Arlington Heights October Real Estate Market Update: Prices, Inventory, and Predictions...

Are you looking for a quick real estate market update? You have come to the right place. In today’s blog I’m going to show you 9 major statistics affecting our real estate market. You will be able to use this data to make more educated decisions when you are looking to sell or buy a new house in the Chicago Northwest suburbs. Welcome to how is the market in Arlington Heights October 2023 Edition.

Let's dive into the numbers, starting with sold prices in the Northwest suburbs. In September, the average sold price of a single-family home decreased by approximately $13,000 to $461,111. Two key factors are at play here: our regular market seasonality, where prices tend to dip later in the year, and higher interest rates, which have caused some buyers to hold off on their purchase. However, it's important to highlight that despite this decrease, prices are still up by a significant margin compared to last year. In fact, they've soared by about $44,600 or 10.7% over the past year alone! 📈 This dynamic market presents both challenges and opportunities for buyers and sellers alike. If you're considering making a move or have any questions about your local real estate market, I'm here to help! 🤝💼

Northwest Suburbs Asking Prices Update! 💰💼 📉 Average asking price dropped to $462,000, a $9,500 decrease from last month. Some homeowners are adjusting to market seasonality, slashing prices after not receiving multiple offers within the first week. Don't wait for spring! Prices are expected to keep dropping, making winter a prime time to find an affordable dream home. 🏡💸 Ready to seize this opportunity? Let's chat! 📞💼

📊 Pay attention to the Sold Price to Asking Price Ratio! 💰💼 This essential statistic reveals the level of demand for recently sold homes. During the spring, high demand often led to bidding wars and ratios well above 100%. However, currently, the ratio stands at 100.2%, indicating that buyers are on average paying asking prices, with fewer intense bidding wars. As we head towards the end of the year, market seasonality is likely to kick in, causing this ratio to drop to approximately 98%. Sellers should take note and be prepared to negotiate lower prices and be flexible with new contract terms to attract buyers. In recent weeks, we've observed contracts falling apart due to unresolved inspection issues. If you're a seller, I'm here to provide expert advice on pricing your home correctly in this fall market. Reach out for guidance!

🏡 Discover the Latest Chicago Northwest Suburbs Sales! 📣💼 Last month's sales came in at a surprisingly low number of only 96 properties. This figure is unusually low for our area, as we typically see around 140 to 180 units sold during the same period. Typically, sales below 100 occur later in the year, such as in December or January.

Low inventory levels and high interest rates are choking the market. While higher-priced homes are still in decent supply, we desperately need more affordable options for first-time homebuyers. Unfortunately, finding low to medium-priced homes is challenging at the moment, leading some buyers to postpone their searches till spring of next year.

🏡 Looking for more inventory as a buyer? 📣💼 Last month, our market saw 145 homes listed for sale, slightly lower than last year but on par with March of this year. With 96 homes sold during the same period and the sold price to asking price ratio reducing, there's a chance you can find a better house at a lower price in the next three months. While moving in the fall or winter may not be as appealing, buyers who have done so in previous years have gained immediate equity when home prices increased in the spring. If interest rates drop in the spring, I predict a significant wave of buyers returning to the market, resulting in multiple offers. Remember, you can't refinance a house you don't own. Waiting until spring may mean overpaying during competitive offer situations again. Let's discuss your options and find the perfect timing for your home purchase! 🤝💼

Are you confused by the months of inventory number? Don’t worry, you are not the only one. Here is a quick explanation of how this works. One month of inventory represents the number of homes sold in the area over the last month. So if last month there were 100 homes sold and closed and now we have 2 months of inventory it means there are 200 homes available for purchase.  Here is the confusing part, while national media has been reporting this number to be around 1.1 months of inventory for last few months, I noticed an interesting breakdown in this number. For homes under $400,000 this number drops to .8 month, for homes between 400 to 600k this number is 1.1 like reported, for homes between 600 to 800k this number increases to 1.7 and for homes listed above 800k in our area this number is over 3.8 months of inventory. So if you look in the lower price points you will see much more competition than if you are looking for a move up home. If your current home is too small, and you need a larger more expensive home you might be able to easily make this move securing a larger home at bigger discount while selling your more affordable home in the market with much bigger demand. Reach out to me with any questions about this scenario.

Are you intrigued,  if there is a lot of demand for the properties this year? You come to the right spot. We measure buyer demand by looking at the amount of showings registered last month. There were 2,238 showings recorded by our software last month. This is only about 30% lower than this time last year, and if we go back even further, remember all this demand we had for single family homes in the second part of 2020 right after the pandemic? Currently showings are only at 45% of level seen during the fall of 2020. If you say this is an unfair comparison I will go even further back, if we take average number of showing for last 4 years prior to the pandemic our area is currently only generating about 64% of showings compared to those years. So if you were waiting for time of less competition to secure your next house I would recommend you take advantage of this trend and go look at the properties before next big wave of buyers entering the market in the spring

Are you worried you missed the best market to sell your home? Or that you might not get a lot of attention if you list your home for sale this month? Here is a statistic about showings per listing that might shed a bit of light on this for you. Average listing got 9.21 showings last month, that is from 17.6 number seen earlier this year in March. So it might look like the best time to sell is behind us already but I want to dig deeper into those numbers. Lower price points are still very desirable and there is a lot of demand for lower priced homes. If your property list price is under $400,000 those homes are still generating almost 20 showings per listing. If your home price is between $400,000 to $600,000 that price bracket generates over 11.5 showings per available listing.  So if you don’t want to pay high heating bills during winter time or you don’t feel shoveling snow from the driveway this winter you still might be able to sell your single family home for top dollar this fall.

Market time has been hovering at 37 days on the market for very long time now. Last time this number over 70 was in March of 2021. People got used to selling homes very quickly. I predict this winter might be a bit different story. So if you decide to list the house for sale please reach out so we can properly prepare the house for entering the market and generating the most exposure possible