North Shore Views

Archive for April, 2010

The Home Buyer Tax Credit Expires Today – Now What?

CNBC’s Diana Olick talked to Mark Zandi of Moodys Economy.com and Thomas Lawler of Lawler Economics/Housing Consulting about how today’s expiration of the tax credit will impact the housing market.

Watch the video below for the full story, but here’s the bottom line:

The tax credit pulled forward sales that would have happened anyway, and got them to happen faster. That means we will see a slowdown in buying activity for the next 2-3 months.

We will likely see some more modest price declines this year due to the high number of distressed properties and the end of credit-easing measures by the Fed. As a result, the housing market won’t really get going again until 2011.

Two things will accelerate a return to “normalcy” in the housing market:

• A pick-up in job growth.
• Continued low rate of housing starts, so that we can work through the over-supply of homes on the market.

How to Get Your Deal Closed in an Hour

If you have your ducks in a row, your closing can be quick and painless.  Bonnie Vasilion of Ist Advantage Mortgage offers these tips on how to ensure that your closings go quickly:

1.       Make sure your lender has cleared as many conditions as possible BEFORE the closing date: “Cleared to close” just means the file can be sent to a closing; it does NOT mean that all the conditions are cleared.  Lenders have “At Funding” conditions, meaning items to be provided at the closing table prior to funding approval.  I try to clear the “At Funding” conditions for my clients in advance of the closing date.  That eliminates a lot of waiting around.

2. If you’re going to have a morning closing, make sure the buyer AND the lender wire funds to arrive at the title company the afternoon before: I have heard that some lenders don’t initiate a wire until closing documents/conditions are signed and returned for lender  review.  Our company sends the wires out the day before when necessary.  This is an extra expense to the lender (an additional day’s cost of interest to the lender), which is why many lenders will not do this.  Due to our large size and warehouse line capacity, we are usually able to offer this convenience to our borrowers.

3. Work with a Loan Officer who attends closings: Although a Loan Officer is technically not supposed to have any role at the closing table, their presence can expedite communication between the title company and the person authorizing funding.  I cannot logistically attend every closing, but I do whenever I can.

4. Work with realtors and attorneys who solve contract issues prior to the closing: I have noticed that sometimes people think the sticky issues will go away under the pressure of “getting the closing done”, but the opposite seems to be true these days.  Buyers and especially sellers are very emotional, and even the smallest unresolved issue can cause people to become irrational and blow up a closing. 

Finally, I am still noticing that title companies are under-staffed and doing “triage”/putting files off until the last minute, even when figures and documents arrive several days early, so clearly some of this is beyond all of our control.

Tags: closings, home buying tips, Real estate

Beyond Cleaning and De-Cluttering: 7 Staging Tips You Haven’t Heard

Any North Shore homeowner who is planning to sell their home has heard the mantra: Clean and de-clutter.  For sure those things are critical, but hardly constitute a news flash. Here are seven things to do in addition to cleaning and de-cluttering that will help sell your house:

1. Spend your money where you can see it.

When you go to sell your house, you normally have a long list of things to do to get it sale-ready. Some of these are fixes, some are updates and some are replacements. If anything is broken or damaged or not working properly, you need to get it fixed. Otherwise it will show up on the inspection report and could end up costing you the sale or dragging out the negotiation. But beyond the fixes that are absolutely necessary, you need to be strategic about what you do and where you will get the most bang for the buck. Spend your money on the things that the buyer will see. Don’t replace the hot water heater (unless it’s broken) or put on a new roof (unless it leaks) or buy high-end bathroom fixtures – because the buyer won’t know the difference between the $150 faucet and the $800 one.

Instead, spend it on removing the wallpaper, repainting, or on new knobs to replace the dated hardware on your kitchen cabinets. Spend it on curb appeal: mulching and edging the beds, planting flowers, painting the front door. Spend it on the things that will help your house win the beauty contest. Spend it on the things that will make buyers feel good.

2. Don’t offer credits.

Short of remodeling the kitchen or putting on an addition, don’t expect your buyer to do anything you don’t want to do. In a nutshell, your buyer doesn’t want to trade their dirty carpet for your dirty carpet. And (unless they are dyed in the wool do-it-yourselfers), they will have a hard time imagining that a house with peeling paint and stains on the carpet could be the kind of house they want to pay good money for. They’ll reject your home and move on to the next one. There are plenty to choose from right now. Besides, you will probably end up spending more on credits than you would if you went ahead and got the work done yourself…and the buyer will still make their offer based on the current condition of the house. So you pay twice.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: home selling tips, Home staging, preparing your home to sell

Ridge Road Is Where The Action Is This Sunday in Wilmette

Now that the weather has turned (consistently?) warm, get out of the house and come to one or all of three Ridge Road events this Sunday, May 2. Two are kid-friendly; one, not so much.

