Spring homebuyer demand pushed Illinois home sales into positive territory in April while median prices continued to outpace the year before, according to Illinois REALTORS®.

Statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) in April 2018 totaled 14,478 homes sold, up 1.9 percent from 14,202 in April 2017.

The statewide median price in April was $210,000, up 5.0 percent from April 2017, when the median price was $200,000. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

“April traditionally marks the beginning of the spring selling season, and this year we saw sellers reap the benefit of tight housing inventories in many areas of the state,” said Illinois REALTORS® President Matt Difanis, ABR, CIPS, GRI, broker-owner of RE/MAX Realty Associates in Champaign. “Although we saw many more properties on the market in April, the surge is nowhere close to meeting consumer demand.”

The time it took to sell a home in April averaged 54 days, down from 61 days a year ago. Available housing inventory totaled 51,527 homes for sale, a 10.4 percent decline from April 2017 when there were 57,537 homes on the market.

According to the data, home sales in the Champaign-Urbana MSA (Champaign, Piatt and Ford counties) totaled 258 units, a 14.2 percent increase while the median price was up 4.8 percent to $147,225; in the Metro East MSA (Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties) sales increased 4.3 percent to 794 units sold and the median price rose 6.5 percent to $133,075; and in the Peoria MSA (Peoria, Tazewell, Marshall, Stark and Woodford counties) sales were up 18.8 percent to 448 units sold and the median price climbed 12.7 percent to $133,000.

The monthly average commitment rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.47 percent in April 2018, an increase from 4.44 percent the previous month, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. In April 2017, it averaged 4.05 percent.

In the nine-county Chicago Metro Area, home sales (single-family and condominiums) in April 2018 totaled 10,535 homes sold, up 2.1 percent from April 2017 sales of 10,315 homes. The median price in April 2018 was $250,000 in the Chicago Metro Area, an increase of 3.3 percent from $242,000 in April 2017.

“The Illinois and Chicago housing markets continue their modest upward trends,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. “While the effect of rising mortgage interest rates has yet to be felt, consumer sentiment remains strong. For Illinois, job growth remains way behind the national rates and this sluggishness is reflected in the more muted growth of housing sales and prices.”

According to the data, fifty (50) Illinois counties reported sales gains for April 2018 over previous-year numbers, including St. Clair County, up 21.2 percent with 320 units sold; DuPage County, up 4.2 percent with 1,280 units sold; and Cook County, up 1.4 percent with 5,780 units sold. Fifty-nine (59) counties showed year-over-year median price increases including Sangamon County, up 17.1 percent to $137,000; Lake County, up 4.4 percent to $250,500; and McLean County, up 3.3 percent to $154,950.

The city of Chicago saw year-over-year home sales increase 0.1 percent with 2,649 sales in April, compared to 2,647 a year ago. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in April 2018 was $309,950 up 4.2 percent compared to April 2017 when it was $297,500.

“Overall closed sales in April closely mirror last year’s numbers, but the median sales price continues to rise,” said Rebecca Thomson, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and principal of Thomson Real Estate Group. “Buyers need to act quickly with fewer homes to choose from and shorter market times.”

Sales and price information are generated by Multiple Listing Service closed sales reported by 27 participating Illinois REALTOR® local boards and associations including Midwest Real Estate Data LLC data as of May 7, 2018 for the period April 1 through April 30, 2018. The Chicago Metro Area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.

Illinois REALTORS® is a voluntary trade association whose more than 47,000 members are engaged in all facets of the real estate industry. In addition to serving the professional needs of its members, Illinois REALTORS® works to protect the rights of private property owners in the state by recommending and promoting legislation to safeguard and advance the interest of real property ownership.

Find Illinois housing stats, data, the University of Illinois REAL forecast and more at www.illinoisrealtors.org/marketstats.