Chicago Neighborhoods > The Loop Housing Market

The Loop Housing Market

The Loop has been at the heart of Chicago's condo glut. During the fall and winter of 2009 things got really ugly. Inventory of 2 - 3 bedroom condos started to grow and jumped to almost a 4 year supply. Since then condo inventory levels came down quite a bit for a short while, running as low as an 8 month supply. However, the train ran off the tracks in October 2010, with contract volume so low (only 10 units) that the inventory level jumped to a 42 month supply. However, it's hard to say what the real inventory level is since developers don't put all their condos on the MLS and many of the condo sales in The Loop are developer sales. In 2011 Loop condo inventory levels have come back to earth, with December actually hitting the best levels in 5 years.

Just like the inventory numbers the market time data for the Loop is also distorted by developer activity. 3 buildings have had a large influence over the market times: the Park Monroe, the Legacy, and Aqua. Some of their listings have been on the MLS for over 1500 days and when they cancel or close a lot of them it has a huge influence on the market times. That explains the huge decline in the last few months.