North Shore Views

Archive for May, 2010

North Shore Memorial Day Parades

Mostly we think of Memorial Day as a celebration of the start of summer ….the opening of the pool, barbecue parties with friends, baseball games etc. But it’s also a time to remember our war heroes. Here on the North Shore there are several parades and Memorial Day ceremonies this Monday morning. They’re a great opportunity to help our kids understand the meaning of the holiday. And this year it looks like we’ll have great parade-watching weather. Here’s a run down on the parades in our area:

Wilmette

Sponsored by the Village of Wilmette and  Huerter Post #46 o the American Legion, the parade will begin at 10:30 from the corner of Ridge Rd. and Lake Ave. It will proceed east to Park Ave.and south to Wilmette Ave. , finishing up at Village Hall. The ceremony will take place near the War Memorial.

Glenview

You can probably hit two parades if you start with this one, since it’s the earliest of the lot. The procession starts at 9:00 east of the railroad tracks on Pine St. and continues to Glenview Rd..The ceremony will be held at the Veteran’s Memorial at Glenview Rd. and the river.

Winnetka

Winnetka’s parade kicks-off at 10:00 from the corner of Glendale and Elm and heads east to the Village Green. There will be a brief ceremony on the Green following the parade.

Glencoe

The parade begins at central School at 10:30 and proceeds to Veteran’s Memorial Park adjacent to Glencoe Union Church.

Lake Forest

Sponsored by the lake Forest American Legion Post the parade will begin at 11:00 at Market Square. The Legion rifle squad and color guard will step off from the post at 10:30 A.M. and pick up both Boy and Girl Scout troops from the parking lots at Deerpath and McKinley. The color guard will march from Illinois Road and turn onto Western Avenue.

Tags: parades

Home Prices on the Rise?

The National Association of Realtors just released the latest data on the housing market and the numbers are cause for cautious optimism.   Nationally, home sales rose almost 23% in April for the U.S. In Illinois sales grew 34% over last year. And in the Chicago area home sales jumped 47%.  (These numbers are for single family homes, condos and townhouses).

But  the improved affordability of homes has been a double-edged sword. Great for buyers, but horrifying for sellers as they watched their homes lose value month after month as home prices plunged  from  2006 highs. Now, finally,  prices seem to be starting to  turnaround. Nationally the median home price increased 4% over last April. Illinois home prices rose 5% and in Chicago the median price incresed 3.2%, the first annual increase in nearly two years, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors.  Good news for homeowners, finally.

But what about the North Shore? How did we fare? From a sales perspective, great. Things are moving again and we are even seeing multiple offer situations. Home sales were up a whopping 52%. vs. last April (which was the worst month on record for some North Shore communities). But here on the North Shore prices are not yet making a comeback. The median price for the North Shore overall was down 6% vs. last April. However, looking closer at the individual towns, the results are all over the board. Evanston, Northfield, Glenview and Winnetka were bright spots, while communities to the north (Glencoe, Highland Park and Lake Forest) did not fare so well:

Median Home Price Change (April 2010 vs. year ago)

Evanston   +8%

Wilmette   -16%

Glenview   +40%

Winnetka   +45%

Northfield   +51%

Glencoe   -80%

Highland Park   -99%

Lake Forest   -21%

A word of caution: one month does not a trend make. We will need a couple more months of data before we can draw any conclusions about where prices are headed on the North Shore. Stay tuned.

Tags: Home prices

Wilmette’s French Market

On Saturday mornings throughout the summer, a trip to Wilmette’s Metra parking lot will transport you to old world France, where you can stroll through a  Parisian-style open air market and shop for fresh produce, bread and other good stuff.

I always wondered why it’s called a French Market instead of a farmer’s market.  That’s the great thing about writing a blog. You learn a lot of stuff you may not have known about before.  The big difference  is that the French Market has breads & baked goods, meats, cheeses, potted plants, kettle-corn,  pickles, jewelry, scarves, bags and handicrafts, in addition to the fruits and vegetables you would find at an ordinary farmer’s market. Also, instead of separate booths, all of the vendors are under one long red, white and blue awning. Our market  even features live music in the form of a New Trier student who plays the violin for shoppers’ listening pleasure and, of course, tips.

The concept is borrowed from the open air markets in Europe, where people shop for their daily consumables. It was brought to this country by Bensidoun, a French company that manages open air markets in and around Paris and now in several towns and cities in the U.S.

The market is open every Saturday from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm from May 1st through the end of October. Most of the produce and other food items are grown or produced locally (or regionally).

Tags: French Market

North Shore Soccer Club Tryouts – Tips for Choosing a Team

Tryouts for travel soccer are fast approaching. This year most clubs are holding their tryouts the first week of June. If your child has played park district soccer, loves it and wants to improve his or her level of play, then you might want to consider trying out for a travel soccer team. Be warned, though. It’s a fairly substantial commitment that both you and your child will have to make (financially and time-wise).

These days most clubs start at U8. That doesn’t mean your child has to start that early. Many join at U9 or even U10. After that it gets tougher to make a travel team because the skill gap between club soccer and park district soccer widens as the kids get older.

When choosing a team to tryout for, here are some things to consider:

1. What is the team’s overall philosophy- is it more about winning at any cost or is it more about developing a love of the game? This will be hard to glean from reading the club’s website because all of the teams say pretty much the same thing. You’ll get more by talking to team parents and/or “interviewing” the club president or head coach.

