Year-to-date Metro East home sales continue rise
From Illinois Business Journal news services
BELLEVILLE — Metro East home sale statistics continued their year’s rise, judging from the most recent numbers.
The Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois said St. Clair, Monroe, Clinton, and Randolph Counties reported an increase in year-to-date home sales in October 2015 compared to October 2014.
Realtors also saw increases in home sales in October 2015 compared to September 2015. For instance, St. Clair County reported a 7.7 percent increase in home sales in October 2015 compared to September 2015. In that same comparison, Realtors in Monroe County sold a 9 percent increase in home sales. Clinton County, on the other hand, recorded a 22.7 percent increase in home sales in October 2015 over October of last year.
While homes in St. Clair County are averaging 116 days on market in this County, year-to-date sales continue to be on the rise. In October 2015, Realtors in St. Clair County have sold 9.1 percent more homes year-to-date than in October 2014. Following the trend from September 2015, year-to-date in October 2015, St. Clair, Randolph, and Monroe Counties recorded the highest number of homes sold compared to year-to-date figures from the last five Octobers. Realtors in Clinton County sold 13.4 percent more homes year-to-date in October 2015 compared to October 2014.
“There are so many positives coming out of the October 2015 Metro East housing statistics,” said Doug Payne, president of the Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois. “We look forward to wrapping up 2015 with encouraging news about the real estate, which in turn is positive for the economy. “
Payne said Realtors recently fought and won many legislative and political battles to protect private property owner rights. One of these victories included stopping legislation that would have amended the Seller’s Disclosure Act. The legislation would have required all homeowners seeking to sell their homes to hire a licensed plumber to conduct a video inspection of their sewer line prior to a sale. This inspection would have been highly costly to sellers and could have potentially stopped transactions, he said.
On another positive note, median home prices in the Metro-East are also on the rise. Compared to October 2014, Randolph County reported a 3 percent increase in median home price for October 2015, while Monroe County reported 6.8 percent increase in median home price in October 2015. Realtors in St. Clair County reported an increase of 9 percent in median home price compared to last year.
The housing statistics are as follows (statistics are provided by the SIR/MLS, Inc. and the Illinois Association of Realtors):
RASI primarily serves the Metro East market area, including St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph and Clinton Counties, except for the easternmost townships of Irishtown, Clement, Lake, East Fork, Meridian and Brookside.
