More interesting stats on Chicago's Real Estate market

So the news over the last few days has not been good. The number of homes sold across Illinois, as well as inside Chicago is down from one year ago. And the average price of a home in Illinois, and in Chicago is down.

One interesting statistic is that the average price for a condominium (attached property including townhomes, condos and co-ops) in the City of Chicago is up 7%. The number that have sold in Q1 2008 is down dramatically from Q1 2007, but prices are holding up. Very interesting.

For example, in Lakeview, the price for a typical 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo is up 4% from last year, but the price for a typical single family home is down 3.3%.

Other news today, Appraisal Research Counselors report that in the Downtown area, nearly 6,000 condominiums are scheduled to come on the market as they near finishing of construction. This will be the greatest number of new condos to go up for sale in history - even counting the boom years in the early 2000's.

On the downside, sales of newly built downtown condominiums plummeted by about 83 percent during the first quarter, to 201 units from 1,207 units a year earlier, according to the same report to be released Wednesday by Appraisal Research Counselors. Yikes!

Most of the buildings that make up the figures contained in the report are already under construction, so most likely can not be cancelled. Your guides predict a mass conversion to apartment buildings later this year. These will be pretty darn nice apartment buildings as most of the condominiums under construction are quite luxurious.