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Rick Hanselman knows his way around the Springfield
housing market.
Lately the president of The Real Estate Group, a
local residential and commercial real-estate brokerage, has worked in the
Panther Creek area, and he says he’s witnessed an upswing in sales of
homes priced at $300,000 or more.
“That’s more active than I’ve seen
in the past,” Hanselman says. “It has always been steady, but
now I see a spike.”
Hanselman, who attributes this latest trend to increased hiring within Springfield’s medical community, says that for the most part the housing market here remains stable thanks to the city’s steady economy. Phil Chiles, president of the Capital Area Association of Realtors, agrees that the two factors normally go hand in hand. Springfield doesn’t experience a large fluctuation of jobs, he says, or a sudden housing need like other cities that are building new plants or factories do. Even though the area has seen a loss of state-government jobs over the past few years, most have been made up for by the boost in jobs at city hospitals and clinics, he says. Chiles says the absence of huge flows of people in or out of the city correlates directly to Springfield’s gradual increase in home sales prices. According to a 2007 report released by the CAAR, Springfield’s median sales price for existing single-family homes was $104,500, up 5.6 percent from the 2006 median sales price of $99,000. “What that says is that home values are increasing, because the median means there are half as many over and under that number,” Chiles explains. “If the median increases, that means the whole market is going up.”
Since 2005 Springfield has seen a 14.4 percent increase in its median home sales price, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, comparing favorably to other central-Illinois cities such as Decatur and Bloomington-Normal, which experienced decreases of 15.9 and 4 percent, respectively. Springfield even surpassed cities known to have fairly stable housing markets, such as Champaign-Urbana, up 1.4 percent, and Peoria, up 8.8 percent. Real-estate agents are also encouraged by a recent upturn in home sales, which they say was once a sore spot for Springfield.
In October, Springfield joined other cities across the country experiencing a true buyer’s market. The city had more than 2,000 homes listed for sale — the highest inventory it had ever seen. Chiles says that that figure has dropped to the 1,600 range, showing progress for the next year. “We just had a bump in the road when all of these other markets had huge declines,” he says. “We feel like we’ve been very fortunate.”
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
Hanselman, who attributes this latest trend to increased hiring within Springfield’s medical community, says that for the most part the housing market here remains stable thanks to the city’s steady economy. Phil Chiles, president of the Capital Area Association of Realtors, agrees that the two factors normally go hand in hand. Springfield doesn’t experience a large fluctuation of jobs, he says, or a sudden housing need like other cities that are building new plants or factories do. Even though the area has seen a loss of state-government jobs over the past few years, most have been made up for by the boost in jobs at city hospitals and clinics, he says. Chiles says the absence of huge flows of people in or out of the city correlates directly to Springfield’s gradual increase in home sales prices. According to a 2007 report released by the CAAR, Springfield’s median sales price for existing single-family homes was $104,500, up 5.6 percent from the 2006 median sales price of $99,000. “What that says is that home values are increasing, because the median means there are half as many over and under that number,” Chiles explains. “If the median increases, that means the whole market is going up.”
Since 2005 Springfield has seen a 14.4 percent increase in its median home sales price, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, comparing favorably to other central-Illinois cities such as Decatur and Bloomington-Normal, which experienced decreases of 15.9 and 4 percent, respectively. Springfield even surpassed cities known to have fairly stable housing markets, such as Champaign-Urbana, up 1.4 percent, and Peoria, up 8.8 percent. Real-estate agents are also encouraged by a recent upturn in home sales, which they say was once a sore spot for Springfield.
In October, Springfield joined other cities across the country experiencing a true buyer’s market. The city had more than 2,000 homes listed for sale — the highest inventory it had ever seen. Chiles says that that figure has dropped to the 1,600 range, showing progress for the next year. “We just had a bump in the road when all of these other markets had huge declines,” he says. “We feel like we’ve been very fortunate.”
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
