[This quarterly market report is provided by Chip Wagner and Robert Headrick of the [Headrick-Wagner Appraisal Group](http://www.headrick-wagner.com) in their eNewsletter. I have had the pleasure of knowing them for a large part of my appraisal career. They are both very active in appraisal industry matters having held many leadership positions. Their firm has been covering the Chicagoland market since 1970 and as a result, they both have a wealth of insight. Their focus is on relocation, litigation and lending appraisals as well as [slayers of appraisal myths](http://www.alwagner.com/myths.shtml). Chip and Bob author a series of [market reports](http://www.alwagner.com/report.shtml) on the Chicagoland real estate market and Chip writes a new column on our sister blog, Soapbox called Chip Shots. …Jonathan Miller

…The first quarter statistics show that listings are climbing fast, contract pendings are not keeping pace with the prior year, and the sales volume (previous 12 month period) is declining. With all these forces taking place, the inventory level has increased 78.5% over the same period from last year. An interesting observation shows that the average list price has declined 5.6%. This shows that pricing may be in the process of becoming more realistic in the difficult marketplace, and the oversupply is placing pressure downward on home prices. The good news is the average sales price has increased a modest 3%. This is far from the 5% to 10% (or greater) annual increases that we were accustomed to the first half of this decade. But it is also contrary to some of the national housing reports suggesting some markets are declining in year over year sales prices….

For the remainder of the 1Q 2007 report as well as other statistics, go here. There’s a lot of good information.