expected to execute a new 99-year ground lease with New York-based private-equity giant Blackstone Group—which owns the former Apparel Center building on which the hotel sits—and redevelop the property with a different brand within the IHG Hotels & Resorts family. The purchase price is said to be close to the nearly $23 million in debt the hotel’s owners have on the property, according to Cook County property records.

Spokesmen for Murphy Development Group and the hotel’s owners couldn’t be reached. A Blackstone spokesman did not immediately provide a comment.

Murphy is showing confidence in the future of a downtown hotel market that has recently shown small signs of recovery. With COVID restrictions relaxing, occupancy at downtown hotels that were open during the last week of May was 42 percent, the highest for any single week since the pandemic began, according to hospitality data and analytics company STR. That’s still well below a typical pre-pandemic May occupancy rate above 80 percent, but a big step up from the first year of the pandemic, when many hoteliers shuttered their properties amid paltry demand and occupancy never rose higher than 27 percent for a single week.

The Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza has been closed since early December, according to its website.

Murphy has transformed a series of Chicago properties into hotels, most recently overhauling the former Cook County Hospital into a dual-brand Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotel. He previously redeveloped a vintage Loop office building into a Hyatt Centric hotel, turned the office portion of the former Oriental Theatre building into the Cambria Hotel & Suites and converted the Chicago Motor Club Building into a Hampton Inn.

His pending Holiday Inn project comes as more downtown hotels have hit the market, testing investor appetite for properties in the COVID-battered hospitality sector. The Talbott Hotel in River North, Blackstone Hotel on Michigan Avenue and dual-brand Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites Mag Mile in Streeterville have all gone up for sale in the past few months.

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by Mary T. Prenon

As we all slowly begin to navigate the post-pandemic world, we continue to grapple with the many changes that have emerged over the past year and half. Just about every industry was affected, and real estate was no exception. Personal meetings were replaced by video meetings and teleconferencing, the handshake became an elbow rub and virtual open houses often resulted in buyers’ purchasing properties sight unseen.

While masks and social distance requirements may eventually fall by the wayside, much of the new real estate technology that has surfaced during the pandemic is likely to stick around for the foreseeable future.

Tech hits a high note

Kelly Dunn Rynes, broker and senior manager of a real estate team with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, has come to rely on a myriad of new apps, websites and systems that have made life easier for brokers, buyers, sellers, photographers and even home inspectors. With 20 years in the real estate business, Rynes has seen many changes over the past two decades, but in the last year, she said, technology has seemed to hit a high note when it comes to real estate.

While videography of homes was a pre-COVID staple in some markets, it has become a “must,” particularly for high-end listings. “We have a lot more sophisticated editing now with music and special-text fonts to really enhance the video,” explained Rynes. “Clients also like to have access to these videos so they can share on their social media platforms.”

Rynes typically offers complimentary photography and videography services for her clients, as well as “soft staging,” such as changing out towels or adding new bedspreads or fresh flowers. For those requiring “hard staging,” like bringing in furniture, she’ll connect her sellers with one of her home-staging vendors.

The tight market and historically low inventory nationwide have led to the proliferation of new websites and apps like Remine, Zenlist, Homesnap and others. “For instance, Remine can show you if a homeowner has refinanced in last few years. If they haven’t, and with interest rates now at an all-time low, they might be thinking about selling,” said Rynes.

Remine has also partnered with a number of MLSs across the nation, including Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). Among many other perks, the technology allows MLSs to customize listing fields for their market areas and lets brokers submit listings via desktop or mobile devices.

By using the Zenlist app, homebuyers can actually gain access to private listings to see what’s up-and-coming on the market. “This gives them the advantage of really being prepared so they can jump on a property right away,” added Rynes. Zenlist combines active listings with both the private and premarket listings, giving potential buyers the same information usually reserved only for real estate agents.

Homesnap, meantime, provides buyers with a national home-search portal with the same real-time MLS information available to agents. The free app offers detailed listings with high-definition photos, property history and unique features like searching within a school zone. “Another great highlight is being able to show the buyer where the property ends, since the app also provides accurate lot lines,” said Rynes.