Wilmette Police Department Open House

Sunday, May 2 from 11:00-2:00
710 Ridge Road

This is sure to be a kid-pleaser, with tons of cool stuff to see like the firearms range, the lock-up, crime lab, bomb squad and major crimes forensic unit. Think CSI Wilmette!   And be sure and bring along your camera to take mug shots of the kids.

Wilmette Historic Museum Open House

Sunday, May 2 from 11:00-2:00
609 Ridge Road

Take a self-guided tour of the museum and see all the exhibits, including the newly restored Akeley mural depicting native Americans on Wilmette’s lakefront and the wedding finery exhibit.  Not to be missed is the original jail cell that is still in the basement. Afterward, linger out front and listen to a concert by the Wilmette Community Band.

Heritage Trail Spring Flea Market

Sunday, May 2 from 9:00-5:00
410 Ridge Road

This is Heritage Trail’s spring sale, with deals inside the mall and outside in the back parking lot. Lots of great stuff for the antique lover, but probably not where you want to bring your toddler, unless you enjoy saying “Don’t touch!” every five seconds.

Tags: Antiques, Flea markets, Wilmette, Wilmette Historic Museum, Wilmette Police

Wilmette Junior High Students Put Their Talents to Work for Haiti

The kids in District 39 schools had already raised thousands of dollars for earthquake relief in Haiti through their “Helping Hands for Haiti” fund-raising drive. But when that drive was over a handful of students at Wilmette Junior High wanted to do more to help.

Since they and their friends are a talented bunch, they came up with the idea of a variety show and pitched it to Principal Dave Palzet. With his support they went about organizing the show, which they are calling “We Are the Hope”. It will feature music and comedy acts by students and some teachers.

The show will take place on Friday, April 30 at 7:00 pm in the WJHS auditorium at 620 Locust Rd. in Wilmette . Tickets are $8.oo for adults and $5.00 for kids. There will also be a raffle for an iPod Touch ($5/ticket). Proceeds will go to the Red Cross for earthquake relief in Haiti and Chile. Please bring cash or a check made out to cash for your tickets.

I’m pretty impressed by these kids, who have taken the initiative to produce a show to raise money to help the victims of recent earthquakes. Please come out and and show your support on Friday.

Tags: Wilmette Junior High School

HAFA Explained

The government’s HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Modification) was put in place in early 2009 to help alleviate the housing crisis. With the goal of keeping people in their homes and out of foreclosure, the program offered incentives to lenders to renegotiate mortgages with homeowners who were struggling to make their monthly payments. HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives) was an expansion of this program earlier this month. It includes provisions and incentives for lenders to allow short sales or deeds in lieu to homeowners in default as options to avoid foreclosure.

HAFA is designed for homeowners who have applied to HAMP for assistance but have had no success with their loan modification program. Participation in HAFA doesn’t save the homeowner from losing his property, bt it can eliminate the effects of a foreclosure on the homeowner’s credit.

Here is a video that explains the program in terms we can all understand.

Tags: HAFA

Wilmette’s Brick Streets

There are a few towns in the Chicago area with brick streets. Downers Grove has some. Forest Park has about a dozen. Oak Park has one or two. But as far as I know, no town has as extensive a network of brick streets as Wilmette. Wilmette has thirteen miles of brick streets (with another three and a half under asphalt) and they are one of the things that gives our village its charm.

The paving of our streets began in the 1880’s with Forest Avenue (east of the tracks) being the first to be paved with brick. By 1916 the village had over 24 miles of brick streets. They make for a bumpy ride and they are harder to plow in the winter but they are also a natural “traffic calmer”. And they do last longer than asphalt streets.

Many of the bricks used to pave Wilmette streets came from the Purington Brickyards in Galesburg, once the largest brick maker in the world. More recent renovation and repairs have used recycled bricks supplied by Gavin Historical Bricks in Iowa City.

Pavers are different than ordinary building bricks. They are made from a mix of shale, clay, sand and kiln-fired at extreme temperatures making them very hard, smooth, non-porous and heavy.

During the Depression a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project was initiated to relay the bricks to preserve the character of the eastern part of the village while providing jobs. The bricks were removed and turned upside down to put the worn side down and the “new’ side up.

