The North Shore real estate market in 2019 continued its pattern of stable, sideways movement. The number of single family home sales dropped by 3%, median prices decreased by 3% and market times were up 6%. Since 2015 our market has been very stable with small price fluctuations, and the number of sales going up and down slightly. Here are the statistics for 2018:
| Number of Homes Sales | Average Market Time | |||||||
| 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | |||||
| Wilmette | 358 | 365 | 90 | 112 | ||||
| Evanston | 422 | 430 | 73 | 76 | ||||
| Winnetka | 247 | 233 | 157 | 164 | ||||
| Glenview | 539 | 515 | 109 | 128 | ||||
| North Shore | 4415 | 4282 | 113 | 120 | ||||
| Average Home Price (in thousands) | Median Home Price (in thousands) | |||||||
| 2018 | 2019 | % Change | 2018 | 2019 | % Change | |||
| Wilmette | 869 | 839 | -3% | 755 | 740 | -2% | ||
| Evanston | 641 | 593 | -7% | 550 | 510 | -7% | ||
| Winnetka | 1528 | 1405 | -8% | 1165 | 1215 | 4% | ||
| Glenview | 640 | 664 | 4% | 550 | 550 | 0% | ||
| North Shore | 698 | 672 | -4% | 550 | 532 | -3% | ||
The above statistics are for detached single family homes and were compiled from data collected by the Multiple Listing Service (Midwest Real Estate Data LLC), and may not include all home sales.
Inventory: In general inventory dropped in 2019 but this varied by suburb. Wilmette currently has 80 active, not under contract, homes, which is 30% less than last year, but about the same as January 2017. Evanston currently has 144 active homes, which is up 32% from last year so its previously tight inventory has gone up. Winnetka currently has 71 active homes, which is a drop of 17%. Glenview has 186 active homes, which is a 3% decrease. The North Shore as a whole has 1664 active homes, which is a 3% decrease from last year.
Prices: Prices in 2019 were down a little. As in past years, the spring market saw the majority of the sales activity, but prices were a little below 2018 numbers throughout the year and ended the year down 3%. Suburbs varied with Glenview holding basically even while Evanston saw a significant decline with a 7% drop in its median price. This could be a reaction to the fact that it has been the best performing suburb for several years prior to 2019.
Interest Rates: In contrast to last year, when rates went up for most of the year, rates steadily dropped for much of 2019. The conforming 30 year fixed rate started the year at about 4.5% and then dropped to about 4% by the middle of the year, and then hit 3.5% by fall and stayed in that area to the end of the year.
Best Months to Sell: A question that I am frequently asked as a Realtor is: What is the best month to sell a home in? While every year is different, statistics do help answer this question. Over the past seven years the two months that saw the most homes go under contact in the North Shore are May and March, followed closely by April and June. Individual suburbs vary a little as Wilmette’s top 2 months have been February and March.
2018 North Shore Sales Facts: The highest sale price in the North Shore in 2019 was a 5 bedroom, 7 bath, Lakefront home in Glencoe that sold for $5,150,000. What jumped at me regarding this sale was how low it was to be the highest price for the year, and the fact that it was the only home to sell over 5 million in 2019. Moreover, I decided to research how this compared with other years.
I went back 20 years and 2019 had the lowest, highest sale price in that time period. In addition, it is the first year since the year 2000 that had only one home sale over 5 million, and in 2000 that one sale was for 12 million. In the past 20 years the average number of sales over 5 million has been six. Moreover, 2019 stands out as an exceptionally poor year for sales in the ultra luxury market. It is not for lack of inventory as there are currently 20 homes for sale priced over 5 million. I am not going to try to explain why, but I did find this fact interesting.
The lowest sale price: $84,000; Longest market time: 1631 days; Most Bathrooms: 10; Suburb with the most sales at 4 million and above: Winnetka with 6, Glencoe had 2.
