The average selling price of a home in the Chicago metropolitan area held steady for the third straight month as interest rates continue to decline, according to statistics released by Century 21 Real Estate Corp. of Northern Illinois.
The average selling price for a house in the greater metropolitan area was $76,368 in December, 1985, unchanged from the average $76,304 paid in November. The December average selling price represents a 5.6 percent increase over the average price paid a year ago.
Mortgage interest rates continued to decline to an 11.3 percent average for December, 1985. This is the lowest average percentage rate recorded by Century 21 since 1979. The average mortgage interest rate was 12.4 percent at this time a year ago.
”We expect to see an increase in the average home selling price during the coming months,” said Roger Peake, regional director. ”The upcoming spring/summer season is traditionally the strongest portion of the residential real estate resale year.
”Given the current projected economic conditions and the outlook for mortgage interest rates, we are anticipating the strongest spring in the history of our company,” he said. ”Interest rates on mortgages should remain stable or perhaps even decline a few tenths of a point.”
The number of days a house remained on the market remained steady with an average of 55.2 days in December compared to 55.1 days in November.
Total sales dollars for the 305 offices that comprise the northern Illinois region were $2,608,422,455 in 1985, an increase of 26.1 percent over the year-end total for 1984.
The number of properties sold in 1985 by Century 21 system was 35,917, a 22.2 percent increase over the total recorded in 1984.
”The state of the residential real estate industry is best reflected by our record 1985 numbers for sales dollars, properties sold and closings,”
Peake said. ”These numbers supercede our record-breaking 1984 year. All indications are that this trend will continue well into 1986.”
