Q3 Luxury Home Sales in Chicago
The city tallied 424 luxury home sales in the third quarter, a 19 percent increase year over year. It also accounted for more than half of the 790 luxury homes sold in the region in the third quarter with luxury sales increasing 6.6 percent over the year, according to the Re/Max Luxury Report for the Chicago metro area.
The increase in luxury sales can be attributed to a few notable aspects. Many buyers spent the last few years on the fence about buying a home as the market came back around. However, once extremely low interest rates began to rise and home prices increased, more buyers felt inclined to enter the market.
“The recovery of the economy has really kicked in this year,” says Brian Kasal, CEO of FourStar Wealth Advisors, an investment advisory firm in Chicago. “It had been slow for nine years, but now that we’re really seeing a growing economy, folks feel free to spend.”
Some of the most popular areas for high-priced homes include the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park and North Shore suburbs.
The Chicago luxury market is having its best year yet as it sets an all-time sales record in the third quarter.
In fact, one new Gold Coast condo tower, the No. 9 Walton, recorded 13 sales of $4 million or more at the end of August, including this year’s top price of $12.1 million. In addition, four properties in Chicago and the suburbs went for $12 million or more, the market’s all-time best year for $12 million-and-up sales.
While in Lincoln Park, eight houses have sold for at least $4 million, along with a five-year-old mansion on Burling Street, holding this year’s record for a single-family home at $11.9 million.
Chicago Buyer Optimism
Jena Radnay, a @Properties residential real estate agent who represented two homebuyers who paid at least $10 million this year, commented on buyer optimism, “People are cashing out, saying they’d better get that house now before they get any older.”
Amenities are particularly important for empty nesters moving from the North Shore into the city, according to Radnay. “They’re giving up their beaches and quiet, tree-lined streets,” she said. “They want to trade that for a high level of service in the building.”
The drastic increase in demand has also lead to a noticeable decline in the time it takes to sell a home. It’s gotten to the point that within hours of a property being listed, it’ll be sold. PR strategy has also shifted by marketing certain properties as “coming soon” to create excitement even before it has been marked for sale.
