According to a recent report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or OFHEO 2nd Qtr. 2008 Chicago area home prices have declined 1.15% since 2007 and 1.21% since the first quarter of 2008.
The surprising aspect of the decline in Illinois home prices is not that it happened but the small relative percentage of decline, especially considering the state of the national real estate market.Overall, nationwide home prices fell 4.8% across the country in the second quarter of 2008 compared with the second quarter of 2007, a record drop.
Additionally, in the Chicago area alone there were over 6000 new preforeclosures filed in July adding to the deterioration of the Illinois home market yet Chicagoland still ranks in the top 150 in appreciation. In fact, the average Illinois homeowners has experienced a more than 35% rate of appreciation on their home in the last 5 years despite the recent depreciation in the market!
So in the end Chicagoland homeowners
should thank the stars that they live in a relatively stable market, and be
especially thankful that they don’t live in Merced, CA (34% depreciation since
last year.)