Chicago area home sales up in September

The nine-county Chicago area sold 9,583 homes and the city of Chicago sold 20,904 in September, up 25.6 percent and 23.4 percent year on year respectively, according to statistics published Monday by Illinois Association of Realtors on its website. In the nine-county Chicago area, the median price of a home was 185,000 U.S. dollars in September, up 15.6 percent compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, it took 61 days to sell a listed home in September, down from 83 days in September of 2012. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago reached 231, 000 dollars in September, up 22.6 percent year on year. It took 50 days for the city of Chicago to sell a home, down 30.6 percent from 72 days in September 2012. In the first nine months of this year, the city of Chicago sold 20,904 homes, up 25.4 percent year on year. Despite the year-on-year growth, September was the second consecutive month when home sales and median prices slipped from the previous month, both in the Chicago area and within the city of Chicago. Statewide, homes sales in Illinois totaled 13,018 units in September, up 19.8 percent year on year, the strongest September sales since 2006; and the median price of homes sold was 157,000 dollars, up 12.9 percent. The monthly average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans for the North Central region was 4.5 percent in September, up from 4.44 percent in August, according to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.