Buyers: Time to Take Advantage of a Strong Market

During the recent housing boom, I often heard from buyers upset that housing prices were rising too fast, homes were selling before they even had a chance to make an offer and sellers were unwilling to budge from their initial asking prices.

Well, all that has changed. We are now in the midst of the best buyers’ market I’ve seen in Chicago in years.

So, if you’re looking to buy a home in one of Chicago’s top neighborhoods, places like the Gold Coast, River North, Lincoln Park and Lakeview, I have one question: What are you waiting for?

Just consider the latest statistics from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®: The median home sales price in the Chicago area during the second quarter of this year stood at $250,000. That may seem like a healthy number, and it is. But in the second quarter of last year, the median home sales price stood at $256,000.

This means that there are plenty of bargains out there for buyers. Sellers are motivated. Not only are they setting lower initial asking prices for their single-family homes and condominiums, they’re willing to negotiate on everything from sales price to needed repairs to closing dates.

This doesn’t mean, though, that buyers can expect to “steal” a house. Remember, prices are already down. Buyers can’t expect to lop 20 percent or more off a seller’s asking price. Buyers should be careful, too, not to propose an insultingly low offer. This gets the negotiation process off to a bad start, and good things rarely follow extreme lowball offers. Comparisons to other nearby home sales still matter, even in this market. So if a house down the street from the one you like sold for $350,000, don’t expect to get your dream house for $300,000 just because the market is sluggish.

I know many buyers are still waiting, hoping to see asking prices drop even lower in Chicago. No one has a crystal ball, and no one can predict the future. But I have years of experience to back me up when I say that now is as good a time as any I’ve seen to buy residential real estate. If you’re debating about whether you should jump into the market, my advice is to dive right in.