How does 4% price growth sound for local homeowners? After a few mediocre years Champaign County home sales have seen great improvements in 2014 and 2015. Overall increases in home values are a great sign for current and future homeowners and local government.
Home sales were very strong for the entire area serviced by the Champaign County Association of Realtors (CCAR) but this post will focus specifically on Champaign County results.
In 2015, every significant indicator for the local housing market was positive. When friends and clients ask how the market is doing, the simple answer is, great! The average home sale price increased 4% to $170,928 and the median sale price (the point at which half of the homes sold for less and half for more) was up 6.4% to $150,000. The time on market dropped 10 days to a relatively brief 75 days and the average % of asking price received increased to 97%.
There was a stretch in the Spring and Summer of 2015 where 40% of the homes my team listed for sale accepted offers within 10 days of hitting the market and multiple offers were showing up on every 3rd property. A great example was this 2-Story home in Prairie Fields (Savoy) on Bergamot. We saw 2 offers within 2 days of this home becoming available and were able to negotiate a full price offer for the sellers.
Overall, 2439 homes were reported sold in CCAR sales for a total of $416,893,708. A 3.7% increase in count and 7.9% increase in volume. Seriously, this is excellent news for local homeowners and residents in general.
Why? Of course an increase in our homes value is great in terms of the investment. Another reason involves real estate taxes. As home values increase and more new properties are built it expands the tax base. This means there is a larger total pool of home values to spread the necessary taxes across which translates to lower property tax rates for you and me. (of course this assumes local government can keep spending in line)
One of the biggest factors impacting home values and days on market in 2015 was the supply of homes for sale. The count of available properties (single-family) wandered around 1250-1450 homes throughout the year. This is noticeably less than the high inventory levels back in 2004-2009.
Where did most of this growth come from? Not surprisingly, the largest volume increases came from the largest communities but the smaller communities saw the largest year-over-year % changes.
Savoy, Urbana and St. Joseph saw the largest % increase in sales volume (increases of 25.3%, 11.4% and 13.4% respectively) and the largest dollar amount changes came from Savoy, Urbana and Champaign.
One important note is that average or median sale prices have not increased in every segment of the Champaign County housing market. In fact, you’ll see slight decreases in the average sale prices for Savoy and Mahomet even though the count and total volume are up. That’s because this info is measuring overall sales and not accounting for specific changes within the data like an increase in condo sales (lower than average sale price) or the addition of a new construction subdivision where home prices are structured to be lower than a high-end neighborhood that dominated home sales in the prior year.
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Each of the amazing communities in Champaign County have areas of growth and development and areas where home values have slipped. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the overall trends and specific neighborhood activity around your property. If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate make sure you understand what’s happening in your target areas. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions and wait for the right answers.
Do you have a question about home values in your neighorhood? Let us know. We are here to help! For a simple report showing sale prices of neighboring properties check out HomeValuesInChampaign.com
Champaign County Real Estate 
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