summer shift
Memorial day is a very pivotal point in the housing market. Every year, memorial day is sort of the turning point where we enter into the summer market. Why is this important? It is where we shift out of the Spring market and enter into the Summer market, and a lot of markets will completely change almost overnight. This is where you start to see weakness in demand combined with an increase in new listings.
The Chicago housing market can be incredibly predictable if you know the song and dance. The vast majority of our leases expire in the months of April-June. Once we get out of May, these renters have either renewed or gone under contract on a property. A lot of sellers have it in their head that the best time to list is May/June and into the summer months. This could not be further from the truth. The best time to list is Feb-April, and it’s not even close.
A lot of buyers get discouraged in the Spring market, and instead of dealing with the inconvenience of figuring out how to push their lease into the late summer/ fall or figure out alternative housing plans, they just renew for another year. This is not what you want to do because you’re just going to be in the same situation a year out. You want to keep your options open. Pay the extra few hundred to go MOM on your lease. It will pay for itself when you get a good deal.
If there is one thing to take away from this market update, it’s that May was the first month where we started to see softness. Overall, May was still a strong market for sellers. Now that we are in June, I can firmly say that most markets are flipping. You can just feel it.
Lincoln Park/ Old Town (60614):
Lakeview (60657)
West Loop (60607)
West Town/Wicker/East Humboldt (60622)
Logan/Buck (60647)
South Loop (60605)
Loop/LakeShore East
River North
Streeterville
Gold Coast
Beverly/Morgan Park
Over the next few months as we start to see the changes in seasonal data, we will see nonstop doom and gloom stories about how awful the housing market is. I am preparing you for this now. Please take this with a grain of salt. Prices peak out in June and slowly come down as the year progresses. I am expecting that we will likely see a modest gain in home sale prices as the year goes on. I believe we are around 8% YOY, and I am expecting this to slide down to around 3% as the year progresses.
In the video below, I break down national inventory. One graph pertains to YOY inventory and the other graph is pre pandemic inventory compared to 2024 inventory.
Stay up to date on the latest real estate trends.
Quentin Green | August 26, 2024
Quentin Green | August 19, 2024
Quentin Green | July 29, 2024
Quentin Green | July 26, 2024
rent control
Quentin Green | July 17, 2024
summer shift
Quentin Green | June 11, 2024
Chicago Real Estate market update
Quentin Green | June 3, 2024
Breaking down inventory by market
March market update
Quentin Green | April 24, 2024
In The Thick of Spring Market
NAR lawsuit
Quentin Green | March 19, 2024
Sitzer-Burnett