Joliet Homes For Sale Track With National Decline, But There Is Hope In June

As expected, homes going under contract in May fell off from April:

Contracts for pending sales of previously owned homes plunged a record 30 percent in May, far more than expected, after a popular tax credit expired at the end of the prior month, a survey from the National Association of Realtors showed on Thursday. The Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in May, fell to a record low 77.6 from 110.9 in April. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a smaller decline of 12.5 percent in May.

In addition, the year over year for May also saw a decline:

The index is 15.9 percent lower than May 2009 and fell sharply in all regions of the country.

Intuitively, as a Realtor® in the Joliet area I knew this to be the case. My unscientific method of watching how the phone stopped ringing and website hits declined in May told me everything I needed to know: business had dropped off in May.

To get more scientific, I went and looked at the historical data for Joliet homes for sale for the months of May 2009, April 2010, and May 2010.

According to AgentMetrics® (for resale, detached single family homes):

• May 2009: 71 Joliet homes for sale went under contract.
• April 2010: 123 Joliet homes for sale went under contract.
• May 2010: 62 Joliet homes for sale went under contract.

So May 2010 saw a decline of nearly 50% from April 2010 and a decline of 12.6% from May 2009.

In June, though, the phone and the traffic started to pick up. So I went and looked at the June 2010 numbers (which I have for Joliet via AgentMetrics®, but the Realtors® index does not yet have nationally). In Joliet, there 95 homes that went under contract in June. This may be an anomaly to account for the slow May, but it is also a 17.2% increase from the 81 Joliet homes that went under contract in June 2009. Lets hope this trend holds up and the phone continues to ring.