A spin-free statistical report which tells it like it is.

In the real estate section of yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, Mary Umberger had written an interesting article entitled Home prices stay on defiant course: Up. In it, she discussed home the average sales price is actually up, on a national basis.

On a much more localized basis, it should be noted that in Hinsdale Illinois, the average sales price year-to-date in 2007 is up 12% over that of the same period in 2006. How can that be?

Currently. there are 353 detached house listings in Hinsdale. Their average marketing time is 199 days. Of these 199 homes, 10% (35 houses) are under contract.

There have been 25 accepted contracts in Hinsdale over the trailing 30 day period where there had been 23 over the same period last year. This represents a 9% increase in contracts sold.

The average sales-to-list price ratio is 94% year-to-date.

The average asking price is $1,463,196.

While the average sales price suggests a 12% increase in market performance over 2006’s numbers, it is my contention that, in reality, the market has been flat. The alleged 12% increase is actually an increase in the number of new homes which have sold. Typically, new homes sell for more than their used counterparts. Also, since builders are buying fewer "teardown" homes on which to build speculatively, there are fewer of these transactions reported as well. Teardown transactions are commonly representative of lower priced transactions which can bring the average number down.

Continued flatness of market conditions has been predicted by the National Association Of Realtors for the balance of 2007.

This data was extracted from the MLSNi which is considered to be reliable, but is not guaranteed.

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