Archive for the 'Chicago Real Estate News' Category
2012 Starts Off With Familiar Story: Chicago Housing Sales Up, Prices Stagnant
February 28th, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
The year got off to a strong start in Chicago as far as home sales are concerned. But housing prices in the city? They remain stagnant.
That’s the mix of news provided by the latest home sales statistics compiled by the Illinois Association of REALTORS®.
According to the association, Chicago home sales — a figure that includes both condominiums and single-family homes — hit 1,093 in January. That’s an increase of 5.7 percent from the 1,034 homes sold in January of last year.
The rising sales also continue a trend: Home sales in Chicago have been steadily increasing. The strong showing in January bodes well for expected home sales in the city throughout 2012.
What hasn’t improved, though, is the average sales price of a Chicago residence. And that’s troubling news for sellers. According to the REALTORS® association, the city of Chicago median sales price stood at $149,000 in 2012. That’s down only slightly — 0.7 percent, to be exact — from the median sales price in January of 2011. Back then, the sales price stood at $150,000.
This means that homeowners trying to sell Chicago condominiums or single-family homes that they purchased in 2004, 2005 or 2006, back when the city housing market was still booming, have to face the strong likelihood that they will have to take a loss on their home sales.
Today’s Chicago housing market provides a lesson that housing is not just about making a quick buck. A home provides shelter and a respite from the outside world. It provides real, tangible benefits, not to mention numerous emotional ones. Housing, though, was never meant to serve as a type of get-rich-quick scheme.
It’s impossible to predict when Chicago housing prices will start to rise again. We need to clear more foreclosure properties off the local market before this can start to happen. But if you are in the market for a home, now is a great time to buy. Just remember, housing is more than just an investment. It’s a product, one that gives us all so much.
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Home Loan Delinquencies Fall
February 27th, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
In another sign that the national economy is improving, the percentage of homeowners who were delinquent on their mortgage loans fell to its lowest level in three years in the fourth quarter of 2011.
The Wall Street Journal reported that 7.6 percent of homeowners with residential mortgages were at least 30 days late on their home loan payments during the last quarter of 2011. That’s still a lot of homeowners across the country falling behind on their mortgage loan payments. But the 7.6 percent figure is the lowest this number has stood since 2009.
Unfortunately, the news wasn’t all good. According to the Wall Street Journal story, the share of mortgage loans in foreclosure remained near highs set during the worst days of the housing crisis.
As the Journal reports, this means that housing prices across the country will most likely continue to fall. That’s because housing foreclosures drag down the sales prices of all homes in a neighborhood. There’s a reason for this: When homeowners can spend $300,000 on a foreclosed home they’re less likely to spend $450,000 on a similar home that’s not in foreclosure.
Those homeowners in the Chicago area who are at risk of falling behind on their mortgage loans should immediately call their mortgage lenders. Their lenders might be able to work out a solution that lowers struggling homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments. Lenders might be willing to lower the mortgage interest rates being paid by homeowners or rework the terms of their mortgage loans so that they have to pay less every month.
The worst thing that struggling homeowners can do, though, is to ignore their financial problems. That will only make an already bad situation even worse.
It’s never easy for homeowners worried about falling behind on their mortgage payments to call their lenders. But making this call is the best way for owners to find a solution that keeps them from falling into the foreclosure process.
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Small Investors Find Opportunity In Chicago Housing Market
February 24th, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
USA Today recently ran an interesting feature story about the increasing involvement of small investors — which the paper refers to as “mom and pop” investors — in major housing markets across the country. Fittingly, the USA Today feature leads off with the story of 54-year-old twins who have, thanks to falling local housing prices, entered the Chicago housing market as investors.
According to the story, the twins had long considered becoming landlords in Chicago. Unfortunately for them, city housing prices were simply too high. Because of this, they could not afford to purchase condominiums or single-family homes in the city.
Today, though, that has changed. Since the housing fallout began in 2007, housing prices in Chicago have steadily fallen. This has opened up investing opportunities for the twins, who, in 2011, purchased two condominiums near downtown Chicago.
Because the city’s rental market is strong, the novice real estate investors found renters in less than a month’s time. And the rent they collect covers their monthly mortgage payments on the two condos.
As the USA Today story says, the twins’ story is not that unusual. In fact, a growing number of smaller investors are entering the housing market thanks to falling home prices across the country.
According to data by John Burns Real Estate Consulting, investors purchased more than 26 percent of single-family homes and condominiums sold during the first nine months of last year in 167 U.S. markets.
That percentage is up from 21 percent in 2007, according to Burns.
Most people are not happy that housing prices in Chicago and across the nation have tumbled. But the lower housing prices haven’t meant bad news to everyone. Investors, for one, can take advantage of lower sales prices to enter markets that had previously been out of their financial reach.
Investors, large or small, looking to invest in Chicago housing have to be happy today. Housing prices in the city remain affordable, and there are plenty of condos and single-family homes for sale from which investors can choose.
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Housing Foreclosures Still Rising In Illinois
February 22nd, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Foreclosures, Housing Market
In unfortunate news, the number of housing foreclosures throughout the state rose 14 percent last month. In fact, only six states had higher foreclosure rates during the month.
According to a report by RealtyTrac, the online foreclosure service, Illinois saw 14,349 foreclosure filings in January of this year, an increase of 14 percent when compared to December of 2011. This means that one in every 369 housing units in the state was in some point of the foreclosure process during the month, according to a feature story by the Associated Press.
It’s important to note that foreclosures as defined by RealtyTrac don’t mean that homeowners have already lost their residences. It just means that homes are at some point in the foreclosure process, a process that could include default notices being sent by banks, auction-sale notices being sent on properties and bank repossessions.
The January foreclosure rate in Illinois was also up 9 percent when compared to the same month one year earlier.
Illinois residents shouldn’t expect foreclosure numbers to fall any time soon, either. According to the Associated Press story, the number of housing foreclosures across the country is expected to rise now that attorneys general in 49 states have reached an historic settlement with five of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders. This settlement lays out foreclosure guidelines that could give banks the confidence to pursue foreclosures more aggressively.
About the only good news for Illinois homeowners was the fact that six other states had higher foreclosure rates in the month. Nevada in January continued to have the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Coming next were Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Michigan.
Illinois came next, to rank seventh in the country in the number of foreclosure notices filed in January.
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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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