The third quarter, covering months of July, August, and September, is usually the strongest quarter for real estate sales as families move ahead of the beginning of the school year. But even by the standards of a strong third quarter, the three months ending September 30 were strong for the city’s housing market.
Comparing the third quarter to the second quarter in each of the last five years shows an almost unambiguously strong third quarter of 2011, likely due to depressed market conditions earlier this year.
This comes in the face of national trends going the other way. The third quarter of 2011 had a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4,880,000 homes sold, while the second quarter had 4,883,000 homes (based on the SAAR average of the three months in each quarter). So while nationally the pace of home sales actually slowed slightly in the third quarter, Chicago’s home sales increased significantly.
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