Chicago is Rated the Best Metro Area for Bargain-hunting Home Buyers
Still a Buyer's Market in Chicagoland
According to Zillow (notorious for poor price estimates) – of the 50 largest metropolitan markets, the Chicago area is the top buyer’s market.
In other words – Zillow says that buyers have more negotiating power than in most other markets.
Zillow’s calculations provides a wake-up call for sellers who’ve heard reports of a generally improving housing market and may expect a higher price for their home.
(Yet – we also see many situations where there are multiple offers on a property – especially short sale properties.)
Zillow found that in May, forty eight percent of homes in the Chicago area sold for less than their previous selling price (kind of a no brainer if the previous sale was 3-7 years ago), and the median number of days those homes were listed on Zillow was 182 days.
About forty percent of homes listed in May had seen at least one price cut, and the median cut was 6.92 percent. The average discount on homes sold in May was 5 percent less than their most recent asking price.
In the Chicago market, Downers Grove, Northbrook, Palatine, Buffalo Grove and Orland Park were considered the top five communities for buyers trying to get a “good deal.”
Which communities in the Chicago area were the best for sellers?
Of the top five, three — Crown Point, Valparaiso and Munster — are in Indiana. Bolingbrook and Aurora round out the list.
Zillow’s calculations looked at sale-to-list-price ratios, the number of days a property spent on Zillow and the percentage of homes on the market with a price cut.
Other buyer’s markets nationally were Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Fla., Providence, R.I., Cincinnati, Hartford, Conn., and Houston.
The top seller’s market was San Jose, Calif., followed by San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Calif., Phoenix, Riverside, Calif., Washington, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas.
In May, the median price of a home sold in the Chicago area rose, by only $100, but it was the first positive movement in that indicator in 50 months.
Last month, RealtyTrac reported that foreclosure activity in Illinois in May rose fifty four percent from the year earlier, giving Illinois the fifth-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, just behind California and just ahead of Florida.
Buyer Broker Chicagoland represents home buyers exclusively in the Chicago Metro area. As such – we are always on the buyer’s side 100% of the time – unlike a traditional agent. We are also Certified Negotiation Experts – helping buyers get thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in better purchase price.
