Biggest Discounts December Update

Let’s have an update on where buyers are currently getting the biggest discount off the asking price. This data should help potential buyers to know which neighborhoods are softer in terms of sale price discounts off list price, better equipping you when making an offer and helping you know where to look for potential bargains.

In the charts below, we have taken all sales data from the last two and a half months in Cook County and sorted it by city. We calculated the overall difference between the sale price and the list price. Note that this reflects the final list price, after all price drops in the listing. Any zips with fewer than ten sales are excluded from the top and bottom ten rankings, but interested readers may download the full data summary in Excel format (xls).

Here are the top ten zip codes with the largest overall discount:

After taking the number one spot last month, Harvey shot even further out in front, with the 13 sales there averaging over 20% off. Interestingly, Harvey was the only holdover from last month’s top ten.

The overall discount for Cook County increased slightly from 5.1% last month to 5.7% this month, indicating a slight increase in the willingness of sellers to bargain with buyers.

Here are the ten zip codes with the smallest discounts:

Of the 1,936 sales we tracked in the 2.5-month period, 123 homes sold for more than 20% off the asking price, while 219 homes sold for more than asking.

As a whole, the trend is currently moving ever so slightly toward larger discounts for most neighborhoods. This could very well be a seasonal effect. As we continue to watch this data we will be able to get a better picture of what sale-to-list discounts tell us about the overall health of the local real estate market.