Category Archives: Real Estate Market Reports

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, April 2011

April 2011 Residential Sales Information Compared to April 2010

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

April 2011 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 189 units sold
* $121,680 average sale price
* 95.0% sale-to-list price ratio
* 99 average days on the market

April 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 239 units sold
* $146,756 average sale price
* 96.2% sale-to-list price ratio
* 105 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

Sales are down for April 2011 compared to one year ago, but that isn’t surprising. Last year sales peaked in June, the deadline for the first-time home buyer tax credit, and July and August were unusually slow months. Since we have no tax credit this year, we should see sales peaking in July-August, meaning that it may take a little longer this year for sales to really pick up. (To put it into perspective, there were 182 sales in April 2008 and 174 in April 2009. Therefore, it seems we’re right on schedule for 2011.)

What is a little surprising, however, is the drop in average sale price. After doing some investigating, it seems that we had 49 purchases in a price range under $50,000 accounting for about 25% of the total sales this month for Champaign County. As displayed in the graph above, 28% of purchases were paid in cash, which is slightly higher than what we’ve typically been seeing. In all likelihood, we’ve had more foreclosures being snatched up by investors lately which has simply driven down the average sale price. Otherwise, the number of sales for a given price range appear to be fairly normal for the month of April.

Also, we’re still seeing an inventory of just over 2,000 homes on the market. What does this mean for you? For sellers, it means that pricing your home right and having it in the best condition before putting it on the market are still crucial to getting your home sold. Being competitive is key! For buyers, it means that right now is still a great time to be able to purchase a fantastic home at a very good price, if you can afford it!

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate.

Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

Champaign IL Housing Market 1st Quarter Report 2011

The Champaign IL housing market is beginning to pick up as we head towards the summer months and prime selling season! Compared to the first quarter of last this, the number of sales and average sale price are up slightly while the huge inventory of homes on the market has continued to be a challenge for sellers.

What will certainly be interesting to see is how the next few months play out. Last year we had the first-time home buyers tax credit inflating numbers through June with a drop off in sales thereafter. This year we don’t have a tax credit and I would expect to see more of a gradual increase and gradual decrease in our sales numbers.

Overall, I think we’re off to a decent start for the year! Here are the actual statistics for the 1st quarter of 2011 with the 1st quarter of 2010 below for comparison:

In case you missed it and would like to see more detailed reports specifically for Champaign IL…

January 2011 Real Estate Market Report

February 2011 Real Estate Market Report

March 2011 Real Estate Market Report

*Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed to be accurate. After all, I’m only human 😉

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, March 2011

March 2011 Residential Sales Information Compared to March 2010

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

March 2011 Closed Sales Statistics:

• 171 units sold
• $131,559 average sale price
• 95.0% sale-to-list price ratio
• 113 average days on the market

March 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

• 182 units sold
• $135,392 average sale price
• 95.6% sale-to-list price ratio
• 99 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

Numbers may be slightly down for this month compared to March last year, but I, for one, am not discouraged! Activity, in general, is picking up as we head into the warmer months and the numbers for this year will undoubtedly look quite different from last year. The reason? Last April was the deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit. What happened was our numbers looked great leading up to that deadline…and then dropped off considerably. This year we will no doubt see more of a gradual bell curve.

Look for my first quarter of 2011 market report to be published here on my blog in the next few days!

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate.

Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, February 2011

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, February 2011

February 2011 Residential Sales Information Compared to February 2010

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

February 2011 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 115 units sold
* $124,831 average sale price
* 95.1% sale-to-list price ratio
* 123 average days on the market

February 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 106 units sold
* $116,450 average sale price
* 95.0% sale-to-list price ratio
* 98 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

The number of sales are up slightly this month compared to last month while the sales price fell somewhat dramatically. However, given this was also the trend we saw last year from January into February, it doesn’t seem to be cause for concern.

It seems the biggest factor still affecting our local market is the huge inventory of homes for sale. We ended the month of February with 1,865 homes on the market and a 16.2 month absorption rate (see below for explanation). There’s no doubt it’s still a buyer’s market out there. Even so, the sale-to-list price ratio came in at 95.1% which is a little low for this market but still an encouraging number for home sellers. Right now, pricing your home correctly from the moment you put it on the market will have everything to do with how quickly your home sells and whether the sales price is over or under that 95.1%!

