FINALLY, SOMETHING POSITIVE TO SAY!

The first quarter statistics are hot off the press. The Wagner Report’s First Quarterly Report of 2010 is now available, and will be released very shortly.

Typically, I release the statistics that feature the year over year change in Months Supply and Mean Sales Price. This quarter, there is some exciting news, so instead of the year to date change, I have compiled the quarter to quarter change. This shows the Mean Sales Price as of 1/1/10, and comparing it to 4/1/10.

Of the 186 suburban communities profiled, 49 areas (26.3%) showed a positive increase and another 27 communities (14.5%) showed a barely negligible change of less than 1% downward. This is good news because since the end of 2007, every community has seen declining values through the end of 2009. This is the very first evidence that we have seen where values have reversed the negative downward trend and are now moving in a positive direction.

Chicago Area suburbs that have shown an increase from the previous quarter to the current quarter include: (shown in alphabetical order)

Algonquin; Alsip; Barrington Area; Beecher; Bloomingdale; Blue Island; Burr Ridge; Calumet Park; Clarendon Hills; Deerfield; Elmhurst; Evanston; Fox Lake; Glen Ellyn; Glenwood; Gurnee; Harvey; Hazel Crest; Hickory Hills; Hinsdale; Hoffman Estates; Homer Glen; Kenilworth; Lake in the Hills; Lincolnshire; Lombard; Lynwood; Lyons; Markham; Mokena; Monee; Norridge; Oak Lawn; Oak Park; Oswego; Palatine; Park Ridge; Riverside; Schaumburg; St. Charles; Steger; Sugar Grove; Thornton; Tinley Park; Vernon Hills; Warrenville; West Chicago; Westchester; and Willow Springs.

As you can see, there is not a specific region or price range that is doing better than others. The positive trend has been seen in higher priced communities like Barrington Area, Burr Ridge, Hinsdale, Kenilworth, and Lincolnshire, as well as modest priced areas including Alsip, Beecher, Blue Island, Harvey, Hazel Crest, Markham, Steger and Thornton. It includes samples from the Northern, Northwestern, Western, Southwestern and Southern Suburban areas.

These following Chicago-Area suburbs showed a barely negligible drop (between 0% and 0.9%) from the previous quarter to the current quarter (shown in alphabetical order):

Addison; Antioch; Arlington Heights; Brookfield; Calumet City; Carol Stream; Cicero; Darien; Geneva; Highland Park; Hillside; Homewood; Itasca; LaGrange Park; Midlothian; Mundelein; Naperville; Olympia Fields; Orland Park; Palos Hills; Richton Park; Shorewood; Streamwood; University Park; Villa Park; Wood Dale; and Woodridge.

Unfortunately, 59.2% of the Chicago-Area suburbs continued to see a decline of greater than one percent over the previous quarter to the current quarter. The entire region, including the City of Chicago, saw a total change of -0.67%

This is a welcome trend that will continue to be monitored closely. The hope is this positive news will continue and spread to other communities as we move through 2010.