Comparing the Counties - Northwest & Southwest Suburban Areas

Our data from other collar counties indicates much of what we have seen from Tuesday's "Comparing the Counties" glance at market inventories across Northeast Illinois. From December's inventory-to-sales ratio spike, spring market activity absorbed fully half of that "months' supply of inventory." Months' supply is still higher than last year's seasonal low, April '07. It seems clearly noteworthy that these results have been fairly consistent, across the board.

That tells me that the "delayed" effect of market ebbing and flowing, with Cook County acting as an "epicenter," may be a flatly false theory. The flaw would indicate that property markets are responding to prevailing national mortgage interest rates, and not to fluctuating values or regional economic drivers.

The data . . .

Lake County

McHenry County

Will County

Kendall County