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate.

Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, January 2011

January 2011 Residential Sales Information Compared to January 2010

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

January 2011 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 107 units sold
* $144,241 average sale price
* 94.9% sale-to-list price ratio
* 112 average days on the market

January 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 88 units sold
* $142,426 average sale price
* 95.7% sale-to-list price ratio
* 95 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

What an interesting start to the new year! We had a fairly significant increase in the number of sales for January 2011 compared to January 2010. However, just like last year, we saw a moderate increase in our inventory of homes on the market going from December to January, and we ended the month with 1,876 units for sale. As you can see by the chart below, the absorption rate shot back up! If we continue to see a steady increase in sales over the next few months as we typically do around this time of year, then the absorption rate should gradually fall back to a more manageable number.

As a side note, interest rates have just begun to increase again little by little. There’s no way of knowing whether this increase is here to stay this time, but I for one will be keeping watch!

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate. Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

Champaign IL Real Estate Market- 2010 Year in Review

Champaign IL Real Estate Market Report – 2010 Year in Review

It’s a brand-new year, and it seems that everyone I talk to is pretty happy about that fact. Before putting 2010 completely behind me, however, I thought I’d take a quick look at the Champaign County IL market data for the year and see how it measured up to prior years.

Overview

While we had approximately a 10% decrease in total number of homes sold in 2010 compared to 2009, there was less than a 1% change in the average sale price. As a result of the decrease in sales, our home inventory remained notably high for most of 2010 and certainly presented a challenging situation for home sellers.

How ’bout that first-time homebuyers tax credit?

In looking at the number of sales by month (2nd chart below), it’s obvious that the sales peaked in June, the deadline for the first-time homebuyers tax credit… and fell dramatically thereafter. The peak in the third chart for the 2nd quarter of 2010 makes the artificial inflation of home sales due to the first-time homebuyers tax credit all the more evident. So while the first-time homebuyers tax credit made a lot of first-time homebuyers in 2010 really happy, unfortunately it did nothing to stimulate the economy in any long-term sense.

What Can We Expect in 2011?

There are many people predicting a better housing market this year…of course, those might be the same people who failed to recognize the housing crisis before we were well into it! The problem is, none of these people have a crystal ball or the gift of seeing into the future.

So my advice for potential home buyers and sellers is this: do whatever is best for you in your personal situation. Sit down with your trusted real estate agent or financial advisor and figure out what makes the most sense for you. And go from there!

Meanwhile, check back here each month for another market report and I’ll keep you informed of what’s happening in the Champaign-Urbana IL real estate market!

*This information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed to be accurate. After all, I’m only human 🙂

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, December 2010

December 2010 Residential Sales Information Compared to December 2009

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

December 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 150 units sold
* $128,454 average sale price
* 94.6% sale-to-list price ratio
* 93 average days on the market

December 2009 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 144 units sold
* $164,375 average sale price
* 95.4% sale-to-list price ratio
* 97 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

Good news for the Champaign housing market! Our housing inventory finally dropped somewhat significantly in December. After having over 2,000 homes on the market for 5 months straight, we ended this month with 1,746 active listings, and because of the decrease in inventory we also saw the absorption rate drop. Hopefully we’ll see these numbers continue to improve into the new year.

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate. Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

Champaign County IL Real Estate Market Report, November 2010

November 2010 Residential Sales Information Compared to November 2009

The following real estate market information concerns only residential sales in greater Champaign County, IL and includes houses, condos, co-ops, and zerolots.

November 2010 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 120 units sold
* $159,702 average sale price
* 96.1% sale-to-list price ratio
* 105 average days on the market

November 2009 Closed Sales Statistics:

* 215 units sold
* $141,051 average sale price
* 95.1% sale-to-list price ratio
* 80 average days on the market

What’s going on in our Champaign IL real estate market?

Obviously there’s a significant variance in the number of units sold in November 2010 compared to November 2009. The fact that November of last year proved to be more active than usual makes this year’s November numbers look worse than they are, though we did have a somewhat slow month. The good news is that prices continue to remain stable and our inventory has finally dropped below 2,000 again.

Only one more month to go before we can look at 2010 numbers as a whole. How quickly time passes! 🙂

What is an Absorption Rate?

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate. Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®