Chicago feels housing chill

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Increasingly finicky home buyers are putting the brakes on the Chicago real estate market, where sales of single-family homes plunged a steep 15 percent in June from the same month last year--believed to be the biggest local drop since the housing boom began in 2001.

Though overall sales prices managed a slight gain, some counties in and around the Chicago metropolitan area saw their median sales prices decline, according to data released Tuesday by the Illinois Association of Realtors.

June's numbers are the latest sign that not even Chicago, which has not felt the effects of the end of a five-year national housing boom as sharply as other markets, will remain unaffected by the slowdown.

Nationally, sales of existing homes fell for the eighth time in the past 10 months as housing experts say that the once booming housing market has slowed as mortgage rates have risen. That has worried economists who have, over the past several months, feared that a rapid cooling of the housing market might spark a recession.

On Tuesday, though, real estate agents said the slowdown reflects the huge supply of homes on the market and hesitation by buyers, who realize they finally have a chance to be picky.

This is the frontpage headline of the Chicago Tribune.So,the slowdown has moved to the front section of the paper.That means it's a big story.It doesn't help when Chicago loses 18,500 people between July 2004 and July 2005.