Archive for the 'Economic Recovery' Category
Business Leaders Give Emanuel Strong Marks For First Year As Mayor
May 21st, 2012 categories: Chicago Info/News, Chicago News, Economic Recovery
It looks as if Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is on his way to becoming a favorite of city business owners, at least if a recent survey by Crain’s Chicago Business is to be believed.
According to a recent story by Crain’s, about three out of every four respondents to the survey said that Emanuel has been either very positive for Chicago businesses or has been positive but “could do more.”
Crain’s reported that only 9 percent of respondents to its survey said that the new mayor has been bad for business during his first year in office.
This is good news for homeowners in Chicago. We want businesses to view the city as a friendly, progressive place. We want them to think of Chicago as a city that welcomes new businesses to its borders. The more businesses that call Chicago home, after all, the more attractive the city becomes. And the more attractive Chicago is, the greater the number of people who want to live here.
That greater demand, of course, can only prove positive for the Chicago housing market.
The majority of respondents say they support Emanuel’s efforts to reduce crime, balance the city’s budget, promote jobs, reform Chicago’s public schools and promote ethics reform.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that all is well in Chicago. Emanuel, after all, has only been in office for a year. The city still faces challenges when it comes to falling home values, pension issues, crime, traffic congestion and, of course, unemployment.
Other respondents said that it might not matter what Emaneul does if the state legislature in Springfield doesn’t, as one respondent told Crain’s, “get their act together.”
Still, the survey is an encouraging one for Chicago residents. Let’s just hope that businesses continue to view our new mayor as favorably as his time in office runs on.
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Mortgage Interest Rates Help Boost Affordability Of Chicago Condos, Single-Family Homes
May 18th, 2012 categories: Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners
Why is now a great time to buy a house? Housing prices are affordable in Chicago, even in the city’s top neighborhoods, places like Lincoln Square, Lakeview and Lincoln Park. Sellers are willing to negotiate. And there are plenty of homes from which to choose across the country.
But just as important, mortgage interest rates recently fell to yet another historic low point.
Bloomberg recently reported on this new milestone. According to the story, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan fell to 3.83 percent during the week ended May 10. This is the lowest this figure has been since Freddie Mac began tracking the number in 1971.
Borrowers hoping for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage received good news, too. The average interest rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage loan fell to 3.05 percent last week. That’s down from 3.07 percent the week earlier.
This means that it’s cheaper to finance a home. If you took out a $200,000 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan with an interest rate of 6 percent, you’d face a monthly mortgage payment of $1,199.10.
But if you dropped that interest rate to 3.83 percent for the same loan, you’d have a monthly mortgage payment of just $935.33.
That’s a difference of $263.77 a month, or a little more than $3,165 a year.
So if you’re thinking about buying a home, now might be the time to act. It’s impossible to predict what mortgage interest rates will do in the coming weeks. But the rates today are outstanding ones, historically so.
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Home Sales Expected To Rise In 2012, But What About Housing Values?
May 3rd, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, For Sellers, Housing Market
The latest report from the National Association of REALTORS®, the association’s Pending Home Sales Index, indicates that condominium and single-family home sales will rise in 2012 when compared to a year earlier.
That’s good news for home sellers. And the REALTORS® association trumpets the numbers in a press release that maintains that the housing market across the country is firmly in recovery mode.
But there’s a reason that this housing recovery – and sales are increasing in Chicago, too – feels so hollow. While the number of condominiums and single-family homes selling is on the rise, the prices of these sales are not.
In fact, the latest numbers from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing price index indicate that housing prices across the country are beginning to fall. The news is especially gloomy for Chicago, where in February, according to the Case-Shiller numbers, housing prices in the area fell to a 12-year low.
So that’s why it’s so hard for home sellers to get excited over the good news coming from the REALTOR® association’s Pending Home Sales Index. Yes, homes are selling in greater numbers. But owners who purchased their residences during the housing boom years – say, 2004 through 2006 – are taking big losses when they sell homes now. According to Case-Shiller, Chicago-area housing prices have fallen by more than 37 percent since September of 2006.
There are plenty of reasons why housing prices continue to fall. First, and most importantly, they simply rose too high too fast during the days of the housing boom. That kind of price growth was unsustainable. Prices simply couldn’t have kept rising at that rate. Today, the housing market is in a period of correction. Housing values are falling to a more reasonable level, something that feels particularly painful to homeowners who spent so much for their condos and single-family homes just six years ago.
Then there are the foreclosures glutting the housing market today, both in Chicago and across the country. These distressed properties, which generally saw at prices below market level, drag down the values of homes around them. This results in a steady decrease in home prices in entire neighborhoods.
The difficult truth is that Chicago and the rest of the nation have a long way to go before the fallout from the housing crisis clears. And even as home sales across the country rise, there’s no denying that this housing recovery hasn’t been an enjoyable one for many homeowners.
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Case-Shiller Numbers Paint Picture Of A Still-Struggling Chicago Housing Market
April 30th, 2012 categories: Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
The most recent numbers from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing index paint a grim picture of the Chicago-area housing market. According to a story by Crain’s Chicago Business, the numbers show that housing prices in the Chicago area have fallen to a 12-year low.
That’s right: Housing values in the city in February fell to where they last stood in May of 2000, according to the Case-Shiller numbers.
The Case-Shiller report found that Chicago-area single-family home prices fell 2.5 percent in February when compared to January. Prices were down a high 6.9 percent this February compared to the same month one year earlier.
This news is especially grim if you purchased your Chicago-area single-family home or condominium in late 2006. According to Case-Shiller, Chicago-area housing prices have fallen 37.5 percent from where they stood in September of 2006, the peak of housing values in the city and suburbs.
The Crain’s story quotes Tom Feltner, vice president at Chicago’s Woodstock Institute, who says that this probably isn’t the bottom for the Chicago housing market, either. According to Feltner, we should expect to see prices for Chicago-area condos and single-family homes to continue to fall as an influx of foreclosure homes hits the market.
If you have to sell today, and you originally bought your residence in 2004, 2005 or 2006, the reality is that you’ll probably take a loss in the sale. Remember, buyers today don’t care what you paid for your residence six years ago. They only care about what your property’s market value is today.
If you absolutely must sell, then, it’s important to work with a skilled REALTOR® who knows your community. This agent can help you set the right price for your property, one that will generate the highest number of quality offers. It’s important, too, to listen to the advice of your REALTOR® when it comes to listing price. You can be stubborn and demand to list your residence for a higher price. The odds are good, though, that buyers will simply ignore your property and move on to those residences that are priced properly according to today’s market.
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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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