Despite an extraordinary number of sales in the over a million dollar range, the average selling price of properties in Evanston sagged a bit in June compared to May, and sales volume was down 14 percent from year-ago levels.
For the past 12 months, sales volume is off an average of 16 percent from the year earlier period.
The average selling price in June was $512,391, down from $513,987 in May. For the new fiscal year so far, the average selling price of homes and other property covered by the transfer tax is up 10.1 percent from the same period in 2005-06, and up 33 percent from the same period in 2004-05.
For the full fiscal year that ended in February, average selling prices were up 13 percent from the previous year.
The transfer tax is charged at a rate of $5 per $1,000 of selling price. The city expects to raise $4,000,000 from the transfer tax this year, a level it just barely reached last year. After a slow start, tax receipts are now running at a level 14 percent ahead of the level needed to reach the target.
In the largest property transfers of the month, Baker Demonstration School bought the Evanston portion of its campus from its former parent, National Louis University, for $3.3 million and then sold part of it the next day to Red Seal Development of Northbrook for $2.34 million. Red Seal plans to build four single family homes on the land.
Evanston Prairie I, LLC, developers of a recently-approved condo project on Prairie Avenue just north of Central Street, acquired two parcels of land for that project for a total of $2.49 million.
An apartment building at 2151 Ridge Ave. sold for $2 million, one at 1434 Chicago Ave. sold for $1,910,000 and one at 915-915 Forest Ave. sold for $1,905,000.
A single family home at 2914 Lincoln St. sold for $1,590,000, one at 1415 Lincoln St. sold for $1,550,000 and one at 1024 Judson Ave. sold for $1,542,500.
Ten other properties sold during June for between $1 million and $1.5 million. Only seven over-a-million-dollar transactions were recorded in May.