On the other end, to help sellers with finding the right buyer for luxury properties, WealthEngine is a subscription app that supplies contact information for potential high-end buyers. Searches can be conducted using a variety of factors, such as geography or income. “Instead of just hoping for a buyer by throwing it out to the masses, this app lets you drill down and identify possible luxury homebuyers,” explained Rynes. “It helps you to be proactive about it, and even if they’re not currently in the market, they could be in the future. It’s a great way to make new connections.”

Rynes also uses the FOREWARN app, which helps to positively identify over 80% of prospective buyers. The app can verify current property and vehicle ownership, financial risks and any criminal records.

Tech as an amenity

In addition to adopting new real estate apps, Rynes has had to learn to manage smart-home systems for her ultra-luxury listings, many of which are located on the North Shore. These high-end listings more frequently feature wall-unit mini-computers that control everything from lights and security cameras to HVAC and music. “I find that I have to arrive about 20 minutes early to a showing just to get things set up properly,” she said. “It’s definitely a new skill set I’ve had to learn — it’s literally like, ‘lights, camera, action,’ especially when I have to launch a movie in their theater rooms.”

Her clients also need to feel comfortable giving Rynes access to their security codes. “Now when smart homes sell, the new thing we’re seeing is the involvement of an A/V professional in order to transfer service and change out codes,” she added. “It’s not just about movers and decorators anymore.”

Sealing the deal

Even home inspectors are jumping on the technology bandwagon. “Instead of just taking photos, they’re starting to use drones to see every aspect of the rooms, as well as moisture meters to detect any water lurking behind the walls,” she said.

The closing table has also changed over the past year, and Rynes predicts the new lineup will likely become the norm moving forward. “I haven’t attended a closing in about 14 months,” she admitted. “There used to be over 10 people there, but now I don’t think there’s a need to have so many, as it’s been done successfully with just a few essential people.”

Rynes’ forecast for the future of real estate tech is pretty clear — she believes it’s all here to stay.

“All of this new technology has propelled our industry forward, and it’s also helped to remove the randomness of a wide net of marketing,” she said.

Launching during COVID

Caitlin Wright

Real estate newcomer Caitlin Wright of @properties’ St. Charles office agrees. She got into the business just a short time ago — actually the week before the “stay-at-home” order took place in Illinois last year. “I remember panicking that no one would buy homes, but it was just the opposite,” she recalled.

Like many parts of the county, large cities began to see a mass exodus as people fled to suburban or rural areas to secure more space and safety from the pandemic. Wright works with her mother, who has been in the business for 16 years. “For me, it was dealing with a lot of first-time homebuyers coming out of the city, so I depended on virtual showings, 3D tours, floor plans and a lot of social media,” Wright said. “Zenlist was also huge for us because it allowed clients to dive deeper than just using the MLS. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of ‘contingents’ on homes even before they hit the MLS.”

Wright relies heavily on social media for lead generation, gaining about 90% of her leads from Instagram and LinkedIn. “You have to be consistent and get yourself out there,” she said. “It’ s a great way to showcase properties, plus give something of value like market updates or homeowner tips.”

Even with the pandemic turning a corner, she still plans on utilizing digital presentations prior to meeting with potential clients. “I can create and send these to prospective buyers and sellers, and I think the younger generation really prefers this,” she said.
Like Rynes, Wright sees similar tech trends, with homeowners installing smart-home systems and inspectors using drones and scanners to view chimneys and other parts of the house that are sometimes difficult to access.

Social media a must

A broker for over three years with Dream Town in Edison Park, Abby Powell is also a fan of new technology to help buyers of all ages find their homes. Zenlist, social media, 3D tours and floor plans are a part of her real estate arsenal, as well. “Programs like Matterport not only allow a prospective buyer to virtually ‘tour’ a home, but they also provide wall-to-wall measurements, which is important for people who want to bring a lot of their current furniture,” she said. “I’ll definitely continue to use this — it gives people an edge to be better prepared for when they actually see the home in person.”

