Archive for the 'Chicago Neighborhoods' Category
Are Chicagoans Miserable? Forbes Thinks So
May 4th, 2012 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago News, Real Estate News
You live in Chicago. When you wake up in the morning, do you look forward to your day? Are you ready to tackle the challenges that await? Or do you slam the snooze button and wish it was the weekend?
Forbes Magazine thinks that most of us Chicago residents fall into the latter category, waking up on the wrong side of the bed most days.
The magazine, which loves its lists, earlier this year ranked Chicago residents as the sixth most miserable in the country.
The reason for our grumpiness? According to Forbes, it’s the often brutal winters, the high property taxes and its terrible traffic. Forbes editors might have added that Chicagoans are struggling with a housing market in which home values continue to fall, but that hardly makes our city unique today.
Let’s look at the complaints listed by Forbes. Yes, our winters are usually harsh. But not last winter. In fact, last winter felt positively tropical. So we can scratch that one off the list, at least this season. The property taxes and the traffic, though, I’ll give Forbes. Traffic is especially a concern. Unless you’re taking the CTA or Metra, getting around town can be a true chore on busy weekdays.
But I think Forbes is still being too harsh on our city. Yes, Chicago can prove frustrating. But it can also be a fascinating place. We have great restaurants and live theater. We have tremendous green spaces and busy shopping districts. The night life is unrivaled here, and we have an abundance of professional sports teams from which to choose. We have as diverse an array of neighborhoods as any city across the globe.
In fact, it’s Chicago’s attractiveness that I think will eventually prove the savior our local housing market. People still want to live in Chicago. It is undoubtedly the top city in the Midwest. That bodes well for the future of the city’s housing market.
So, yes, Chicago isn’t perfect, as Forbes points out. But where would you rather live?
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Trulia Study Offers More Proof: This Is A Great Time To Buy A Home In Chicago
April 5th, 2012 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, Housing Market
Looking for a reason why it makes sense to buy a home today? Trulia, an online real estate portal, has a big one for you: The odds are that where you live it’s cheaper to own a home today than it is to rent.
And that includes residents of Chicago and its suburbs.
Trulia recently released its new rent-vs.-buy study, and the results were intriguing: In 98 out of 100 major markets across the country — including Chicago — it was cheaper for consumers to own a home than it was for them to rent.
The reasons for this? Rents are increasing across the country. They’re certainly rising quickly in Chicago and its suburbs. And at the same time, housing prices continue to fall, in Chicago and across the country.
Then there are the low mortgage interest rates, still around the 4 percent mark for 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans. This makes it less expensive for buyers to borrow money to finance the purchase of a home.
This all combines to make owning a home more affordable than renting.
I’ve long said that this is a great time to buy a home. Look at our Chicago market. According to data from the Illinois Association of REALTORS(R), median home prices here were down 6.6 percent in February from the same month one year earlier. That translates to a median price of $141,000 this February compared with a median price of $150,000 last year at this time.
And this trend shows no signs of slowing. Housing foreclosures continue to glut the Chicago market. Foreclosures tend to drag down the median sales prices of homes throughout an entire area.
The Trulia study, then, provides yet more evidence that there’s rarely been a better time to buy a home, whether you’re looking for a condominium or single-family home in the Chicago area or across the country.
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Successful Developers Keep Investing In Chicago
February 20th, 2012 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago Neighborhoods, Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery
Plenty of successful developers still believe in the long-term strength of Chicago’s housing market.
And I don’t blame them. Despite the real estate slump — and despite the fact that the value of Chicago’s condominiums and single-family homes fell again last year — Chicago remains a strong housing market.
Just ask Antheus Capital. The Chicago Tribune recently ran a story on this developer’s efforts to purchase rental properties in Chicago’s Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods.
According to the story, Antheus purchased a single apartment building in this area back in 2002. Since then, the developer has purchased 89 apartment buildings in Kenwood and Hyde Park. These buildings hold 4,500 units. This means that Antheus owns just under 20 percent of the rentals in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
This is good news for the developer. Despite the Chicago housing market’s slowdown, Hyde Park remains a desirable city neighborhood. It’s located close to public transportation. It boasts walkable streets lined with restaurants, shops and entertainment options. And the prestigious University of Chicago anchors the neighborhood.
You could consider Hyde Park a microcosm of several top Chicago neighborhoods, places like Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Lakeview. These neighborhoods remain in demand by buyers and renters alike thanks to their thriving nightlife districts, eclectic mix of restaurants and local shopping options. In short, these neighborhoods are vibrant, fun places in which to live.
That also explains why I have high hopes for the long-term vitality of Chicago’s housing markets. Yes, even the top neighborhoods in the city have seen housing values fall since the residential crash. But these neighborhoods have so much going for them, it’s difficult not to picture them remaining as prime destinations for future home buyers.
Antheus Capital is wise to make such a large investment in Hyde Park. Good neighborhoods are treasures, and the neighborhoods of Chicago make our city one of the top metro areas in the country.
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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.
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“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.
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