Archive for the 'Chicago News' 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.
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Sears To Keep Chicago Stores Open
January 3rd, 2012 categories: Chicago News, Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery
It’s never easy to see a long-time retailer suffer financially. Seeing the struggles of Sears, still one of the most important retailers in the country, has been downright painful.
But there is some good news regarding the retail giant: Of the store closings the company recently posted on its Web site, none are located in Chicago or Illinois.
GlobeSt.com reported that Sears, in late December, listed 79 of the 100 to 120 stores it plans to close. Not one of these stores is located in Illinois, and GlobeSt.com wonders whether the large tax break that the state recently approved for Sears had something to do with this.
Also in December, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law to give Sears a tax cut of $150 million during a 10-year period. This move came after Sears threatened to move out of the state.
This hasn’t been a good year for Sears. GlobeSt.com reported that the retailer saw its comparable store sales fall 2.6 percent for the year and 5.2 percent since late October. The 100 to 120 stores that Sears closes should save the retailer about $170 million, according to the GlobeSt.com story.
It’s possible to argue the merits of giving companies such large tax breaks. It’s possible, too, to debate whether Sears’ recent tax cut played a role in its decision to not close any of its Illinois stores.
But it’s not possible to argue that Sears’ decision to spare Illinois and Chicago any store closings is a boon to the area. And, remember, anything that helps the local economy also helps the Chicago-area housing market.
Buyers are more likely to spend money if they feel more confident about the local economy. And confident buyers are essential to the health of the Chicago housing market.
So there’s one thing to agree on here: The fact that Sears is keeping its Chicago stores open is good news for everyone in the city.
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National Association of Realtors Adjusts Sales Figures for 2007-2010
December 19th, 2011 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago News, Chicago Real Estate News, Housing Market
Earlier this year, the Illinois Association of REALTORS® reported that its much-watched monthly home-sales statistics were incorrect. The number of homes being sold each month in Chicago and the rest of the state were actually lower than what the local REALTORS® association had reported.
Now comes word that the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has made its own mistakes when it comes to reporting the number of homes sold each month across the United States.
According to a story by MSN Real Estate, the national association over-reported the number of homes sold from 2007 to 2010. This means that even fewer homes were sold last year than the 4.91 million — the lowest number already in 13 years — that NAR reported.
The association says that it will release its new updated numbers on Dec. 21.
It looks like the errors could be large. The national association began looking at its past numbers after CoreLogic, a real-estate analysis firm, challenged the association’s numbers, saying that they could be as much as 20 percent too high.
According to MSN Real Estate, CoreLogic’s analysis showed that there actually should have been 3.3 million homes sold in the United States in 2010. That’s a big drop from the national association’s 4.91 million number.
After looking at their numbers, officials from NAR said that they have counted some home sales twice.
This is an unfortunate time for NAR to be proven wrong about its sales numbers. Many consumers already have negative feelings about the real estate industry. A mistake like this will only provide more fuel for this distrust.
But no matter whether you use the numbers from CoreLogic or those from NAR, one piece of information remains true: The number of home sales across the country remains far too low, especially when compared to the big home-selling pre-2007.
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Some Good News Regarding Chicago Housing Foreclosures
November 13th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago News, Economic Recovery, For Homeowners, Foreclosures, Housing Market, Mortgage Info
Housing foreclosures in Chicago and across the nation have been rising steadily ever since the real estate slump began. This, of course, is not good: Foreclosures help no one. It’s a nightmarish experience for homeowners, but banks and lenders don’t want all of these foreclosed homes either. And foreclosures drag down the property values in the neighborhoods surrounding them, hurting every homeowner in the area.
That’s why the news from the Chicago-based Woodstock Institute was so welcome: The organization reported that housing foreclosures in the city of Chicago fell 9.6 percent in the third quarter of this year when compared to the same time period one year earlier.
These numbers buck the trend in the rest of the state. The six-county Chicago region, which, of course, includes the nearby Chicago suburbs, saw housing foreclosures rise 18 percent in the third quarter.
The numbers might cause people to look at foreclosure differently. We’re used to thinking of housing foreclosures as a city problem. We automatically think that homeowners in the inner city are the ones most in danger of losing their homes.
The Woodstock Institute numbers, though, tell a different tale. This time, foreclosures are spreading to the middle- and even upper-end homeowners of the suburbs. For instance, in Lake County, home to such wealthy suburbs as Lake Forest and Highland Park, housing foreclosures were up nearly 83 percent from a year earlier. In west suburban Kane County, home to the wealthy suburb of Geneva, housing foreclosures were up 96.6 percent.
To be fair, these counties still have far fewer housing foreclosures than does Cook County, so their sample size is far smaller. But the trends can’t be ignored: Housing foreclosure is a serious issue for all homeowners, no matter how ritzy a neighborhood in which they live. It’s why the federal government’s loan modification program, the Making Home Affordable program, is so important. It gives qualifying homeowners the chance to modify their existing home loans so that they can more easily make their mortgage payments. You can learn more about the program here.
We should support anything that reduces the number of foreclosures. According to the government’s latest statistics, about 5,000 loan modifications were in progress as of Oct. 8.
If you don’t think foreclosure is a problem that you’ll ever have to worry about, think again: You never know when you or your neighbor might suddenly have trouble paying the mortgage.
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How Affordable Is Chicago Housing? The U.N. Wants To Know
November 5th, 2009 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago News, Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, Housing Market, Real Estate News
The Chicago housing market is a strong one, even in a struggling economy like the one we’re experiencing now. But a strong housing market generally isn’t a cheap one.
The United Nations is about to find this out.
Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing, is scheduled to visit seven major cities in the United States to determine just how affordable housing is in this country. She began her tour Oct. 27 with a stop at Fernwood United Methodist Church in the city’s Roseland neighborhood
.
I’m not sure what Rolnik thinks about Chicago housing after her visit to Roseland. But she should know that housing in the city, whether we’re talking about condominiums or single-family homes, while not cheap is far more affordable today than it’s been since the housing boom started.
According to statistics from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, the median sales price of single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes came in at $225,000 in September. That might seem high, but it’s actually down 16.2 percent compared to the median price of $268,600 one year earlier.
To me, this is evidence that it’s possible to find a quality house in a good Chicago neighborhood at a reasonable, if not cheap, price. And housing here has traditionally been a good value, with homeowners generally seeing their residences increase in value if they hold onto them long enough, say five or seven years.
Where many buyers struggle financially when buying Chicago homes is in coming up with enough money for a down payment. Fortunately, many FHA loans still require down payments of as little as 3.5 percent of a home’s purchase price. The first-time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000, along with the new move-up tax credit of $6,500 that Congress is considering now, are a big help in making homes feel more affordable in the city, too.
Housing prices are never going to be low in a city that is as popular and offers as many amenities as Chicago. Housing values are a direct result of location, and Chicago happens to be a location that many people want to call home. But I think you’ll find that for such a major city, Chicago actually boasts relatively affordable housing prices. Don’t believe me? Try finding affordable housing in Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York City.
Again, I have no idea what that U.N. official thinks, but for my money, Chicago is a terrific housing buy.
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