Home Sales Rebound in Southwest Suburbs Matches Pace in Metro Chicago Real Estate Market

Feb. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Home sales activity in Chicago’s Southwest Suburbs and in the broader metropolitan Chicago real estate market rebounded strongly during the second half of 2009.  In each instance, sales were 23 percent higher than during the same six months in 2008, and in both cases RE/MAX retained its leadership role in residential brokerage.

For all of 2009, home sales in the Southwest Suburbs area rose to 3,508 from 3,321 in 2008, an increase of nearly 6 percent.  The seven-county Chicago real estate market saw sales rise 1.5 percent

The Southwest Suburbs market area includes the communities of Alsip, Blue Island, Bridgeview, Burbank, Chicago Ridge, Crestwood, Evergreen Park, Hickory Hills, Hometown, Justice, Lemont, Merrionette Park, Midlothian, Oak Forest, Oak Lawn, Orland Hills, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Posen, Robbins, Tinley Park and Worth.

RE/MAX agents accounted for 941, or 26.8 percent, of all residential listings sold in the Southwest 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 798 transactions, or 22.7 percent.

RE/MAX also retained leadership in total transactions closed in the Southwest Suburbs area, representing either the buyer or seller in 1,739 transactions, or 24.8 percent.  The next four firms in the total transaction category are Coldwell Banker (13.4 percent), Century 21 (11.3 percent), Realty Executives (3.7 percent) and Baird & Warner (2.8 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, a larger percentage than any other real estate organization.

The top five real estate organizations in the Southwest Suburbs area during 2009, in terms of attached and detached residential listings sold, were RE/MAX with 941 (26.8 percent), Coldwell Banker with 502 (14.3 percent), Century 21 with 372 (10.6 percent), Realty Executives with 139 (4 percent) and Baird & Warner with 95 (2.7 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 Southwest Suburbs area in buyer representation, closing 798, or 22.7 percent, of all sales made of listed homes in 2009, topping Coldwell Banker with 437 (12.5 percent), Century 21 with 420 (12 percent), Realty Executives with 118 (3.4 percent) and Baird & Warner with 98 (2.8 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.