Biggest Discounts March Update

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

In the chart below, we have taken all sales data from the last two months in Redfin’s Chicago service area and sorted it by zip code. 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).

For a quick look at where a given zip code is located, just type it into the Redfin search box, or drop by the handy USNaviguide.com zip code map.

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

The overall discount for the Chicago area shot up from 3.8% last month to 6.4% this month, indicating either an increase in the willingness of sellers to bargain with buyers, or a decrease in the skill of sellers to set appropriate prices to begin with. Last month’s most discounted zip code 60644 dropped to #13 on the list, every one of the top ten came in with discounts of over 10%. Some buyers are striking hard bargains out there.

Here are the ten zip codes with the smallest discounts:

Of the 3,697 sales we tracked in the 2-month period, 339 homes sold for more than 20% off the asking price, while 522 homes sold for more than asking.

As a whole, the trend in Chicago is clearly moving toward larger discounts for most neighborhoods. 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. Once we get enough data points, we’ll be able to plot the overall discount trend on a line chart for an interesting picture of the market.