Monday, December 31, 2012

South Loop BOOM? Condo unit sales UP 94% in 2012

One of the higher profile boom and bust stories of the Chicago real estate market is the South Loop Community Area.  The community teemed with new highrise condo buildings and town home developments over the past 10 years.  The lakefront, access to downtown amenities and employment,  highways access and views can be fantastic.

However, the 2008 financial crash particularly exposed the over built, over-priced and over-their-heads developer era of the South Loop. Let's see how condo sales fared in 2012, a good year for city condo sales in general.


Highrises and town house developments in South Loop (Photo, Eric Rojas).

770 South Loop condo units sold from January 1st to December 26th in 2012.  That's up 94% over the same period in 2011.  A pretty astonishing number.  Many factors may have contributed...low interest rates, stabilizing condo associations, lower asking prices for the location, good income to housing price ratio and faster processing of short sales and foreclosures.  New development completely halted after 2008. Now, four years later people are beginning to feel comfortable with "new" pricing and what they value in the new normal.

The median price in 2012 was about $250,000 for an attached condo.
Same period in 2011, the median price was about $260,000 for an attached condo.


Distressed (Short Sale and REO, Bank Owned Sales)

In 2012 about 226 out of 770 of the closed condos (29%) were recorded as short sales or foreclosures (bank owned, REO).

In 2011, 149 of the 396 condos (38%) sold were recorded as short sales or foreclosures.

South Loop Condo Unit Sales 2008-2012

2008 unit sales 1,127
2009 unit sales    637
2010 unit sales    568 (affected by Federal First Time Buyer stimulus)
2011 unit sales    405
2012 unit sales    770 (as of Dec 26th)

All statistics gathered from MREDLLC.com and analyzed by Eric Rojas, Licensed Real Estate Broker.  Stats are deemed accurate but not guaranteed.  Some approximate median prices and sales numbers are noted along with anecdotal information.