Chicago & Midwest | August 10, 2018

New Home Sales Drop Y-O-Y in Chicago Region

Chicago-area new home sales increased in the second quarter, but not by enough to counteract a steep plunge in Q1, according to a report from consulting firm Tracy Cross & Associates. As a result, sales were down 7% in the year’s first half, compared to the year-ago period.

A key factor is the increasing price gap between new and existing homes in suburban markets. That’s because values on existing homes in the 10-county metro area have increased only gradually since the recession, while homebuilders have faced steeper rises in construction and land costs.

As a result, homebuilders “come in at a bigger differential above existing-home prices than what [buyers] consider a reasonable premium to pay for new construction,” Erik Doersching, EVP of Tracy Cross, told Crain’s Chicago Business. The Schaumburg, IL-based firm serves the development sector nationwide, focusing on both single-family and multifamily projects.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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