Business Briefing: Illinois housing market rounds out strong summer

The state of Illinois’ real estate market improved last month compared to a year ago as homes sales and median prices increased for buyers and sellers while inventories remained lower.

The latest numbers from the Illinois Association of Realtors reveals almost a 1 percent increase in home sales last month compared to the number of transactions recorded in August 2014. In August 2015, sales totaled 15,088 homes, up 0.9 percent from August 2014 when 14,957 homes were sold.

Last month’s statewide median price, the point at which exactly half of all homes sold for more and half sold for less, rose to $180,900, a 3.4 percent gain over August 2014’s statewide median price of $175,000.

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Illinois has the third-highest tax burden in the nation. A new survey from nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Truth in Accounting finds that only New Jersey and Connecticut tax their citizens more. Learn more here.

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A California-based semiconductor company Atmel Corp. has accepted an offer worth about $4.6 billion in cash and stock from Dialog Semiconductor. News of Amtel’s deal with the British company sent its stock soaring to more than $1 a share, of 15 percent. Read more here.

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Hackers in China has forced Apple Inc. to remove some applications from its App Store. Apple made the move after Chinese developers were tricked into using software tools that caused a security breach. Banks, an airline and a popular music service are among those whose accounts have been compromised. Learn more here.

-Will Buss, BND business writer

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 9:23 AM with the headline "Business Briefing: Illinois housing market rounds out strong summer."