Lower Home Prices Continue in Woodridge

While homes and condos are selling in Woodridge, they're still selling for less. 

Steve Kranz of Kranz Real Estate said his agency is down one in sales from last year -- 84 in 2011, down from 85 in 2010.

But pricing for those sales has dropped 15 percent, Kranz said. The average sale price last year was $289,000. This year, it's $245,700. 

That's a much bigger drop than what Chicagoland is experiencing as a whole, Kranz said. While fewer homes are being sold (sales are down 13.6 percent) prices have dropped only 3.4 percent.

"So we're selling homes in Woodridge but getting less money for them," he said.

Kranz attributes the drop to foreclosures and short sales. 

"That's at least a third or 40 percent of the market," he said. "Banks just want to get rid of them. It knocks the person who doesn't have to do that." 

Kranz had said in a that while business had slowed, he looked forward to the spring for increased interest. 

"We've been kind of happy with people calling and showing properties," he said. "We're getting some transactions done." 

Data from the Mainstream Organization of Realtors website also shows properties being sold, but at lower prices than 2010. Seventeen Woodridge homes were sold in June 2011; 19 were sold in June 2010. 

In 2010, the average sale price was $306,530. In 2011, that number dipped to $238,325, a 22 percent drop. 

Ten condos or townhomes were sold in June 2011, up from seven in 2011. But the prices dropped here, as well. 

The average sale price in 2010 was $170,900. In 2011, that number dropped to $157,230, an 8 percent drop.

Through June 23, 2011, 76 homes had been sold in Woodridge with an average sale price of $242,526. Thirty-five condos or townhomes had been sold with an average sale price of $91,699. 

The average price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Woodridge is $260,869, 

That made Woodridge more affordable than Downers Grove, Darien, Lemont, Naperville and Bolingbrook. Romeoville and Plainfield posted lower averages. 

Overall, Woodridge home prices have dropped 1.5 percent, That's better than average and much better than what some more southern suburbs have experienced, the report said.