Recent Homes Sales

Have you ever wondered what the home across the street sold for? Well, now you can find out. IllinoisRealEstate.com now offers recent home sales data. It may take a few weeks for the property to be inputted into the system, but this is a great resource for someone that's interested in knowing what homes in their area are selling for.

We also offer median home prices for all Chicago area cities along with the number of homes sold. These numbers are based over a 3 month period and are usually updated monthly.

Chicago Area Recent Home Sales

Another great resource brought to you by IllinoisRealEstate.com

Housing Prices

The OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) announced yesterday that housing prices nationwide declined 1.7% for the first quarter of this year. However, prices in the Chicagoland area (Chicago-Naperville-Joliet) were down only (0.44%) for the first quarter of 2008 and prices were actually up 0.23% from a year ago.

There's been a lot of discussion lately if we are nearing the bottom in the declining housing market, butI don't believe this report from the OFHEO would support that notion. It's my opinion that we may be 6-12 months from the bottom (nationally) due to the high number of foreclosures set to hit the market in the coming months. However, it does show us that the Chicago area has been holding steady in this down market.

Chicago Getting a "Green" Parking Garage

According to Chicagorealestatedaily.com Al Friedman plans to build Chicago's first "green" parking structure in Chicago's River North area at the northeast corner of Clark and Kinzie. Construction will start this summer and should be completed by next summer.

The structure will feature a green tinted glass exterior that will catch and reflect sunlight during the day and will illuminate at night. It will be powered by six wind turbines and also have electric car plug-in stations.

Have we Finally Hit Bottom???

At first glance the most recent report for housing starts natioanlly (up 8.2% from March) and building permits (up 4.9% from March) suggests that maybe the housing market has found a bottom. However, a closer look suggests otherwise. Most of this gain was attributed to construction of apartment buildings, not single-family homes, which were actually down 1.7% from March.

The Midwest though showed the most strength as housing starts overall were up a staggering 24.4% from March and even saw an increase of 5% in housing starts for single-family homes.

This report suggests that developers and home builders have shifted their focus from single-family homes to multi-unit buildings, taking advantage of the number of home owners that have recently lost their homes to foreclosure and will need to rent.

Getting Top Dollar for Your Home

In order to receive top dollar for your home, your home must show like a model. For most sellers this requires some significant changes. This involves decluttering, cleaning and removing personal belongings like pictures. Then it's time to contact a professional home stager or decorator. This along with an agressive marketing campaign should lead to a successful selling experience.

Contact Us today for your FREE home evaluation.

Short Sales

Everyone talks about all of the foreclosures on the market, but not too many people talk about all of these short sales. In fact, there are a lot of people that don't even know what a short sale is. A short sale is when a lender/bank is willing to accept less than what is owed on a property. This process is benefical to both the buyer, who in most cases purchases a home at a wholesale price, and the seller, who avoids foreclosure. These properties could be more desirable than foreclosures because it's in the owner's best interest to maintain a clean and desirable home. When negotiating a short sale it's very important that your real estate agent has experience with this type of transaction.

Illinois and Chicago Metro 1Q 2008 Housing Numbers

For the first quarter of 2008 the median home price in Illinois was $187,500 down from $196,000 (a decrease of 4.3%) a year prior. However, the median home price in Chicago was $295,000, up from $280,000 (an increase of 5.4%) from the same time last year. The median price is where half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS(R) (IAR) first quarter report, total home sales (which include single-family homes and condominiums) totaled 21,576, down 27.0 percent from 29,553 home sales in the first quarter of 2007. The average sale price however was up 0.9 percent to $252,899 from $250,576 for the same period a year earlier.

If you look at just the Chicago metropolitan area the news was pretty good as well. The median home price dipped slightly from $244,900 to $243,500 (0.6% decrease), but the average sale price in the Chicago metropolitan area was $323,227, up from $311,615 (3.7% increase) for the same period a year prior.

Overall, I believe these numbers were pretty good. There still remains a lot of inventory out there, but it appears market prices in the Chicagoland area have not been affected as much as other parts of the country.