Today IAR released its home sales report for November data. Home sales were up 14.2 percent statewide in November 2011 compared to November 2010 and up 20.7 percent in the nine-county Chicago PMSA region. This marks the fifth consecutive month of home sales rising year-over-year, although median prices remain lower as buyers are still favoring lower-priced homes with more than 70 percent of homes sold in Illinois in November priced under $200,000.

“Little by little, there is some accumulating evidence that there may be some measure of recovery in the housing market,” said economist Dr. Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois, in his Illinois housing market forecast prepared for the Illinois Association of REALTORS®. “The positive trends in both Illinois and the Chicago PMSA housing markets stem in large part from the fact that the housing inventory levels are low and the pending home sales indices are high. The month’s supply of homes on the market is 10.3 and 10.4, respectively, for the state and the Chicago PMSA, and are the lowest since January 2010.”

Adds Hewings: “Factors working against the housing recovery are the stock of distressed properties and unemployment hovering in the 9 to 10 percent range.”

According to REAL, Illinois home sales are expected to make year-over-year gains as we head into the new year, through February 2012.

Today the National Association of REALTORS® also released its November Existing Home Sales, which rose again in November and remain above a year ago.  NAR also released its benchmark revisions.