North Shore Views

Archive for the 'Real estate' Category

Does Your House Have Halitosis?

Nothing can turn off a potential seller like a house that smells.

Trouble is, when we live in a house, we get used to its particular “aroma” and we may not even realize that others find it noticeably unpleasant. And I know of what I speak. With 3 large dogs, 5 chinchillas and a guinea pig, my house is somewhere between farm and zoo on the olfactory scale. If I ever sell my house, I will have to do some serious odor remediation.

There are several smells that you want to avoid when your house is on the market: cooking aromas, cigarette and cigar smoke, pet odors, garbage and, last but not least, that stale smell typical of a vacant house that’s been closed up for an extended period.

The best way to know if your house does give off an unpleasant odor is to ask a trusted friend to come over and take an objective whiff. Remember that old air freshener ad where the neighbor comes over, sniffs the air and  and says, “Fish for dinner last night?” Of course, no one would actually say that to you, but in this case you really do want her to. Promise her you won’t be offended.

Here are some ways to minimize bad smells in your house:

• Take the garbage out every day and especially right before a showing or an open house.
• Quit smoking. You’ve been wanting to since forever. Well, now you have another good reason to do it. But there will still be smoke smell lingering on all the curtains and upholstery (which you probably won’t notice, but others will), so it might also be a good time to call the Stanley Steemer man.
• Watch what you cook while your house is on the market, and always use the exhaust fan in your kitchen. Certain foods have smells that linger: fish, lamb, broccoli, garlic, onions, curry and fried foods. If you want to eat those things while your house is for sale, go to a restaurant.
• Wash the dog and his bed often.
• Stash the litter box in the garage when people are coming through the house.
• Use a de-humidifier in the basement, especially in summer.

Before you run out and buy all those plug-in air freshener thingies you see advertised on TV, be warned that using them can backfire. First, because the scent may be overpowering, and some people are actually allergic or hyper-sensitive to the fragrances used in those products. And second, because if the scent is really noticeable, people will think you’re trying to cover up something (which you are).

Instead, try these ideas to freshen up your home:

• Open the windows for an hour every day and let fresh air circulate.
• Cut up some lemon wedges and run them through the garbage disposal before showings and open houses.
• Use an odor eliminator like PureAyre which eliminates rather than masks odors. It is completely safe to use around food, babies and people with allergies. It doesn’t cover up odors. Instead it breaks down odor causing compounds. It’s not cheap, but it works. You can buy it at Petco, Whole Foods or online.
• Put a small reed diffuser in the bathroom with a vanilla scent. Vanilla is one of the most universally appealing scents.
• You can bake cookies or you can just heat up some water and throw fresh cinnamon into it. Just turn it off before buyers come though, so it’s not overwhelming.

Related articles:

• Home Staging Works. Here’s Proof.
• How Photos Can Prevent Your House from Selling
  

Tags: eliminating house odors

Harper Neighborhood Home Sales – 1st Half 2010

The Harper School neighborhood is certainly one of the bright spots right now in terms of homes sales. While home sales trends in Wilmette in the first half of 2010 were quite positive (+85% over 1st half 2009), Harper’s trends are even better, with 150% more houses sold this year than last. Even more surprising is the improvement of median selling price. While the median selling price for Wilmette actually decreased by 1%, the median price in the Harper area actually increased 7.4%, from $745,000 to $800,000. We haven’t seen this kind of trend in quite a while!

Before we get too excited, we need to keep in mind that there is still a lot of inventory on the market: 52 active listings in the Harper area alone, and some of them have been sitting for a while. On the other hand, there have been a few cases where the home was in great condition and well-priced and it sold in a matter of days. Yes, it can still happen, even in today’s market.

Harper Neighborhood Home Sales (1st Half 2010 vs. 2009)

Source: MRED, LLC. Single family homes. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

If you’d like to find out what your home is worth in today’s market, you can get a free, quick, over-the-net evaluation here or you can call me at 847-687-5957. If you would like more specific data about home sales on your street or in the immediate vicinity of your home, you can email me and I will be happy to send it to you.

Related Articles:

• North Shore Home Sales Data – 1st Half 2010
• Harper School
• Kenilworth Gardens
• Indian Hill Estates

Tags: Harper Elementary School, Wilmette, Wilmette neighborhoods

5 Mistakes Buyers Make in a Buyer’s Market

If you have even a passing interest in the real estate market you know that we are, and have been for the last couple of years, in a buyer’s market; there are more houses for sale than there are buyers and, as a result,  buyers are in the driver’s seat.

In this environment you would think buyers could really make out. And they can. But they can also lose out by committing one or more of the following mistakes:

1. Trying to time the market

When home prices have been declining, it is tempting for buyers to wait as long as possible to make an offer in hopes that prices will decline even further. But just like trying to time the stock market, this strategy rarely works. It’s impossible to predict when prices will reach the bottom until they start rising again. And once a home is priced to what the current market will bear, buyers will make offers. Now that sellers have become more realistic about list prices, many properties are actually selling quickly.  And recently there have been more multiple bid situations, with some would-be buyers walking away empty-handed. The best strategy is to work with a real estate agent to make an offer based on what comparable homes are selling for.

