Chicago worst of U.S.'s 100 largest real estate markets in 2017

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Chicago will have the coldest real estate market among the nation's 100 largest metro areas next year, according to a forecast released yesterday.

The double-barreled forecast of slim increases in both prices and the number of homes sold landed Chicago in last place in the ranking published by Realtor.com, the website of the National Association of Realtors.

The forecast sees Chicago-area home prices rising by 1.95 percent in 2017 and the number of home sales growing by 2.27 percent. Neither figure is the lowest in its category, "but because the forecast for both was weak, Chicago ended up ranking last," Jonathan Smoke, Realtor.com's chief economist, said in an email to Crain's.

Smoke said Chicago's relatively high unemployment, low income growth and slow home price recovery since the bust are key reasons it will be the most lackluster of the nation's 100 largest real estate markets next year.

"Chicago's economy has not been as strong as other major markets," Smoke emailed. "One important indicator is the current unemployment rate, which remains well above the U.S. rate of unemployment." The country's strongest markets have had several months of declining unemployment and a stable job base before home prices begin to pick up, he wrote.

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