60646 Blog

Last week, the New York Times published a tool that quickly lets you determine whether paying your landlord’s mortgage or your own, is the way to go. Without further ado, head on over to the New York Times.

First quarter 2007 home sales figures are in, and really, for zip code 60646, the news wasn’t bad at all. For a depiction of 60646 btw, please take a look at this map.

First quarter 2007 sales in 60646 were nowhere near as gloomy as may have been predicted for the overall housing market, at the end of last year. Unit sales of single family homes in 60646 were slightly higher than the previous year period, and median sale prices were on par with Q1 2006.

Sales of condominiums/townhouses (two sold units) and 2-4 unit buildings (six sold units) were negligible, hence the analysis is limited to single family homes.

A measure for absorption is the MSI metric (Months Supply of Inventory) that describes the amount of time it would take for all properties on the market to sell, assuming that no new properties would be offered for sale. For example, if 10 homes sold each month on average, with 100 homes being available for sale, it would take 10 months to sell off the existing inventory (MSI=10). And this was the somewhat troubling news for 60646 in the first quarter of 2007: At 7.5 months, the MSI rate in March 2007, for example, was more than twice as high compared to the previous year period. As a rule of thumb, MSI rates above 4 months, indicate the existence of a buyers market.

The average market time for sold/closed homes in Q1 2007 was 131 days, compared to 89 days in Q1 2006. The ratio of average sale price to listing price stood at 95% in Q1 2007 vs. 96% in Q1 2006. These figures indicate that while homes in 60646 stayed on the market 42 days longer than in Q1 2006 before they were sold, sellers were not tremendously more negotiable on their asking prices (only by 1% on average) than the year before.

If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty of individual home sales in Q1 2007, head over to my detailed map of Q1 2007 home sales in zip code 60646.

A friend of mine (from the SF Bay Area, no less) sent me an email, and asked me to check out the “Get Directions” tab on Google Maps maps.google.com. For the origination point, I was supposed to type in New York, and my destination would be London. Now press the “Get Directions” button. Pay particular attention to the left side of your computer screen, and scroll down to step #23.

Being a Realtor, I love maps. And I particularly love Google. But some programmer over at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway must have really had a cynical day when he/she coded step 23.

This week, the Carnival of Real Estate is hosted by Jay Thompson, a.k.a. The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. Having tremendously enjoyed Jay hosting CoRE #33, about a month ago, I look forward to his best-of-breed blog picks, this week.
Oh, in case you were wondering what the Carnival is all about, have a look here:

My business partner and I just listed a home in Chicago’s toney western suburb of Wheaton. This fact alone is not much news, except that the house has some interesting history: It used to be the childhood home of our nationally beloved Belushi Brothers. You know, John and Jim… But let me back up here for a minute.

We have a client who bought this ranch-style house in Wheaton back in 2005, with the intention to remodel it, and to move in with his family. His primary motivation was to live in a pleasant community with a top-notch school system. Our client didn’t know that the Belushi brothers moved in and were raised in this house during the mid 50’s, until some time during the middle of the purchase process. Good thing, because he himself is a huge fan of Jim Belushi. Rather than tearing down this one-story ranch, it was given a complete makeover and received a brandnew second story. We’re talking 6 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and an attached two-car garage, all situated on a 67′x160′ parcel. Unfortunately, our client’s plans of moving into this house changed which is the reason why it’s now for sale. Have a look at what this house is all about, today:

This article from MSN is almost a year old, but in light of ongoing mortgage fraud still a timely read. I readily admit, Baskin-Robbins is a lot more tasty. Another excellent blog by attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker, Rachel Dollar, that deals with mortgage fraud can be found here.