Archive for the 'For Buyers' Category
Jennifer Hudson’s Home Purchase Tells The Tale Of Today’s Chicago Housing Market
December 5th, 2011 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers
Sellers today might not believe it, but some Chicago residents are still buying homes. Just ask Jennifer Hudson.
The Chicago singer and Oscar-winning actress has a contract pending on a 12,000-square-foot home in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge, according to the Chicago Tribune. The home is listed at $2.795 million.
It’s not certain yet just what Hudson will pay for the house. But Hudson’s purchase, even if it’s a full-price offer, provides a quick lesson on the state of the housing market in the Chicago area today. And for Chicago home sellers, the message is clear: Price reductions are still the order of the day for many city condominiums and single-family homes.
If Hudson pays $2.795 million for the home, she will nab it for a price that is more than 33 percent lower than the residence’s original listing price, according to the Chicago Tribune story. That original list price stood at $4.2 million before falling to the current price that attracted Hudson’s offer.
This is happening on a smaller scale to home listings across the Chicago area. Sellers still are frequently dropping their asking prices as their only way to attract buyers. There’s a reason for this: Home buyers today are savvy. They know that the housing market, both in Chicago and across the country, is down. They know, too, that many sellers are eager to move their condominiums and single-family homes, and are willing to drop their asking prices to do it.
If you’re trying to sell today, it’s important that you work with a REALTOR(R) who knows your market. This professional can help you set the right price for your listing, and can boost your odds of moving your residence in the shortest amount of time possible.
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Zell: High-Quality Real Estate Still A Good Investment
September 22nd, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, Housing Market
It’s easy these days to get down on the U.S. economy. The recovery from the Great Recession hasn’t been strong enough to please anyone. The national unemployment rate is still too high. Housing values are stagnant. Home sales are down.
But, no less a financial guru than Sam Zell says that the U.S. economy is now on the right track. And that certainly qualifies as good news.
The Bloomberg news service covered Zell’s recent speech at a real estate conference in Chicago. According to the story, Zell told audience members that the U.S. economy will continue to improve and that high-quality real estate remains a wise investment.
I couldn’t agree with Zell more, especially when it comes to his thoughts on the value of real estate. I’ve argued during even the worst days of Chicago’s real estate slump that city housing remains a top investment. Yes, the value of Chicago condominiums and single-family homes is down now. But that just makes this an even better time to purchase local real estate.
Housing in Chicago’s top neighborhoods, places like Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown and Ravenswood, remains a solid investment. It’s true that no one can predict how home values will react over the years. But historically, home values have risen over time. The key is for owners to hold onto their homes for a long enough period of time – usually five years or more does the trick.
Buying a house was never meant to be a get-rich-quick investment. Remember, when you buy a condominium or single-family home, you get the benefits of living in that home. You also get tax advantages that you don’t get when you rent. You can’t say that about any other investment you can make.
During the days of the U.S. housing boom, buyers in Chicago were able to purchase condos or single-family homes in hot neighborhoods, fix them up and sell them for sometimes double what they initially paid, all in a few months’ time. That isn’t happening today.
But that doesn’t mean that owning a home is a bad financial investment. Though nothing is guaranteed, those homeowners who are patient will usually find that their homes are good investments.
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Home Sales Up or Down? It Depends on the Numbers You Use
September 16th, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers
How healthy is the Chicago housing market? The short answer is that it’s as healthy as most housing markets across the country. The more complicated answer? That depends upon what numbers you use.
According to the most recent sales statistics from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, the sale of single-family homes and condominiums in Chicago fell 19.5 percent in July from the same month one year earlier. In July, 1,589 homes were sold. That’s down from 1,975 homes sold in the same month in 2009.
Now, that number seems awfully bad. But it isn’t as bad when you consider that condominium and single-family home sales fell 27 percent across the nation in July.
Chicago home sales also look stronger if you consider year-to-date sales. Thanks in no small part to the federal first-time and move-up buyer tax credits, both of which expired on midnight on April 30, Chicago’s year-to-date home sales are ahead of what we saw last year.
According to the numbers from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, Chicago’s housing sales from January through July were up 25 percent from the same period in 2009. So far this year, Chicago has seen 12,397 home sales. That’s far ahead of the 9,915 home sales the city saw from January through July of 2009.
If you’re still looking for bad news from the REALTORS® association, you can always study its median sales price numbers. The median price is an important one; it’s the figure at which half of homes sold for higher prices and half for lower.
According to the association, the city of Chicago’s median home price in July stood at $196,000. That’s down 19.8 percent from the $245,000 at which the median stood in the same month one year earlier. The year-to-date median sales price of $215,000 is down 6 percent. The median price was $229,000 for the period of January through July of 2009.
The point of all this isn’t to confuse home buyers or sellers. It’s to point out one fact: The Chicago housing market is a mixed bag of positive and negative news today. In that respect, it’s little different from the majority of housing markets across the country.
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Incentives To Buy Homes Now Keep Coming
August 23rd, 2010 categories: Chicago Info/News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, Mortgage Info
It’s easy to get down on today’s residential housing market. Home values are down. Foreclosures are up. Sales are sluggish.
But all of these factors, which make selling a condominium or single-family home today so challenging, make this a great time to buy a home in Chicago.
The Illinois Association of REALTORS® reported that the median sales price of Chicago homes stood at $230,000 in the second quarter of this year. That’s an extremely affordable price for Chicago. And by taking out an FHA loan, buyers here only have to come up with a down payment of 3.5 percent of a home’s purchase price.
At the same time, inventory levels are high. Buyers have a lot from which to choose when it comes to buying condominiums or single-family homes in some of the city’s top neighborhoods, like Lincoln Park, Ravenswood, Lakeview, Lincoln Square and Streeterville.
Then there’s the news regarding mortgage interest rates. According to the latest numbers from Freddie Mac, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan stood at an amazing 4.42 percent for the week ended Aug. 19. The rate for the average 15-year fixed-rate loan hit 3.90 percent. Both rates were down from the previous week, and down from the same period one year earlier. This means that buyers today can get more home for their dollars.
Even the high number of foreclosures in Chicago and the rest of the country can mean good news for buyers. When banks and other lending institutions have to re-sell their foreclosures, they usually do so at a greatly reduced price. Again, this gives buyers the opportunity to purchase homes for fewer dollars. Some buyers might purchase a foreclosure to be able to get into a neighborhood that they otherwise could not have afforded.
No one’s arguing that this is a difficult time in which to sell a home. But for first-time buyers and any others who don’t have to first sell a residence, this is a great time to buy.
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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.
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