It's a Buyer's Market Baby (Almost)

By Matt Wood in News on Oct 26, 2006 12:15PM

The Chicago-area real estate market saw a precipitous drop-off in the number of sales in September this year, according to a monthly report released by the Illinois Association of Realtors. Single-family home sales fell 26 percent from last year's levels, and condos were off by almost 19 percent. Meanwhile, prices held steady.

What this means is that sellers are being stubborn, clinging tooth and nail to the idea that their place is worth as much or more than what their neighbor got six months ago. While some are realizing that the longer their place sits on the market, the more they may need to lower their price to move it, some are still determined to hang on to the good times of the past few years. At the same time, buyers, convinced by numbers like this and the swirl of media predicting a buyer's market, are sitting it out, waiting for prices to drop. Anecdotally, Chicagoist knows that there are plenty of buyers out there, but because there is such a big inventory of homes for sale now, it's simply taking them longer to kick all the baseboards and find one they like. It's supply and demand, and unfortunately for you if you're trying to sell a house right now, buyers hold all the cards in this economic equation.

At the very least, the Fed stood pat on interest rates again yesterday, though experts disagree on what this portends for the economy. In the short term, that could convince a few more mortgage-seekers to test the waters. But if not, better start waxing that Hummer so you can sell it along with your house.