Real estate business blooming in Chicago

Real estate market continued to show strength in Chicago, a city in the U.S. state of Illinois, in June, with the existing-home price refreshing the highest level since August 2008.

Chicago saw sales of 3,110 homes in June 2015, up 9.3 percent from the same month last year or 15 percent from the previous month, Illinois Association of Realtors said in a report Wednesday.

The median price of a home in Chicago was 290,000 U.S dollars, up 5.5 percent from June 2014, refreshing an almost seven-year high.

"Median prices in Chicago have increased steadily since October 2012, providing a remarkable comeback story for the city's real estate market," said Hugh Rider, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and co-president of Realty & Mortgage Co. in Chicago. "Consumer interest remains keen, as shown by the month- over-month increases in sales recorded since February and the relatively short time it is taking to sell a home."

The successful sale of the city's skyscrapers is also a testament to the blooming real estate business in Chicago.

The Aon Center, Chicago's third-largest skyscraper, has been sold to The 601W Companies, a New York private real estate investment company, at a price of 712 million U.S. dollars, according to the center's owner, Piedmont Office Realty Trust. New York-based Blackstone Group, which sold the Aon Center to Piedmont 12 years ago, paid in June a record sum of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars for the 110-story Willis Tower, the tallest building in Chicago.