RE/MAX Retains Leadership in Northwest Suburbs of Metro Chicago Real Estate Market; Area Sales Up 8%

Feb. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- RE/MAX agents retained their leadership position in home sales in the Northwest Suburbs area of the metropolitan Chicago real estate market last year.  Home sales in that area were up from 6,479 in 2008 to 6,992 in 2009, an 8 percent increase.

The Northwest Suburban market area includes the communities of Arlington Heights, the Barrington area, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Keeneyville, Mt Prospect, Niles, Palatine, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, Roselle, Schaumburg, Streamwood and Wheeling.

RE/MAX agents accounted for 1,774, or 25.4 percent, of all residential listings sold in the Northwest Suburbs area during 2009 making them number one in that category, according to Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC (MRED).  RE/MAX agents also led in buyer representation, assisting buyers with 1,593 transactions, or 22.8 percent.

RE/MAX also retained its leadership in total transactions closed in the Northwest Suburbs area, representing either the buyer or seller in 3,367 transactions, or 24.1 percent.  The next four firms in the total transaction category are Coldwell Banker (14.1 percent), Century 21 (8.6 percent), Baird & Warner (6.6 percent) and Prudential, (6.2 percent).

Since 1989, RE/MAX has led the metropolitan Chicago residential real estate market based on closed sales volume.  In 2009, RE/MAX agents listed 18.9 percent of all homes sold in the seven-county Chicago real estate market, which is more than any other real estate organization.

“The metro Chicago real estate market experienced a meaningful rebound in home sales during 2009, especially during the second half of the year,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.

“Home sales in the last six months of 2009 increased 23 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, but for the full year Chicago-area home sales were up a more modest 1.5 percent.  The ability of our agents to work successfully in the distressed properties segment has been the key to maintaining our leadership as the market accelerated,” he said.

The top five real estate organizations in the Northwest Suburbs area during 2009, in terms of attached and detached  residential listings sold, were RE/MAX with 1,774 (25.4 percent), Coldwell Banker with 1,157 (16.5 percent), Century 21 with 552 (7.9 percent), Baird & Warner with 456 (6.5 percent) and Prudential with 440 (6.3 percent).  Data maintained by MRED may not reflect all real estate activity in a specific market area.

For the same time period, RE/MAX agents led the Northwest Suburbs area in buyer representation, closing 1,593, or 22.8 percent, of all sales made of listed homes in 2009, topping Coldwell Banker with 811 (11.6 percent), Century 21 with 646 (9.2 percent), Baird & Warner with 468 (6.7 percent) and Prudential with 433 (6.2 percent).  RE/MAX remained the market-share leader in buyer representation across the metropolitan Chicago real estate market during 2009, completing 16.4 percent of all buyer transactions.

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RE/MAX has been the sales leader in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market since 1989 and also is number one across northern Illinois. In 2009, the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network closed more than $6 billion in sales.

The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network consists of 2,500 associates and 121 individually owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide residential, relocation and commercial real estate services throughout the northern one-third of Illinois. The network’s Web sites, www.illinoisproperty.com and www.remax.com, are two of the most popular real estate Web sites in northern Illinois and nationwide, respectively, according to Compete.com, Comscore and Hitwise, which are online intelligence services.

RE/MAX Northern Illinois is part of RE/MAX International, a global real estate organization with 6,500 independently owned offices and 93,000 member sales associates in 78 nations.