Archive for the 'Chicago Neighborhoods' Category
Expecting A Better Chicago Economy In 2012? Think Again
January 6th, 2012 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago News, Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers
Crain’s Chicago Business gave Chicago residents hoping for a better economic year in 2012 little reason for optimism. According to Crain’s, the Chicago economy will improve in 2012, but at a slower-than-optimal rate.
Crain’s quoted numbers from Moody’s Analytics saying that the Chicago-area economy should grow by about 1.6 percent in the first half of 2012 and by about 2 percent for the full year. These numbers sound positive until you consider that six months ago Moody’s predicted that the Chicago-area economy would grow by about 4 percent in 2012.
Crain’s points to the economic uncertainty caused by unstable financial markets and European debt worries. This, the story says, has made employers overly cautious when making new job hires.
Because of this, Moody’s is predicting that the unemployment rate in the Chicago area will jump to 11.4 percent in the first half of 2012. That’s up from 10.6 percent in the second half of 2011. Six months ago, Moody’s predicted that the Chicago-area unemployment rate would stand at 9.2 percent in the first half of 2012.
This is bad news, too, for the Chicago housing market. Buyers won’t be as willing to invest in a new home if they’re still worried about losing their jobs. And as Moody’s numbers show, Chicagoans have little reason to be optimistic about the safety of their jobs.
Just because a new year has started, it doesn’t mean that Chicago, and the rest of the nation, don’t still face serious challenges. Until unemployment finally falls, expect the Chicago housing market to struggle.
This latest news points out once again how important it is for home sellers to work with a skilled REALTOR® to set the right price for their condominiums or single-family homes. Buyers today are smart; they won’t overpay for a home. Those sellers who do set an unrealistic asking price will see their residence sit on the market for months, ignored by today’s savvy home buyers.
| Discussion: No Comments »
“Good” News, Bad News Regarding The Chicago Housing Market
December 6th, 2011 categories: Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners
The Chicago Tribune in late November brought both good and bad news for Chicago homeowners in the same story, covering reports showing that home prices in the Chicago area fell in September but that the number of local owners underwater on their mortgage loans also dipped.
First, the prices: According to the latest findings from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, home prices in the Chicago area dropped 0.8 percent in September when compared to August. They were also down 5 percent when compared to September of 2010.
Prices in the Chicago area today are at levels the area last saw in the spring of 2002, according to the Tribune story.
The “better” news? The Tribune also reported on the latest numbers from CoreLogic that showed that 24.9 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage in the Chicago area owed more on their loans than what their residences were worth at the end of September.
That number isn’t great. But it is better than the 25.2 percent of homeowners who were underwater on their mortgage loans at the end of the second quarter of this year.
Still, even with that slight improvement, 383,625 residences in the Chicago area were underwater on their mortgage loans at the end of September. Obviously, that number is far too high, especially considering nationally that only 22.1 percent of all residential properties with mortgage loans were underwater at the end of the same month, according to CoreLogic.
Both sets of numbers show that the housing market in Chicago, as in the rest of the nation, has a long way to go before it can be considered healthy again. The good news is for buyers: Home prices in the City, even in traditionally attractive neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Lincoln Park and Lincoln Square, remain affordable. Buyers today can find great bargains on good properties in the best locations.
| Discussion: 1 Comment »
July 15th, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, For Buyers, Green Homes
What do homebuyers in Chicago want? They’re searching for quality homes at fair prices. They want to live close to public transportation. They want good schools and plenty of nearby shopping and dining choices.
And, increasingly, they want green homes.
This search for environmentally friendly homes is finally getting a bit easier. CLTV’s Web site recently ran a story on the changes being made by Chicago’s MRED, a local multiple listing service of homes for sale.
Late last year, the MRED listing service gave REALTORS® the ability to add nearly two dozen green or energy efficient features with their property listings. According to the CLTV story, these features can include anything from drought-resistant landscaping to low-flow plumbing fixtures to bamboo flooring.
This is good news for Chicago buyers who are looking for green features. They can now find these environmentally friendly amenities listed prominently on many of the home listings they view online.
This move is something that officials from the National Association of REALORS® are happy to see. The CLTV story says that they’d like to see all the nation’s multiple listing services do this. Currently, according to one association official quoted in the story, from 30 to 40 of the services allow their REALTORS® to enter green and energy efficiency data in their home listings. That’s not a lot of services when you consider how many dot the country.
