Was 2011 good for Barrington real estate? Will 2012 be better? Well I don't have a crystal ball so I cannot answer the last question so lets look at 2011. It's interesting to look at the year as a whole to find average marketing times, average sales prices, and what our inventory status is.
I am only reporting single family homes here, adding attached homes like condos and town homes would skew these numbers too much, so they'll be available shortly in their own report.
I have looked at sales during the whole year but also compared them with the last 6 months and last 3 months to see if the trend is the same throughout the year. The numbers tell me it's pretty steady with little variation.
You can see that the average sales per month in Barrington doesn't vary much, the last 3 months of the year showing only a slight slow down. Maybe that's the mild winter we have had to date, keeping buyers in the market.
We still have well over a years worth of inventory, but had I taken out the upper quarter of the data, i.e. the homes over $2 Million this would likely decline to about 9 to 10 months. It's the high priced homes that are still sitting and with long market times it can paint a bleaker picture overall.
Our average marketing times are a better measure for sellers to go by, especially if their home hovers around the average sale price with in 2011 was just under $580,000. If you have a high priced home, buyers are scarce and you need to be patient.
Overall 2011 was firmly on the side of a buyers market here in Barrington Illinois.
My thoughts are this is unlikely to change much in 2012. Hopefully with the very low mortgage rates we have right now, the first time buyers will continue to buy and this will create the domino effect of moving sellers up to our market.
I am seeing a positive sign. December is usually a slow month for my Barrington web site traffic. This past December bought over 2000 visitors to my site, with about 25% being repeat visitors. So interest is high and I for one am encouraged by that.
More market reports will be published here, or visit my Barrington real estate blog and subscribe to them all.
Corinne Guest
Realtor & Managing Broker
Royal Advocate Realty, Barrington
Call today 847-363-3686 for real estate and relocation service.
Suburban Real Estate - Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, Long Grove
Corinne - Market absorption rates are very helpful to share with sellers when they are ready to put their house on the market. You really have to price it well to begin with so you're not chasing the market. I am sure that everyone in Barrington, Ill. finds your market analysis very useful.
Very nice presentation of the Barrington Market.