The number of unsold houses on the market in Evanston increased dramatically last month, but homes are still in shorter supply here than across most of the Chicago metro area.
A new analysis of multiple listing service data from the Naperville-based Headrich-Wagner Appraisal Group shows Evanston with a 6.13 month’s supply of unsold detached single family homes, compared to a 5.04 month’s supply a month earlier.
The firm says a market in which supply and demand were balanced would have a 3 to 4 months supply.
In a separate report, the North Shore Barrington Association of The realtors says 36 detached single family homes sold in Evanston in April for a median price of $494,000. For the year so far the realtors say 96 single family homes have sold in Evanston, compared to 124 last year and 132 in 2005.
The realtors’ group says 51 Evanston condos and other attached single family homes sold in April for a median price of $265,000. The realtors say 155 condos sales closed in Evanston through April this year, compared to 185 in the same period last year and 156 in the same period in 2005.
Headrick-Wagner says inventory increased in most other communities as well, so that of 104 suburbs in the report, only 11 had a tighter inventory than Evanston. But Evanston’s ranking slipped from a month before, when only three towns had a tighter housing supply.
Among a sampling nearby communities, all showed an increase in inventory. Glenview now has an 10.48 month supply, Northbrook 10.76, Skokie 10.57 and Wilmette 6.31.
Only 4 of 18 neighborhoods in the City of Chicago had a tighter housing inventory than Evanston. Among nearby Chicago neighborhoods, Rogers Park had a 7.08 month’s supply, Lake View 7.84 and Lincoln Park 9.47.
The figures show that Evanston’s inventory is relatively tight in certain price ranges — Just a 4.91 month supply of homes under $300,000, a 5.40 month supply of homes from $500,000 to $999,999 and a 5.78 month supply of homes priced from $1 million to just under $2 million.
By contrast, Evanston has a 7.05 month supply of homes in the $300,000 to $499,000 price range, and a 30 month supply of homes priced at $2 million and up.
Headrick-Wagner calculates its estimate of housing supply by dividing active for-sale listings by one-twelfth of the total of pending sales plus all homes sold over the past year.