I don’t think it will be much longer, though, before we see an increase in green information on home listings. The reason is a simple one: It’s something more buyers are looking for.
I’m not naïve enough to believe that environmentally friendly features will trump price, location and construction quality. But a growing number of my clients are interested in living in homes that are environmentally friendly. If they’re looking at two houses that are mostly equal, these clients will go with the home that boasts the greener features.
Here’s some advice to the sellers out there: If your home does have some nice green features, advertise them prominently. In today’s tough residential real estate market, sellers need every advantage that they can get. Green features are just one more tool they can use to help move their homes.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
| Discussion: 1 Comment »
Why Not Rent That Unsold Condo?
May 27th, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, For Homeowners, Renting in Chicago
It’s not easy selling a condo in Chicago these days. There are just too many vacant units on the market. Not surprisingly, a growing number of condo owners in the city are taking a bold step: They’re renting their units out for short-term stays.
Dennis Rodkin, the writer of Chicago Magazine’s Deal Estate column, tackled this issue last week. He wrote that the idea is gaining popularity among condo owners who are hoping to trim at least some of the costs associated with paying the mortgage on units they no longer want to own.
Rodkin cites a spokesperson from HomeAway, an online vacation-home rental company, who told him that the service had 120 listings in Chicago in April. That’s up 53 percent from the same month one year earlier. More importantly, the spokesperson mentioned that more than half of these vacation-home listings were city condos.
For vacationers, this is good news. Spending a week in a Chicago condo in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square or just about any other hot city neighborhood makes for a great vacation. It’s a benefit for the owners of these units, too. They may not be able to sell their Chicago condos; but there’s no reason why they can’t at least collect a nice chunk of rent during the prime summer vacation months.
Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about this. Some condo residents worry that the increasing number of rentals will turn their buildings into party zones. Rodkin reports that the Chicago City Council’s Joint Committee on Zoning License is considering a new nightly vacation rental ordinance. If approved, the measure would force condo owners to pay licensing and inspection fees when they rent out their condos. The ordinance would also force them to pay taxes on their rental proceeds.
I understand the concerns of condo owners, but this ordinance does seem more than anything like a way for the city to squeeze even more money out of its residents. If this measure passes, I wonder, will it put a serious crimp in the short-term rental plans of Chicago condo owners?
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
| Discussion: 4 Comments »
Single Buyers Becoming A More Significant Part of Home-Buying Market
March 3rd, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Economic Recovery, For Buyers
First-time homebuyers have been given a lot of credit, including in this blog, for helping home sales rise in Chicago throughout much of 2009. But the Chicago Tribune, in a story on Sunday by Mary Ellen Podmolik, revealed that there’s another group of buyers that has done its share to boost the sale of local condominiums and single-family homes: single buyers, especially women.
According to the Tribune story, the number of unmarried single buyers has been on the rise since the Chicago housing market first began booming about seven years ago. Since then, there have been twice as many single female buyers as there have been single males.
The Tribune cites data from the National Association of REALTORS® that says that for the fiscal year ended in June, single buyers accounted for 38 percent of all home purchases in the Chicago area. And single women accounted for 26 percent of these sales.
In Chicago itself, not counting the suburbs, 44 percent of buyers for the 12 months ended in June were single, the REALTORS® association data said. Single females accounted for 29 percent of the condominium and single-family home sales in Chicago during the 12-month period.
That’s higher than the national average, where single women accounted for 21 percent of all home purchases. Nationally, single men accounted for just 10 percent of home sales.
These numbers don’t surprise me. After all, Chicago is a great place for singles of any gender to live. Every neighborhood in the city boasts its own character, and the trendiest, places like Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and Lakeview are alive with high-end restaurants, independent theaters, hip shops and busy nightspots.
At the same time, housing in Chicago’s top neighborhoods is affordable today. The city’s average median sales price is down from last year, and down even more significantly from where it stood just three years ago. This means that single buyers suddenly have more sales power. Many of them can also take advantage (for the time being, at least) of the federal government’s first-time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000.
No, the fact that Chicago is attracting single buyers doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, I’d be more surprised if the number of single buyers went down.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW PROPERTIES NOT YET ON THE MARKET.
| Discussion: 7 Comments »