Tags: Wilmette's brick streets

Quick! Add Curb Appeal and Get a Leg Up on Your Competition

Spring has finally sprung on Chicago’s North Shore. The sun is out. It’s warm (for Chicago). Trees are in bloom. Buyer activity has increased dramatically.  But it’s still a buyer’s market and there are lots of houses to choose from. What’s a seller to do?

Right now you have a narrow window of opportunity to get a leg up on your competition when it comes to curb appeal. Put planters full of bright blooms on either side of your front door to welcome prospective buyers. If you have beds in front of your house, add some flowering annuals.   Since the weather will be “iffy” for a while yet, most people (including the home sellers you are competing with) don’t get serious about their yards until mid to late May. This is especially true when it comes to planting flowers, since there’s still a good chance we’ll have a frost that can kill most annuals. If you are the only seller with freshly edged and mulched beds and planters filled with welcoming blooms, your house will win the battle for curb appeal.

So, what about the problem of frost? You certainly don’t want to have a bunch of dead plants in front of your home. The answer is to select hardy annuals that can withstand a frost without being killed. Some that can take the unpredictable North Shore climate are: cornflower, foxglove, larkspur, pansy, stock, sweet alyssum and viola. The easiest, most readily available and most reliable is the pansy. They come in several colors, are available at all home centers and garden centers and are extremely cold tolerant.

Make sure you buy big, mature plants that will provide strong impact NOW.  They are more expensive than the little ones but you don’t have time to wait for the little ones to grow. Besides, once the weather gets hot, they will wilt and get leggy, and will need to be replaced by heat tolerant flowers.

Color psychologists suggest that yellow is the best color flower to use because it makes people feel happy and positive. Some go so far as to say that it puts people in a buying mood. The main thing is to choose colors that stand out against the background so they are visible from the street. You can add height to your planters by combining flowers with a taller plant, such as a boxwood (see photo above) or by adding a few pussy willow or curly willow branches to the arrangement.

Tags: home selling tips

Evanston Real Estate Trends – March

The signs for Evanston’s housing market are improving. Sale activity is up significantly and inventories are down, indicating a move toward a more balanced market. Although prices are down vs. last year, the rate of decrease is slowing and appears to be reaching bottom.

Evanston Home Sales

Home sales in March were up 129% over last month and up 67% over March of last year. Sales for the first quarter are running 46% ahead of the same period last year. In both 2009 and 2010, 80% of home sales were below $500,000.

Evanston Home Prices

Consistent with surrounding suburbs, the increase in sales has been accompanied by a decrease in prices. The median sales price for single family homes (houses, condos and townhomes) was $274,900, down 13% from February and down 3.2% from March of last year. The average sales price was $335,065, down 8% from February and down 3% from March of last year.

Inventory and Months Supply

There were 793 homes for sale in Evanston as of March, up 9% from last month (typical seasonality) and down 7% vs. March of last year. The months supply of homes, which indicates how long it would take to sell all of the homes that are currently on the market, was 12 months, down from 22 months last March. Although the months supply is higher than we would like to see (6-7 months is a “balanced” market), Evanston’s months supply is lower than most of the other North Shore markets.

Market Time

The average days on market (DOM) is how many days a property is on the market before it sells and an upward trend indicates a move towards a buyer’s market. The DOM for March was 113 days, up 21% from last month and up 21% vs. march of 2009.

Tags: Evanston, North Shore market data, North Shore real estate trends, North Shore sales trends

Harper Elementary School

Harper School is one of four elementary schools in Wilmette’s District 39 (the others are Central, McKenzie and Romona). It is located at 1101 Dartmouth Street on the corner of  Thornwood Avenue (and catty-corner to Thornwood Park). It is a K-4 school that serves children from Kenilworth Gardens, Indian Hill Estates and nearby homes. After elementary school Wilmette children attend Highcrest Middle School (5-6) and then Wilmette Junior High (7-8) before going on to New Trier High School.

The principal of Harper is Dr. Susan Kick. There are around 440 students and 31 teachers on staff, making the student teacher ratio 14.2. Test scores are consistently high and there are lots of enrichment and after-school activities like chorus, chess club, sports, drama, science and art programs to supplement the excellent curriculum.

Harper is a real gem of a neighborhood school and parents and children alike rave about it. It is walkable from anywhere in the area it serves and kids typically walk to and from school unless the weather is bad. Starting at the end of 2nd grade they are allowed to ride their bikes, after taking a bike safety class. The parents are very involved in the PTO and other programs and the kids make lifelong friends there.

You can watch a slide show of the recent Earth Week Fun Fest held after school.

Tags: Harper Elementary School, Wilmette