Market Update: Chicago August 3rd 2020
As with all things in the world right now, COVID-19 is the hot topic dominating the news and our everyday lives; and just like our every day lives COVID-19 is affecting the Chicago real estate market. The question is, how? For context, 2019 was a slower year in real estate with prices stagnating or dropping until October when the prices started trending upwards. See 3 year price chart below
As you can see in the past one year price chart above, April saw a small drop in price as buyers postponed their move due to uncertainty in the stock market and the real estate market. At the same time as buyers were slowing in the market, sellers were putting their plans on hold as well. In fact, new listings dropped by over 10% , the biggest percentage drop in over 5 years. Homes under contract and closed sales also declined more than 10% in a three month period from March to May. See new listings and listings under contract below.
All of these data points lead us to a unique conclusion about what COVID-19 has done to the real estate market so far in 2020. We can conclude that due to the drop in new listings, closed sales and homes under contract coupled with the small drop in price which quickly recovered that both supply and demand dropped drastically during the months of March through May keeping our prices consistent with a normal market.
June and July has seen Chicago real estate heat up as restrictions lightened and both buyers and sellers hit the market to make their move. Sales price recovered in June as new listings and listings under contract had huge jumps.
Looking at the current statistical data available the Chicago real estate market appears to be back and, due to the fact that supply and demand decreased in line with one-another, prices dipped briefly, but stayed in line. Check back in about a month for a monthly update about the happenings in the Chicago real estate market.
With this information it appears right now is as good a time as ever to buy or sell real estate in Chicago. With large spike in buyers and new listings increasing daily the competition is strong. As always if you or anyone you know has any questions about the current state of the real estate market in Chicago reach out to me.