Tight inventory, which has plagued the Chicago and national real estate markets for a few years now, keeps getting tighter in mid priced suburbs. Tightest among them are Glendale Heights, where the supply of homes on the market at the end of February was enough to fuel just 1.4 months of sales, Elk Grove Village (1.5 months) and Bolingbrook (1.6 months).

They’re among 10 Chicago suburbs that ended February with less than two months of inventory on the market, according to a report from Midwest Real Estate Data released last week by the Chicago Association of Realtors. A rule of thumb in real estate is that five to seven months of inventory defines a balanced market, and below five, the advantage shifts to sellers.

The data is reported differently for the city, so it’s not possible to include Chicago neighborhoods in this list. The city market overall had four months’ inventory on hand at the end of February, according to the Realtors association. Crain’s rough estimate found that inventory is below two months for attached homes (condos and townhouses) in North Center, Logan Square, West Town, Lincoln Square and Lakeview.

At this time last year, the suburbs with low inventory were all above two months; now at least 10 have dipped below that line. (Suburbs with fewer than 20 sales in February aren’t counted because their numbers are so small.) In all except Waukegan, the median price of a home sold in February was between about $164,000 and $275,000, not far off from the region’s median price. The median home sale price in the nine-county metro area was $210,000 in January, the Illinois Association of Realtors reported last month; the February figure will come out this week.

In higher-priced suburbs, the problem is the opposite: too many homes on the market. In Hinsdale, Highland Park, the Barrington area and Lake Forest, at least seven months of inventory is available, topping out at 11.7 months in Lake Forest. Each of these towns had a median sale price in February of $457,000 or more.

 

Read more of this article by Dennis Rodkin: http://bit.ly/2sXjHfV