Median home price in Chicago area down 13.6 percent in December

• Reprints

Updated: January 20, 2012 7:05PM

The median home price in the Chicago metropolitan area dropped 13.6 percent in December from a year earlier as sales rose 17 percent, according to a report Friday, and the pattern is expected to continue.

The report from the Illinois Association of Realtors showed the median price declined to $145,000 from $167,850. Sales jumped to 6,090 from 5,204.

For the year, the median price sank 11.9 percent to $163,000 from 2010, and home sales edged up 1.3 percent to 69,900.

In Chicago, the median price fell 6.2 percent in December to $156,000, from December 2010, and sales climbed 6.4 percent to 1,536. For the year, the median price sank 13.8 percent to $175,000 from full-year 2010, while sales fell 7.2 percent to 17,715.

Housing market forecasts through March for Illinois and the Chicago metropolitan area “suggest that sales volume will be significantly higher than the same period last year, although prices will still be lower than a year ago,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

He noted foreclosures remain a drag on the market, adding until they’re cleared, “sustained upward movement in prices will be unlikely.”

Statewide, the median price dropped 10.4 percent last month to $125,500 from December 2010. Sales rose 14 percent to 8,828 — the sixth straight month of increases.

For the full year, the median price was down 9.2 percent at $137,500, and sales slipped 0.1 percent to 103,785.