The following chart shows the market report of suppy and demand for all of 2011 for single family Lemont homes.

As you can easily see, like most southwest Chicago suburbs, there is a big discrepancy between the amount of homes available for sale in Lemont vs. those that went under contract or sold and closed. The month with the highest amount of active listings (the red line) was April and the lowest amount of inventory was in December.

The lowest months that homes went under contract were September, December and January. February had the least amount of homes that sold and closed. More Lemont homes went under contract in July and the highest amount of closings occurred in August.

The bottom line is, if you're a seller and your Lemont home has been sitting on the market waiting to sell you probably need to consider lowering your price or doing some updates or repairs to make your home stand out from all the rest currently on the market competing against you. With these kinds of figures it is easy to see why we are calling this a Buyer's Market. Buyers have a lot to choose from!

If you're thinking of buying and/or selling in this popular village give Judy Orr a call at 708-536-8200 or use the Email me link to the right.

Lemont IL Market Activity for the month of December 2011

In 2010 there were 114 single family Lemont homes for sale. I won't get the 2011 stats until next month, but this is a baseline when comparing one month to an entire year for this popular southwest Chicago suburb.

Let's break it down:

• There were 10 new listings, but read the next line for what that most likely means...
• There were 10 expried listings. Most, if not all of these are the 10 "New" listings that went back on the market. In many cases, when a listing expires it is relisted either by the original agent or with a new brokerage.
• Four sellers decided to make price changes, and these are normally reductions.
• There were 9 closed homes, so homes are selling and making it to the closing table.
• There were also 9 homes that went under contract. I'm hoping they all make it to closing.

I am anxious to see our year-end stats for all of 2011. I have a feeling that we will see a higher amount of number of homes sold, but I'm not sure about price increases. Some areas have showed slight increases this year compared to last with quarterly results, but I'm interested in the entire year. I'll be posting those when they're available.

Lemont Homes Supply & Demand for the 6 Month Period of January-June 2011

I expected to see more accepted contracts and more closings than what is shown since Lemont is one of the only southwest suburbs that hasn't gone down in price recently. In fact, for the 1st half of 2011 the average price of single family Lemont homes appreciated by 4.2% although number of sales went down 5.2%. Lemont is the only village I actively work in, besides Frankfort, that showed price appreciation this year. Many southwest suburban real estate showed double digit price depreciation.

The good news is that prices are appreciating even though there is a decrease in sales. But those numbers don't show how many homes are for sale in any given time in Lemont vs. those that did receive an offer and those that made it to closing. This graph shows the huge disparity. Just look at the red line vs. the low blue and green lines. There are a lot of homes sitting on the market in Lemont.

As of today's date there are 196 active Lemont homes. Out of 196 there are 18 that are in some stage of contingency, meaning there is an accepted offer but it is contingent on attorney review, inspection, financing or a buyer's home to sell or close. Not all of those contracts will make it to the closing table. There is one Deal Pending home that is not part of the 196 count. That usually means there is a closing date set but some agents automatically use the Deal Pending status once an offer is accepted, so this might not make it to closing.

The above figures represent that as of today's inventory, only 9% of homes for sale in Lemont are selling. 91% of the homes on market are sitting, all vying for those buyers in their respective price ranges. Sellers, is your home priced right for this market?

Lemont Real Estate Takes the Lead

For years I've been touting Palos Park real estate as the highest priced area of the southwest suburbs of Chicago. As I was writing a post about Palos Park, I happened to double check our most recent 2010 real estate sales statistics and to my surprise Palos Park was not the most expensive village in the sw 'burbs in 2010!

To make sure I hadn't made the wrong statements in years prior, I went back to 2005 to view the stats. The chart below tells the story of Lemont homes vs. Palos Park homes since 2005:

I find these price changes over the years quite interesting. Palos Park has truly fallen recently from it's highest priced throne and Lemont is now the priciest village in the area.

Lemont real estate saw its peak in 2006, and it's been downhill since then. However, 2010 saw an uptick of 3.9% from 2009. It is still down a bit less than 25% from its highest priced year.

In comparison, Palos Park has held its top spot every year except 2010. Palos Park real estate peaked in 2007 at a whopping $642,041 average selling price. At an average of $380,888 in 2010, prices have dropped more than 40% for Palos Park single family homes from its best year pricewise.

There are several ways to find current Lemont homes for sale. If you click on the link you will see the amount of homes for sale in Lemont (as of writing this post, there are currently 196 single property homes on the market). You will view a page like the picture above that shows you one photo and a brief description of each home. There are price ranges listed to narrow down your search.

Click on any of these homes and you'll be able to get more photos, a full description and much more. You can view maps, get directions, and get local information such as school info, the location of nearby amenities, Walkscore and more. You can also print each listing you're interested in or e-mail it. You can set an appointment right from the site.

As of today, prices for Lemont homes start at $125,000 for a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home that is an estate sale and needs some work but has room to grow. The highest priced Lemont home currently on the market is a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home priced at $1,799,000. It offers 6500 sq. ft. of living space and is on more than 7 acres of land. It has 5 bedrooms, 5 baths and even a guest house. The custom furniture is staying! There are multiple photos of this home so check it out if you're interested - it looks beautiful! I don't want to put a link because listing links can change too quickly, but it's easy to find once you get to the page in the link above.

If you need any other help with your Lemont real estate needs, call Judy Orr at 708-536-8200.