Chicago Home Sales, Prices Continue Downward Slide

By Prescott Carlson in News on Nov 25, 2008 10:15PM

Looking to pack up and move out of Chicago? Well, unless you're a renter you might be out of luck. The Chicago real estate market continues to look pretty abysmal -- home sales were down a whopping 21.6% in October 2008 compared to the same month in 2007, and down 17.7% in the overall Chicagoland area. The median home sale price was also down 10% compared to last year. So if you're sitting on an overpriced River North condo with an upside-down mortgage, you'll need to hunker down and ride it out because the economic eggheads don't think it's going to get better any time soon:

"We're engulfed in this vicious cycle," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com. "We don't see any recovery until well into 2010. Sales will start to rebound in early 2010, but construction and prices won't until late in the year. There is just too much inventory, too many vacant homes for sale, and it's just going to take a couple years to work that inventory off."

On the bright side, for those of you who have been pinching pennies for a nice down payment on a house and have maintained a healthy credit score, it's a buyer's dream market.

Photo by pantagrapher