Southern Illinois housing market remains stable

Southern Illinois escaped the housing bubble experienced in many U.S. markets

Dave Thompson, owner of Dave Thompson Realty in Marion and a real estate broker since 1971, said while the region hasn't escaped the static market home sales are experiencing, no one locally is going through withdrawal.

"We never had a bubble to burst in our area," Thompson said. "We've really been blessed with a steady stream of sales for the last eight or nine years."

The Illinois Association of Realtors reports homes sales dropped 13.9 percent in Williamson County from the first quarter of 2006 to quarter one of 2007. Five other counties - Franklin, Johnson, Perry, Pulaski and Randolph - also experience drops in that time frame.

However, seven other counties - Alexander, Jackson, Jefferson, Massac, Pope, Saline and Union - have seen slight to modest gains in single home sales.

Mary Schaefer, a spokeswoman for IAR, said it is interesting that a handful of Southern Illinois counties have sold more homes, given the fact the entire state is down in sales by 14.2 percent, from 34,235 logged last year's first quarter to 29,390 so far this year.

Thompson said regardless of the drop he's seen locally, home sales and home prices haven't been artificially high. Slight peaks and valleys in the sales charts aren't noticed as much here as in other parts of the country, where low-interest and sub-prime mortgages have coaxed buyers into purchasing houses.

First-quarter median prices for 2007 were $197,000. The average home in Illinois in the 2006 first quarter was $196,000. The average sale price of a home for first quarter 2007 was $251,375, a 1.9 percent increase from 2006's $246,610.

Zoretich said the trouble sub-prime loan lenders have experienced could dampen sales through the middle of 2007, but he said existing home sales statewide should gradually improve in the latter part of the year.

Souce: The Southern.com www.southernillinoisan.com