2. Believing interest rates will stay low

Interest rates are still at 40-year lows right now, but that will not last forever. In fact most economists agree that rates will begin to rise sometime later this year. That will affect not only your monthly payment but also your purchasing power, or how much you can afford. For example, if interest rates rise 1% point, this almost offsets a 10% drop in price…so while you’re waiting to see if prices are going to go down any further, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. You could end up paying a higher price AND a higher interest rate.

3. Not getting lender pre-qualification

Things have changed since the real estate bubble burst. Lending standards are much tighter, both in terms of credit scores, down payments and salary history. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: home buying tips, Real estate

North Shore Market Update – 1st Half 2010 vs. 2009

Things are definitely looking up for real estate on the North Shore of Chicago. North Shore home sales were up 72% over last year for the first half of 2010. This increased activity was accompanied by a slight increase (+2%) in the median price of homes sold. Market time decreased slightly (-2%) over last year.

Every one of the nine towns covered in the chart below showed an increase in unit sales, with the big gainers being Kenilworth (+280% off a very small base), Highland Park (+99%) and Wilmette (+85%).

Pricing was more of a mixed bag. Kenilworth, Glenview, Highland Park and Lake Forest showed healthy increases in median price, while Winnetka, Northfield and Glencoe were down.

Market time was also mixed. Wilmette, Lake Forest and Evanston showed improvement, while days on market for Kenilworth Winnetka, Northfield and Glenview continued to increase.

Are we on the road to recovery? I sure hope so. The market seems to be turning the corner, but it will continue to be impacted by unemployment and short sales/foreclosures.

North Shore Market Update – 1st Half 2010 vs. 2009*

*Source- MRED LLC. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Single family home data.

If you would like to see more North Shore real estate data, you can go here.

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

North Shore Housing Inventory – June 12, 2010

Here’s a snapshot of North Shore housing inventory (single family homes), as of June 12, 2010. Although the number of active listings is 8% higher than it was in April, market time is 9% less and median prices are 1.8% higher, both encouraging signs for  home sellers.

Town	# Active Listings	Avg. List Price	Median List Price	Days on Market
Evanston	253	$706,631	$529,000	189
Wilmette	185	$918,933	$745,000	181
Winnetka	209	$2,128,338	$1,450,000	241
Kenilworth	45	$2,155,496	$2,199,000	341
Glenview	373	$745,177	$609,000	228
Glencoe	132	$1,702,981	$1,299,000	259
Northfield	67	$987,957	$679,500	287
Highland Park	318	$997,325	$604,450	236
Lake Forest	341	$1,910,443	$1,399,000	283
NORTH SHORE	1924	$1,262,758	$841,950	238

Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

You can get more North Shore market statistics here.

Tags: North Shore market data

North Shore Market Update – May 2010

The North Shore housing market continues to improve, with May showing positive trends across three key measures: home sales, prices and market time. For the nine markets included in our North Shore total, single family detached home sales were up 42% in May over a year ago. And for the first time in many months, prices also increased, by 14% over last year. Market time decreased 4%, indicating that we are successfully working through the large inventory of homes that have been languishing on the market. The days on market number is still high at 196 days, but it’s looking a whole lot better than it has in some time.

In terms of homes sold, the big winner this month was Glencoe, which increases 333% over last May. Winnetka and Wilmette also had big increases of 150% and 125%, respectively. The only market that did not increase this month was Lake Forest.

Glencoe’s median price increased 77% over last May, driven by the fact that its only three sales in May 2009 were at a very low price point ($435,000), whereas this year the median price of the thirteen homes sold was $770,000. Glenview also had a big jump, from $368,750 last year, to $635,000 this year. Evanston had a modest increase of 9%. The other towns had odest declines.

Several markets showed decreases in time on market of homes sold: Glencoe, Northfield, Wilmette, Evanston, Highland Park and Lake Forest. Winnetka had a big increase in time on market of properties sold. This indicates that homes that had been overpriced finally came down to a realistic level and were able to sell.

North Shore Market Update – May 2010 vs. May 2009 (Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed)

Town	Homes Sold	% Change	Median Price	% Change	Market Time	% Change
Evanston	36	6%	483,000	9%	112	-21%
Wilmette	27	125%	542,003	-3%	140	-26%
Glenview/Golf	35	59%	635,000	72%	266	31%
Northfield	1	0%	1,000,000	-38%	514	-32%
Kenilworth	2	0%	1,317,500	-39%	335	22%
Winnetka	15	150%	952,500	-1%	243	103%
Glencoe	13	333%	770,000	77%	196	-34%
Highland Park	30	20%	445,500	-11%	183	-18%
Lake Forest	17	-6%	595,000	-11%	264	-9%
NORTH SHORE	175	42%	585,000	14%	196	-4%

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

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

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