(The Center Square) – The Illinois housing market may be in the midst of a shift.
A survey by the real estate company Clever shows home sellers are lowering their asking prices to meet buyers’ budgets.
The survey of 1,000 people who sold a home in 2022 and 2023 found that 45% of sellers rejected an offer that turned out to be their highest, showing just how quickly home prices have fallen in some parts of the country.
“Some people call it right now a nobody’s market because things aren’t necessarily great on either side of things, but it does seem we are making a move more towards a buyer’s market,” researcher Matt Brannon said.
Mortgage rates continuing to remain at a 20-year high is still influencing decisions in the market.
“We found that 51% of recent sellers told us they were hesitant to sell because they didn’t want to give up their low interest rate,” Brannon said.
The top three reasons people said they sold their home were they wanted a bigger home (40%), it was a good time to sell (37%), and they wanted to move closer to friends and family (30%).
Clever’s survey also found that those who sold their home with a real estate agent earned over $46,000 more in average profit than those who sold without an agent in 2022 and 2023. Those who didn’t use an agent were nearly 2x as likely to say they were not satisfied with the home-selling experience.
The Illinois market has been slowing down, with over an 8.5% drop in home sales in October compared to last year. The wide median price increased about 7% statewide in October compared to the same time last year.
Inventories continue to be an issue. According to Illinois Realtors, there were just over 21,000 homes for sale in Illinois in October. That is compared to around 60,000 in October 2019.
