As many of you already know, Fannie Mae’s “declining market” designation is going bye-bye as of June 1. From Mary Umberger’s column in the Tribune: The policy typically added 5 percent to the down payment needed in 8,000 to 12,000 ZIP codes where home values were dropping. Many of Fannie’s critics saw it as a […]
Mary Umberger, the Tribune’s real estate columnist, wrote about some interesting first quarter sales numbers yesterday (provided by Re/Max Northern Illinois). Remember, the Chicagoland area saw a 30% drop in sales in the first quarter compared to a year ago. Among the positives: a narrowly defined Loop area, where 305 sales were up 89 percent […]
The Illinois Association of Realtors is out with the April sales numbers. From Crain’s: In the city of Chicago, total home sales fell 28.3% to 1,886 in April, according to the release. Condominium sales in the city fell 30.9% to 1,356 in April. The median sale price in the city was $300,000 in April, up […]
The Wall Street Journal has an article today called, “Where Home Prices are Still Holding Up” about what neighborhoods in major cities are still hot. Chicago is one of the cities that is highlighted: It’s a mixed picture in Chicago’s downtown area. A flurry of condominium building has kept prices down on much new construction. […]
Crain’s has an update on sales of new construction downtown condos. (“Downtown” is usually defined as Cermak Road on the South to North Avenue on the North.) It isn’t pretty. But it also shouldn’t be surprising, given what we’re seeing with the lack of sales of the flips. Downtown condominium developers suffered their worst first […]
How much appreciation has there been in the Chicago condo and townhouse market over the last ten years? As everyone knows- quite a bit. Was it a “bubble”? This is a list of price growth over the last three, five and 10 years for condos/townhouses. Data provided by the Chicago Association of Realtors. Rogers Park: […]
The sales numbers are out on the first quarter (Jan-March). From Crain’s: In the city of Chicago, sales of homes and condos fell 19.9% in the quarter to 4,618. The median sale price, meanwhile, rose 5.4% to $295,000. In the nine-county Chicagoland area, sales were down 29.9% and median price fell 0.6% to $243,500. The […]
The Case-Shiller Index numbers were out yesterday. Some posters already have commented about them but in case you haven’t seen them: Chicago saw prices drop 2 percent in February compared with January, and 8.5 percent in the past year, according to the index. Nonetheless, Chicago housing prices are up 53 percent from January 2000. These […]
Crain’s reports on the March existing home sales both for Chicagoland and for the City of Chicago. The Chicagoland area saw sales drop 29% to 5,753 compared with 8,101 in March 2007. In the city, sales weren’t as gloomy. Sales fell 11.5% in March in the city of Chicago, to 2,045 from 2,311. The median […]
Crain’s reports on homesellers who have already moved into a new property and haven’t been able to sell the first. They are paying two mortgage payments- sometimes for months. Ryan and Lynda Hamilton aren’t sweating the five months of construction delays slowing completion of their $690,000, 3,900-square-foot home in Elgin. They have bigger problems. Namely, […]