Her go-to social media platforms include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok, which allows a maximum of just one-minute videos. “Because of the limited amount of time, I can do my ‘elevator pitch’ on there, create an interest and provide a direct link to a virtual tour of the property,” she explained. “It’s also important to engage the right type of hashtags so people can follow them.”

Zoom, FaceTime and other teleconferencing tech will continue to be part of Powell’s routine. “For now, it’s still about staying safe and healthy, but post-pandemic, I think these tools will continue to be essential for a lot of people who have become very tech-savvy during this time.”

Most importantly, Powell encourages her followers on all platforms to share content so she can continue to grow her social media presence. “You know the old saying, ‘Your net worth is only as big as your network,’” she quipped.

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Don and Solonge Robinson live with their two young children in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side. Their renovated farmhouse was built in the late 1800s. Light pours in from multiple windows even on a rainy day. The Robinsons’ favorite space in the home is their spectacular kitchen.

Last year, the Black couple refinanced their home. The appraisal — $480,000 — shocked them.

“We were expecting the place to appraise for $660,000,” Don Robinson said.

“And that $660,000 was reflective of the comps in our area in walking distance. We weren’t pulling numbers out of the sky,” Solonge Robinson added. 

As a real estate agent, Don Robinson said, he has seen the devaluing of Black homes in Black neighborhoods in Chicago, with little recourse for the owners.

The federal government and professional appraisal associations removed explicit race language in the process of determining home values in the late 1970s, said Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, a sociologist who co-authored a study on the appraisal race gap. The study found that a racial lens on appraisals still harms Black communities. A combination of the historical legacy of undervaluing Black neighborhoods, segregation, lack of knowledge of Black communities and stereotyping contribute to the wide disparity between appraised values in Black and white neighborhoods across the country.

Lenders require appraisals, which is among the final steps in purchasing or refinancing a home with a mortgage. Licensed appraisers evaluate properties for quality, upgrades and number of rooms to determine the market price. To assist the process, appraisers use comparables, or “comps” — the prices of recently sold homes nearby.

Sociologists Korver-Glenn and Junia Howell published a study last year that found the neighborhood race appraisal gap nearly doubled in the U.S. from 1980 to 2015. Across all years, neighborhoods with large Black and Latinx populations had lower appraised values. The lower values were partially due to historical policies that led to the building of smaller and more densely concentrated homes in Black and Latinx neighborhoods as well as contemporary policies that perpetuate socioeconomic inequality across racial groups. Yet, even when the researchers considered all of this and compared neighborhoods with homes of the same size and quality and with comparable socioeconomic status and location, the inequalities in appraised values still existed.

For example, they compared neighborhoods whose houses, socioeconomic status and location matched the national medians. Homes in Black and Latinx neighborhoods whose housing and demographic characteristics matched the national averages were valued at $125,000 in 2015. Yet, homes in white neighborhoods with these same housing and demographic characteristics were valued at $370,000 — or $245,000 more than their counterparts in Black and Latinx areas.

The scholars drilled down their analysis to show the Chicago-area racial gap. They created a model comparing similar-style houses in similar socioeconomic neighborhoods with racial demographics as the only difference. In 1980, there was a $50,000 gap between Black/Latinx neighborhood home values and white ones. In 2015, that gap was $324,000.

“Racial inequality is actually increasing over time — suggesting that our contemporary practices, not just our historical legacy, are exacerbating and contributing to how we are further racialized in these spaces and actually valuing white spaces as more valuable despite being really similar,” said Howell, an assistant director at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research.

Korver-Glenn, author of the new book “Race Brokers: Housing Markets and Segregation in 21st Century Urban America,” said that since the inception of appraisals in the 1930s, appraisers considered neighborhoods desirable if they were homogenous. White buyers are still considered the default. 

“The training materials that they’re using teach them to define neighborhoods as homogenous places. They teach them to draw boundaries around demographically similar areas,” she said.

The Appraisal Institute describes itself as the industry’s largest professional association. In an email, the organization said its methodologies are grounded in fair and objective economic principles. 

Jason O’Beirne, a Chicago real estate agent, said he’s seen nervous appraisers pull up in Black neighborhoods. So O’Beirne has used his whiteness by being present at appraisals. 

