The end-of-season slowdown may be starting a bit, but the real estate market is actually still seeing some fairly decent action. At least that’s what the experts are saying.
For the summer, they’ve been seeing the usual slowdown across Oak Park, Forest Park and River Forest. Yet it happened a little later than in previous years, so from June 1 until now the activity has been a bit above average for the time of year, said John Lawrence, broker/owner at Weichert Realtors-Nickel Group in Oak Park.
“Typically, we see the slowdown start around June 1 after a few months of furious activity, but this year we saw some good buyer activity through June and into the first week of July,” Lawrence said. “This was keeping our inventory low and creating some multiple offer situations, although not like we saw in the spring.”
“Well-priced homes are still selling relatively fast — particularly in the mid-ranges, with the upper brackets being slow,” Lawrence added. “The attached housing sector is still moving, but again at a slower pace than the spring, but above last year’s numbers. The lone exception is Forest Park attached housing, where the pace is well below last year because of the closeout of the properties at the Grove last year.”
Sort of surprising is that one of the hottest markets is Forest Park detached housing — the village has seen strong buyer activity all through the summer — maintaining a similar pace than in the spring, and well above last year’s numbers, Lawrence said.
“We are also seeing solid buyer activity in Oak Park this summer in the $400-to-$500K range, with homes that are selling between $400-and-$450K having the lowest market time of any of the Oak Park price points,” Lawrence said.
Low interest rates and lack of inventory are a couple of reasons sales have been strong. Forest Park is currently so active and has been all summer because there’s a lack of product there, said Jerry Jacknow, who owns a real estate company of the same name as his in Forest Park.
“We were short on houses with a lot of buyers but no sellers,” said Jacknow, adding that possibly people are waiting for prices to rise before they sell, even though Forest Park market values did recover pretty quickly.
“People are sitting back waiting for more, I guess,” he said.
In Harwood Heights, it’s been a brisk summer market, particularly for homes in the $200,000 to $350,000 range, said Barry Paoli, managing broker at Century 21 McMullen Real Estate Inc., which borders the town.
“The market in Harwood Heights is very good. … The values have been up about 3 percent this year,” Paoli said. “This summer has been great because of the very low interest rates kept the market going. They’re as low as low can be.”
Currently, according to Paoli, you can get a 30-year mortgage at an interest rate of 3.2 percent.
“That’s what keeps the market humming,” Paoli said. “Buyers are out in droves because of the interest rates.”
Felicia Dechter is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.