Reading into today's Tribune article

Perhaps you read today's front page article in the Chicago Tribune about the "Plunging Chicago Home Sales." It's important to note right off the bat that this article exchanges "Chicago" and "Chicago area" quite liberally. More on that later.

While I won't be so bold as to refute the article on a whole, I would like to comment on a few of the main points.

• "The median price throughout the Chicago region dropped 2.2 percent, year-over-year, to $239,700. January sales of single-family homes and condos in the Chicago area were off 34 percent from January 2007."

This would seem to support the notion that while some sellers are getting realistic about the market and lowering their expectations to attract buyers (thus the 2.2% decline,) many are not--and buyers aren't having it. Would-be sellers will have to adjust accordingly if they want to sell. What the article doesn't talk about is the ability of sellers to lower their price. I suspect that many of those who haven't been able to sell have very little equity in their homes and thus will be "up-side down" if they sell below a certain price.

• "Nationwide, the median price of a home sold in January fell 4.6 percent, according to a report issued Monday by the National Association of Realtors, which said the month's sales were off 23.4 percent from the year earlier."

This is an important point to keep perspective. One should take "national" media reports with a grain of salt. Chicago has traditionally been a much more stable market than many other big cities. We didn't experience the ridiculous appreciation that, say, southern Florida did in the "boom" years, but we also aren't seeing the tremendous declines either. As this stat shows, Chicago has faired better than many other regions.

• "The Illinois Realtors report said that in the Chicago area prices fell the most in McHenry County, where the median was down 9.6 percent, to $194,500 from $215,250 a year earlier. In second and third place in the region were Lake and DuPage Counties, which year-over-year saw prices drop 9.4 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. On the upside, Grundy County prices rose 8.6 percent. Cook's and Kendall's grew by less than 1 percent."

Say what? This is huge! All real estate is local--I mean really local--and this really gets to the heart of the matter. Cook county (read, the city of Chicago,) has actually seen a 1% increase in median sales price. I realize the Trib has readers throughout all of northern Illinois. However, McHenry county's stats mean nothing to a homeowner in, say, Bucktown. They might as well be considering home prices on Mars.

Bottom line, if you really care about the market (and if you are considering selling or buying, you should,) you need to be looking at your specific area--even your specific neighborhood. The news might not always be rosy but at least you will be getting meaningful numbers. And if you are serious about selling your home, get the opinion and advice of a professional who knows your area.