FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 1982, INDEX OF CHICAGO IL HOME PRICES DROPS!
INDEX DROPS 0.1% FROM 2ND - 3RD QUARTER, 2007 - BUT STILL UP VERSUS 2006!
Statistics from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight indicate the Housing Price Index in the Chicago Metropolitan area actually dropped a slight bit going into the Third Quarter, but housing prices here are still 2.2% higher, on average, than they were a year ago. According to the OFHEC, Chicago ranks 155 out of 287 markets nationally for annual appreciation rate.
National figures closely parallel the Chicago trend - a slight drop in average prices at the start of the Third Quarter, 2007, but an overall 1.8% increase, across the U.S., versus the Third Quarter, 2006.
Tighter loan underwriting standards, coupled with the sub-prime lending crisis, and some general pessimism about the real estate market, has contributed to the U.S. housing market malaise. States fairing the worst saw considerable speculation during the recent boom years - Florida and California.
“Rising inventories of for-sale properties are clearly having a material impact on home prices,” OFHEO Chief Economist Patrick Lawler said in a press release. “Until those inventories shrink, that will be a great source of resistance to price increases.”
The OFHEO estimates price trends by tracking purchases or refinances of the same single family homes. It uses a price ceiling of $417,000. Above that price, Jumbo Loan Rules would apply. That figure is the maximum loan amount that government-chartered firms can invest in.
The market with the biggest year-to-year price decline was Merced, California (in California's Central Valley), where the year-to-year decline was 13%. Wentachee, Washington, about 150 miles east of Seattle, had the best price appreciation 2007 versus 2006 - 15.7%. Provo-Orem, Utah was second in appreciation percentage, at 14.4%.
Review the entire summary article in the November 30th Online Edition of ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com, published by Crain's Chicago Business.
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