“I definitely believe that my skin color influences positively amongst these appraisers, and secretly I’m wondering if that’s why I’m hired for some of these opportunities because people know maybe there’s an advantage to the color of my skin to set these appraisers at ease,” O’Beirne said.

In early June, the Joe Biden administration announced plans to address the disparity in appraisals as part of an effort to narrow the racial wealth gap. “The impact of these disparities in home appraisals can be sweeping, limiting homeowners’ ability to properly benefit from refinancing or re-selling their homes at higher valuations and thereby contributing to the already-sprawling racial wealth gap,” the administration said.

A number of local groups are studying what can be done to change the appraisal industry, including Illinois Realtors, which represents 50,000 professionals in the state. Don Robinson is on a task force that’s collecting appraisal complaints.

The Robinsons said they appealed their home’s appraisal to the appraiser company — and lost. That led Robinson to contemplate whether he should start a business that helps Black homeowners erase their presence, taking down Black photographs and artwork so their properties can sell at a higher prices.

“One of the things that really hurt us most is that we do have to take the Blackness out, which really shouldn’t have an impact on the value of a home,” Robinson said.

The Robinsons said that takes a psychological toll and sends the message that they and other Black families don’t belong. And this appraisal has left them with a house they think is undervalued, which also reduces their wealth. 

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Chicago home sales set a 15 year record in May

The Chicago real estate market continued its record setting pace in May, hitting a 15 year high in closed sales. You can clearly see it in the graph below, which has all the May values flagged in red. Also, note that the green 12 month moving average is higher than it has been in 14 or 15 years.

I won’t even bother to compare May to last year because the pandemic totally screwed up the market. However, May closings were 16.0% higher than in 2019 and the downward trend in sales that was in place at that time has now been forcefully terminated. Again, it’s condo sales that are almost exclusively driving the volume surge since detached homes are in such short supply (see below). Condo/ townhome sales were up almost 25% over 2019 levels.

Chicago home sales have been declining now for several years but the Coronavirus really tanked the market in May and June of 2020. The market returned to more normal levels starting in July and is now setting new records.

And we can pretty much count on strong closings for at least the next couple of months since contract activity remains at record levels. I’ve only got 13 years of data in the graph below but May set a record for that time period and was 18.7% higher than May 2019. That also makes 12 months in a row with an increase in contract activity from the previous year.

Chicago home sale contract activity blew past all previous years, hitting another record high for this time of year after plummeting to record lows when the pandemic first hit.

Pending home sales (under contract, waiting to close) are also going to contribute to higher closings over the next couple of months. They are at the highest level in 5 years and 857 units above the 2019 level. That’s a lot when you consider that June will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 closings.

After hitting historic lows the backlog of homes likely to close in the next 1 – 2 months has reached the highest levels in 5 years.

The foreclosure moratorium is still keeping a lid on distressed sales as you can see in the graph below. May set a new record low of only 1.1% distressed sales, down from 5.3% last year.

Since the housing crisis the percentage of home sales that are distressed has steadily declined to almost negligible levels.

The low number of homes on the market is exposing the flaws in the standard measure of months of supply of inventory so I continue to calculate the number myself, based upon homes for sale and same month contract activity. The result is graphed below and you can see that detached inventory is at a record low (1.4 months of supply) and attached inventory is at the lower end of the range for May (2.6 months of supply). So inventory remains tight for both types of properties but especially for detached homes.

After a big Coronavirus induced spike in April 2020 the inventory of homes for sale dropped back down. Detached inventory keeps setting new record lows while attached inventory has dropped to the lower end of the historic range.

The time it takes to sell a home in Chicago is at a record low for detached homes – down from 79 days on average in 2019 to just 50 days in May. But half these homes are selling in 10 days or less now, down from 30 days in 2019. On the other hand attached homes (condos/ townhomes) are taking longer to sell now – on average 81 days vs. 70 days in 2019. But half the attached homes are selling in 24 days or less, the same as in 2019.

When the pandemic first hit Chicago market times rose but now they are actually quite a bit lower than last year. Detached homes are at a record low.

#RealEstate #ChicagoRealEstate #Coronavirus

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.

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