Sales of existing homes in Illinois were down in December, but up overall in 2016.

The trade group Illinois Realtors reports that $162,380 houses and condos were sold in the state last year. That’s up nearly 4-percent from 2015. But home sales for the month of December were down 2.8-percent year-to-year.

The statewide median home price was up 6.4-percent in 2016, at $184,000. Economic analyst Geoffrey Hewings with the University of Illinois says a lack of inventory kept home sales from going even higher.

HEWINGS: “People are not offering their homes for sale, they’re staying put. They want to see what’s going to happen. And then perhaps, if the signals in the economy are very positive over the next five to six months, we might see an increase in that inventory.”

Hewings says the desire to wait for positive economic signals could explain why Illinois home sales softened in the second half of the year. He thinks uncertainty about the state budget and the incoming Trump administration created a wait-and-see attitude in many potential homebuyers.