Market forces are aligning for 2016 to be a great year to sell your home.
Live Here Chicago the respected Chicago boutique real estate firm’s owner, Managing Broker, and Lakeview Realtor Carolyn Anavi recently released her 2016 Chicago real estate forecast. For those contemplating selling 2016 may be the best year we have had in a decade. After year-over-year gains, rising consumer confidence, the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low, and the lowest inventory in years the market conditions are prime for those looking to garner top dollar for their homes.
“I‘m very optimistic,” said Carolyn Anavi (http://carolynanavi.com). “The indices have spoken and we can see it day-to-day. With home prices on the rise and market conditions favorable to selling more and more people are testing the waters to see if it is time to make that next big move.”
According to the Illinois Association of Realtors in the last twelve months prices have maintained positive growth with annual growth rates for Chicago varying between 2.3% and as high as 15.3%. Moreover, the percentage of foreclosed sales out of total sales continued decreasing to a monthly average of 18.3%.
Similarly, both the broader view of consumer’s confidence and home purchase sentiment are higher than they were same time last year. In October, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index increased to 90.0 from 86.9. Equivalently, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased to 97.6 from 94.5 a year ago. These readings of confidence levels are high compared with their historic records, and are mainly backed up by positive employment news.
In December the Federal Reserve, who’s responsibility it is to set interest rates on long-term and short-term debt, raised interest rates for the first time since 2006 which was mostly bolstered by the positive employment gains. It was raised a mere quarter point which should have little short-term impact on long-term debt like mortgages and car loans. While interest rates may not be at historic lows, they are still low as compared to previous years.
Inventory is also at an all-time low. As of January 9th, 7,297 homes were publicly listed for sale in the City of Chicago; this was down over 400 listings as compared to the last week of 2015. This set a historic low since reporting began in the start of 2007. By comparison, January of 2007 saw 21,000 homes for sale with a peak later that year of 28,000.
