May Showers Bring June Flowers

You would think that summer would be here to stay already, but looks like we’ve got a few more days left of rainy, cold weather. The same thing might be happening for the real estate market. With the past couple years showing signs of a red-hot market, there aren’t any significant tell-tale signs of it slowing down yet… at least it seems to be the case in Chicago.

Lack of housing inventory seems to have taken a dip even further than predicted, with roughly 11,000 homes on market as of April 2023. This compares to April 2018 inventory of nearly 3x that amount at 32,000. What I’m hearing from realtors is that there are very few listings to be had, and buyers are once again engaging in bidding wars for their homes.

One has to wonder, what is the timeline for this so-called housing bubble? Is there an end in sight for housing inventory to tick back up, or is this the new normal? Folks are reluctant to trade in their 3% mortgage rates for a 6% or 7% and are hanging on tight until they absolutely have to move. The Fed’s strategy may be working on the inflation front for some industries, but housing here in Chicago is still red hot.