A Home Sales Scorecard for the Tri-Cities 1st Quarter 2012

We have closed the books on the first quarter of 2012 for home sales in the Tri-Cities and South Elgin. Significant trends are both emerging and continuing!

First, the emerging trend is the pace of sales picked up markedly over the first quarter 2011. Overall home closings increased in St. Charles, Batavia, Geneva and South Elgin by 23.7 percent compared to the 1st quarter of 2011. This statistic is a bit misleading, however, because St. Charles sales increased only 2.8 percent versus 2011 while Batavia and South Elgin increased the number of units sold by more than 30 percent and Geneva increased the number of homes sold in the quarter by an eye-popping 62 percent. Because St. Charles is a larger market and it lagged the other cities, it depressed the rate of increase.

Not only have closings accelerated, the number of homes under contract at the end of March increased by 35 percent on average. St. Charles had 13 percent more homes under contract, Batavia was up by 25 percent and Batavia and Geneva increased 78 percent and 85 percent respectively.  This indicates an accelerating market. Significantly, St. Charles in March 2012 had more homes under contract than in any month in the past four years. 

The unfortunate continuing trend for home sellers is a continued slide in average sale prices.  Geneva bucked this trend with a 13.3 percent increase in the average price of closed sales versus the 1st quarter of 2011.  South Elgin decreased in value on average by 11 percent, Batavia was down by 9 percent and St. Charles decreased by 7 percent.

This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data LLC for the period January 2008 through March. 2012. Midwest Real Estate Data LLC does not guarantee nor is it in any was responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by Midwest Real Estate Data LLC may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.