The number of homes and condominiums sold by members of the Rockford Realtors Association in 2010 fell 8.3 percent from 2009 to 3,341 homes sold in Boone, Winnebago and Ogle counties.
It marked the fourth straight year that yearly home sales fell and sales and transactions have fallen 53.5 percent from the peak in 2006 when 7,192 homes sold.
“Home sales were down this year as the housing market experienced an uneven recovery regionally and across the state of Illinois,” Steve Bois, CEO of Rockford Area Realtors, said in a news release.
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Prices continued to fall as well. The three-month rolling average price of homes sold in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties at the end of December was $116,675. That’s the fourth straight year it has been down at the end of December and the last year it was lower was in 2001.
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In December, just 229 houses sold, the fewest for the month in more than 15 years. Home sales were up year over year the first six months of 2010 because of federal income tax credits for homebuyers. The tax credits expired in June though and sales fell year over year the last six months.
The Realtors association though saw some positives in the monthly numbers. The number of houses for sale in the market fell in December fell below 3,000 for the first time since April 2007. With fewer houses on the market, the area’s absorption rate fell. At the current sales rate, it would take 10.5 months to sell all of the houses on the market. That’s the lowest level since June 2009 when it was 12.7 months.
Bois believes the improving economy should finally mean increasing sales without federal incentives.
“For 2011, based on current and improving job market conditions and attractive affordability conditions, sales should steadily improve to healthier levels.”
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Wow,
If Steve Bois really believes the garbage he’s shoveling about the real estate market I’ve got at least a thousand sets of the emperor’s new clothes to sell him. Surprising that neither Steve nor Alex mention the nearly $500 billion in mortgage resets that take place this year alone or the staggering 2.1 million houses in the shadow inventory which are foreclosed homes which the banks have not yet even put on the market yet!
Those houses in addition to the 4.2 million already on the market represent at least 23 months of inventory which has yet to clear the market.
We are at least two years away from any sustained upturn in the markets for real estate never mind the sunshine and sandy beaches perspective the local and national real estate agents have been blowing up everyone’s shorts since this collapse began.
Alex how about a little further investigation on real estate agent claims before you mislead the public!