A few minutes ago the Illinois Association of Realtors reported February home sales for Illinois and Chicago. The numbers for Chicago just look plain wrong to me. According to IAR Chicago sales were up only 2.2% to 1079. But even back on March 7 I was showing at least a 12.5% increase for Chicago’s February home sales and even the anonymous G from Cribchatter, who apparently has access to raw housing data, was showing a 12% increase. As of right now the MLS is indicating 1260 sales for Chicago in February, while the IAR reported 1079. The official numbers from the Chicago Association of Realtors is 1232. That’s a big difference from the IAR number.
Folks, if I’m correct (and I will call IAR) this will be another major black eye for the various realtor associations who have had some really embarrassing data errors recently.
Remember…you heard it here first.