North Shore Views

Archive for December, 2009

North Shore Housing Inventory Snapshot – December 1, 2009

Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the market right now, including list prices and time on market. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a direct correlation between price level and time on market, with Winnetka, Kenilworth and Lake Forest being the priciest markets and also the ones where market time is longest, at well over 300 days.

Town	# Units for Sale*	Median List Price	Average List Price	Average D.O.M.
Evanston	225	$514,000	$695,154	240
Wilmette	155	$710,000	$887,632	280
Glenview	380	$664,950	$792,208	263
Northfield	64	$732,000	$885,750	314
Kenilworth	43	$1,899,000	$2,183,942	336
Winnetka	176	$1,499,000	$1,970,967	339
Glencoe	98	$1,099,450	$1,813,779	259
Highland Park	345	$679,000	$1,027,431	287
Lake Forest	316	$1,250,000	$1,911,778	320
North Shore	1802	$799,000	$1,236,879	288

* Detached single family houses (Source: MRED)

Tags: Glencoe, Glenview, Kenilworth, Lake Forest, North Shore market data, North Shore real estate trends, Northfield, Real estate, Wilmette, Winnetka

North Shore Market Update for October-November 2009

The market continues to show signs of improvement, driven by the expansion of the tax credit, continued low interest rates and attractive prices. Sales of detached single family homes on the North Shore were up 34% in October-November over the same period last year, an even stronger performance than last month’s report. Another positive sign is that the number of active listings at the end of October decreased by 11% vs. the end of July, suggesting that we are starting to work through the high inventory of homes on the market. Prices, on the other hand, continue to be soft, down 14% on average vs. year

October-November 2009 vs. Year Ago*

Town	Units Sold % Change	Avg. Price % Change	Days on Mkt% Change
Evanston	+19%	-34%	+40%
Wilmette	+65%	-12%	+2%
Glenview	+36%	-16%	+12%
Northfield	+14%	+17%	+70%
Winnetka	=	+9%	-26%
Glencoe	+46%	+27%	+30%
Highland Park	+26%	-16%	-4%
Lake Forest	+72%	-47%	+76%
North Shore	+34%	-14%	+18%

* Detached single family homes (Source: MRED)

Although the numbers vary by town, there is a consistent trend, and that is that most of the buying activity is happening at the lower end of the price range. Lake Forest showed a dramatic 72% increase in sales, but it was not in the multi-million dollar homes people associate with Lake Forest. In fact almost 20% of the homes sold in Oct.-Nov of this year were in the $600,000-699,000 price range and 77% were below $1,000,000;  in 2008 only 55% of the homes sold in Lake Forest were below $1,000,000.

Glencoe also showed a healthy increase in units sold but  42% of homes sold under $600,000 in 2009 vs. 31% in 2008. The increase in average price for Glencoe this year was driven by one sale over $5,000,000.

Tags: Glencoe, Lake Forest, North Shore market data, North Shore real estate trends, North Shore sales trends