2. How intense is the program? Some clubs assume that this is the ONLY sport the child will play and demand 100% commitment. They don’t have a lot of tolerance for missed practices or games because of conflicts with other activities. Others recognize that there’s more to life than soccer: school, church, Cub Scouts, family etc. They still demand a high level of commitment to the club, but they are more understanding about life’s other demands.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: soccer, youth sports

It’s Housewalk Season on the North Shore

If housewalks are your thing, here are three on the North Shore that will let you indulge your voyeuristic side while helping a worthy cause, since all of them are fundraisers for service organizations.  The first one focuses on historic homes, while the other two are more for pure vicarious pleasure of seeing how the other half lives (while giving you some decorating ideas for your own home, of course).

Wilmette Historical Society Housewalk
Sunday, May 16 from 1-4 pm

Visit  four historic and architecturally significant homes along beautiful Central Avenue, plus see the interior chambers of the Masonic Temple. Proceeds support the work of he Wilmette Historical Museum. $45 members, $50 non-members, $25 students.

Glencoe PTO Housewalk
Wednesday, May 19 from 9:30-2:30

Tour five of Glencoe’s most exceptional homes and eat lunch in a sixth. Proceeds go to support environmental and arts projects in the Glencoe schools. Check in at the Glencoe train station between 9:30 am and 1;00 pm.
Tickets available at www.glencoepto.org.  $65.

Winnetka Women’s Club Housewalk
Wednesday, May 26 from 10-4

This year’s theme is “Lifestyles” and you can tour six beautiful homes representing the creative and varied lifestyles of North Shore residents. Proceeds benefit the Winnetka Women’s Club, which is a community service organization dedicated to supporting local projects and scholarship programs.
Tour: $55 in advance; $ 60 day of event. Lunch: $35

Tags: housewalks

10 Mortgage Pitfalls to Beware of

During the boom years, anyone with a pulse could get a mortgage. Not so anymore. There are lots of things that can torpedo your ability to get a home loan even if you have good income and a great credit score.

MSN Money ran a great piece called “10 Things That Can Kill a Home Loan”. Here is their list of things that can keep you from getting a loan:

1.  The house needs too much work – beware if you’re buying distressed property or a real fixer-upper.

2.  The house doesn’t “appraise out” – the appraiser says the house is worth less that the price you and the seller have agreed on.

3.  You have too much debt – if your monthly housing and other debt exceeds 40% of your income, you might not qualify.

4.  You are self-employed and your income has declined – your lender will look at two years’ of tax returns and use the lower income of the two.

5.  You recently started being paid on commission – you may have to qualify based on your spouse’s income, or wait a couple of years to get a loan.

6.  There are issues with your tax return – things like second home expenses, a too-small estimated tax payment or unreimbursed employee expenses can be a problem when trying to qualify for a mortgage.

7.  You can’t get private mortgage insurance – which means you may need a bigger down payment.

8.  The lender doesn’t like the condo association’s finances – lenders may balk if the association’s cash reserves are too low, someone owns more than 10% of the building’s units or the association’s fidelity bond is too small.

9. Your loan takes too long to get approved because the lender has had to cut back on staff- your deal could fall through or your rate could go higher while you are waiting for approval.

10. You don’t stay on top of the paperwork required by the lender – be prepared to prove everything and anything and respond quickly to requests for information.

The bottom line: the mortgage game has changed and there are a lot more rules and restrictions nowadays. The best way to win the game is to educate yourself on the requirements and potential pitfalls, and get your ducks in a row before you try to get a loan. Ask your Realtor for recommendations about mortgage professionals who can advise you well and guide you through the process.

Read MSN Money’s “10 Things That Can Kill a Home Loan“.

Tags: home buying tips, home mortgage

Home Staging Works. Here’s Proof

If you are planning to sell your North Shore home and wondering if spending money to stage it first makes sense, you might want to take a look at the report issued annually by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), the home staging industry trade group. The report looks at how long a staged home takes to sell vs. an unstaged home. The conclusion: staged homes sell around 75% faster. Granted, this is not a representative sample of homes across the US, and there is no way to have a side by side comparison of homes that are exactly alike in all respects except whether they are staged. Still the huge difference in average time on market does make a pretty compelling case.

Here are some of the highlights:

After being on the market unstaged for 277 days on average, vacant homes then sold within 63 days after being staged.

After being on the market unstaged for 233 days on average, occupied homes sold within 53 days after being staged.

284 homes that were staged before being listed sold in 40.5 days.

You can read the  full RESA report here.

If you’d like to learn more about staging your home to sell, please give me a call at 847–687-5957 or email me.
I am a certified home stager and staging is part of my service for all of the sellers that I represent.

Related Articles:

• Beyond Cleaning and Decluttering
• Painting Your House to Sell

Tags: home selling tips, Home staging

North Shore Market Update – April 2010

Home sales across the North Shore were up 136% in April 2010 over April of 2009. The increase in sales was accompanied by a 15% decrease in median sold price. As sellers become more realistic about the pricing of their houses, buyers are responding. Days on market was unchanged from last year, the first time in a while that we have not seen an increase in market time over the prior year.

Every town except Glencoe had a significant increase in sales vs. last year. The biggest winners were  Winnetka and Highland Park. Winnetka, which had only 2 sales in April of 2009 (the worst month for Winnetka real estate in recent memory), had 12 ales this April. Highland Park had 8 sales last year and 42 sales this year. Highland Park also had the largest decrease in median price for sold homes. Winnetka, on the other hand, had a median price increase of 14%.

North Shore Market Update – April 2010 vs. April 2009*

Source: MRED – Deemed relaible but not guaranteed.
* Single family detached homes

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