Chicagoland Area Real Estate Blog & News

The Truth About Our Changing Chicagoland Market


If you’re thinking of buying or selling right now, what do recent changes in our market mean for you? Let’s find out.

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The tide might be turning.

After several years of continuous price gains, the real estate market seems to be reaching its price cap.

In June, the last month for which we have complete numbers, 14% of all listings saw a price cut. That's up from a low of 11.7% at the end of 2016.

Several other statistics support the idea of an emerging buyer’s market.

In the same month, housing demand fell 9.6%, the largest decline in over two years.

Unsurprisingly, the number of people requesting home tours has fallen by 6.1%. Mortgage applications to purchase a home has decreased as well.

A few things are at play here. One is rising mortgage rates, which have been steadily climbing for much of this year. Another is an overall decrease in affordability, resulting from a combination of the growth in home prices and mortgage rates.

There’s another important thing I should point out: If this is the start of a buyer's market, it's unlikely to be just a momentary blip.

One sign of this is that homebuilder sentiment has recently fallen to the lowest point in almost a year. In other words,...

How Do Zestimates Actually Work?


Though they work as a starting place, it’s unwise to rely on
Zestimates when determining the market value of your home.

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Many people start their home search online by checking out Zillow’s Zestimate feature, which estimates your home’s value—and that’s okay. Most of those people just want a ballpark estimate of how much they might get for their home.

However, it’s important to understand that Zestimates are not an accurate estimate of what your home would sell for in today’s market. Zillow hasn’t been in your home, so they don’t know if you have any value-boosting upgrades that need to be factored into the home’s price.

To create a Zestimate, all Zillow does is take the average of what properties similar to yours in square footage have sold for in order to give you a figure to work with. Notice that those values can change by thousands of dollars on even a monthly basis.

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