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.

Chicago Home Flippers Becoming Landlords

I came accross an interesting article by Melissa Schmitt "Dreams of a quick profit dashed, home flippers become landlords". "Chicago-area home flippers, who once reaped the benefits of a hot housing market with little money down, some elbow grease and a quick sell, are increasingly becoming something that wasn't in their original business plan -- landlords." Read more here: (copy & paste) http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=83847

New Chicago Transfer Tax

The Chicago City Council moved toward property sellers bearing the burden of an impending increase in Chicago’s real estate transfer tax. Buyers would be off the hook for the 40 percent increase.

Buyers already pay the current tax of $3.75 for every $500 of purchase price. Sellers now look to be hit with the $3 per $1,000 increase, which goes into effect on April 1.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago feels sellers would be “stripped” of equity. Others feel that prices have appreciated so greatly over the last few years and have little sympathy.

Home sales that close before April 1 will not be subject to the higher tax.

Why Buying Your Own Home is a Smart Move for Chicago Area First Time Home Buyers - Peter Thompson

Please welcome guest blogger Peter Thompson. Thanks Pete!


Peter Thompson Direct: (630) 598-2375
Cell: (630) 479-6424
Fax: (630) 929-9787
Email: petert@promortgagepartners.com
Web: http://www.ptmortgage.com/

Are a first time home buyer thinking of buying a home here in the Chicago area? If so, you are probably asking yourself, why would anyone want to buy a home in today’s market? Fear is in the air and it is a scary time to buy. The news is filled with talk of foreclosures and declining markets. Although the Chicago area has remained stable, real estate prices have fallen sharply in many areas of the country. If you buy a home now, how do you know that prices won’t fall lower? The truth is, you don’t. But if you have good reasons to buy (You need more space, growing family, moving up in your job … whatever, you know your reasons), and you are planning for the long term, now could be a great time to buy a home here in the Chicago area.

Mortgage rates are low now and you have your choice of homes to buy. But there are some crucial benefits of buying real estate that go beyond the current market conditions. In an earlier post I talked about the first financial benefit of owning a home, how you gradually build equity by paying down your loan. A more dramatic benefit of owning a home is property appreciation. Over the years, home prices have risen steadily in the Chicago area and throughout the country. Even now, with the market slower, it still costs tens of thousands of dollars more to buy a home in the Chicago area than it did just a few years ago. Home prices could fall lower, but if you look at long term trends, real estate usually goes up and chances are that homes in the Chicago area will cost a lot more 5 years from now than they do now.

So how does appreciation work for you? Here’s an example. If you buy a home for $300,000, and the market appreciates, that is the property values increase, by 3% per year (Appreciation doesn’t move in a straight line. It may be 0 one year and 5% the next.), at the end of 5 years your home will be worth over $347,000. At the end of 10 years it would be worth over $400,000.

In this example, you have increased your equity by nearly $100,000 while living in your own home. There’s no guarantee of what home values will be in the future, but this is what has happened throughout the Chicago area in the past.

Let’s take this a step further. Let’s say you bought this same home for $300,000, but that you took out a mortgage for 95% of the purchase price, or $285,000. Let’s say that the mortgage was a 30 year fixed rate with an interest rate of 6.0%. Because your mortgage principal balance goes down over time, at the end of the tenth year your mortgage balance will be paid down to $238,500. If, through appreciation, the value has grown to $400,000, your equity is now worth over $165,000. Not bad for an investment of only $15,000.

Appreciation is the reason so many people are able to move up to a larger house. Having the extra money to use as a down payment, gives you the buying power to buy a larger home for your growing family, or maybe the chance to move into your dream home. Appreciation is one of the key benefits of homeownership, but the key here is that you need to allow time for it to work.

The market has slowed down recently and those who bought a home in the last year or two haven’t seen much of any appreciation, and in some areas the prices have fallen. Time is the factor here. Real estate isn’t an investment you jump in and jump out of. It takes time to see all the benefits and when you buy a home you should plan on keeping the home for several years, minimum.

With prices down, this could be an opportunity. Historically, the real estate market has always moved higher. It may take some time before prices start rising again, but there are always new buyers coming into the market, through birth and immigration. The demographic push means that real estate prices will rise over time. But owning your own home is a great investment even if prices stay flat. Besides property appreciation, you also benefit from tax savings and equity build up as you pay down your mortgage. By buying your own home you are investing in your self, not your landlord. Only you know if it makes sense to buy now, but it could be the right move for you.