The slowdown has hit Chicago with sales down 26 percent over last years speculator infused numbers. Real estate analysts see things remaining slow for the next 6 months on a year over year basis, and then picking up in the spring of 2007. This is another example of a hyper market returning to normal after a readjustment.

The sales numbers were particularly ugly: Illinois existing-home sales fell about 20 percent in September, with Chicago-area sales plummeting 26 percent from last year’s record levels, according to an Illinois Association of Realtors monthly report released Wednesday.

Chicago-area condo sales were off 18.7 percent in September, though the median price was up 2.5 percent compared with the year earlier.

Yet prices generally remained steady. The median for a single-family home in the nine-county area declined $1,000 from last year’s median, to $269,000, the Realtors said. Statewide, prices fared less well, with the median dropping about 8 percent.

That Chicago prices have not declined as precipitously as the sales figures may be due to a number of factors, experts say, and some warn that prices may be poised to head south.

“The sellers in Chicago are very stubborn,” said David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. “They’re not bringing their prices down, so sales are going down.” via the Chicago Tribune.

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