Low inventory is affecting home sales in Illinois
Peoria and the rest of Illinois saw a decline in home sales in March 2024, with an equally significant jump in the price people are paying to move into a new house.
The Illinois chapter of the National Association of Realtors said that the Peoria metro area saw a 13.5% decline in home sales from March 2023 to March 2024, with just 351 homes sold last month compared to 406 homes at this time last year.
Statewide, sales fell 11.9% in March 2024, while the median price of a home also increased to $282,000 from $257,000 at this time in 2023. Peoria saw a 10.4% increase in the price of a home, going from $130,000 in 2023 to $143,500 in 2024.
Much of the blame for the sluggish housing market lies with the number of homes on the market. Only 15,268 homes were up for sale statewide in March, a low not seen since 2008, right before the onset of the Great Recession, according to the Illinois REALTORS organization. However, the group says it’s optimistic that the market can see a rebound as the weather turns warmer.
Daniel McMillan, a professor of real estate at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s College of Business Administration,
said that the number of sales statewide and in most of Illinois metropolitan areas went up from February to March, providing hope that things can stabilize during the year.
“Consumer confidence has been high for several months now, and sales traditionally increase significantly in spring,” McMillan said. “The number of sales and prices should continue to increase steadily over the next several months.”
Month-to-month, Peoria saw a 5.4% increase in sales, actually the lowest among all markets in Illinois. The state as a whole saw a 30.4% increase in sales from February to March. Kankakee led the way with a 53% increase over the past month.
Quarterly data shows that the Peoria area saw a 7.8% increase compared to the first part of 2023, with home prices actually declining slightly from $130,000 in 2023 to $128,500 in 2024. The number of homes on the market in Peoria in the first quarter also increased 7.2% from 2023, with 416 homes up for sale in the first three months of the year.
Statewide, sales fell 4.7% in the first quarter, with home prices increasing 10.2% to $270,000 over the first three months of the year. The number of homes on the market also went down 14.2% in the first quarter, and were only on the market for 36 days, compared to 41 days at this time last year.