North Shore home sales were up 7% over last year in July, but results across communities was mixed. Half showed gains while half had declining sales. Lake Forest and Evanston posted the most positive results, while Northfield and Wilmette had the most dramatic decreases.
Inventory has been steadily growing and in July was up 14%, while months supply of inventory (the time it would take to sell all the homes listed, at the current rate of sale) was up 5% over last year. New listings were up 8% in July vs. last year. The only towns where inventories decreased in July were Evanston (-12%) and Northfield (-20% off a low base). Wilmette, which had extremely low inventory last year, showed the most dramatic increase, with actives listings up a whopping 71% over last July and months supply up 115%. Kenilworth also had a hefty increase in active listings (+37%), as did Glenview (+17%). Winnetka's inventory was up 6%. While Highland Park and lake Forest did have inventory increases, their months supply actually decreased due to strong sales this month.
The upper bracket continues to be slow. There are currently 230 homes priced over $2,000,000 in the nine North Shore communities we report on here. This represents an 18.6 month supply of inventory. (The market as a whole has only a 5 month supply of active listings). The problem gets worse as you move north. Lake Forest has an 80 month supply of homes over $2,000,000!
Consistent with the growth in inventory, market time also increased for the North Shore, up 9% vs. last year. Northfield, Winnetka and Glenview were up the most, though still under the six months we see in a "balanced" market. Days on market Evanston and Wilmette remained quite low (two months or less).
Median prices were up 4% to $710,000, driven by strong gains in Glencoe, Glenview, Evanston and Kenilworth. Sale to list price was 96.2%, which is comparable to last year.
Would you like a market snapshot of homes that have recently sold in your neighborhood? You can get it here.
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