North Shore Views
Going Green Matters Environmental Fair
On Sunday, March 10 Go Green Wilmette and the Village of Wilmette will present the 7th annual community environmental fair, Going Green Matters.
This is an afternoon of fun and educational activities for all ages. See the latest eco cars, commuter bikes, and home energy efficiencies. Enjoy nature activities for children and adults, cooking demonstrations and good food. Try your luck at the raffle. Find out what’s in your cosmetics and your food. Get advice about composting, rain gardens, or the best light bulbs for your home. Bring old electronics, Styrofoam and gently used children’s books for recycling. To volunteer, exhibit or see details go to: www.goinggreenmatters.org.
When: Sunday, March 10 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm
Where: Woman’s Club of Wilmette, 930 Greenleaf Ave., Wilmette
Tickets: FREE!
The recycling center will be open from 12:00 to 5:00 pm at Central School, 910 Central Ave. You can recycle batteries, electronics, styrofoam, Holiday lights and more. Get a complete list here.
The Cutest Little House in Evanston
2225 Noyes St., Evanston, IL 60201
Are you thinking of buying a condo but can’t stand the thought of living in a high rise or vanilla box condo with no outdoor space? Need a pet friendly place for you and Rover? Then this adorable little house might be for you.
This one-bedroom home at 2225 Noyes Street in NW Evanston is 616 square feet of pure charm, plus plenty of outdoor space, including a nice yard and brick patio It’s one of the original Sears Roebuck catalog house, constructed in 1917 from ready-to-assemble pieces. It was certainly a quality product, as it’s solid as a rock despite being almost 100 years old.
1917 Sears Roebuck catalog house
Although it’s small, the house has everything you need: a recently updated kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and a “great room” for dining, watching TV and entertaining. In warm weather you can enjoy the screened porch overlooking the backyard and patio. The basement has plenty of room for laundry and storage, and comes with a heated greenhouse as an added bonus for plant lovers.
The home is being offered at $310,000. You can go here for more info. Or give us a call at 847-881-6657 if you’d like to see it.
Grammy Winner Howard Levy To Perform in Winnetka
Winnetka may be a small village but sometimes we get treated to some big talent.
That’s the case this coming Sunday, February 24th when The Howard Levy Quartet will perform at Winnetka Congregational Church’s third annual Jazz Vespers.
You may not have heard of Howard Levy, but he is probably the world’s foremost harmonica jazz virtuoso and has won two Grammy Awards for his artistry. Said Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune, “Certainly no one playing jazz harmonica these days approaches the technical wizardry, stylistic breadth and improvisational creativity of Levy.” Read the rest of this entry »
7 Ways To Win a Bidding War on the North Shore
It seems like just yesterday that it was a buyer’s market here on Chicago’s North Shore: lots of homes to choose from, plenty of time to consider the options, the ability to negotiate hard with desperate sellers, the possibility of scoring a deal with a low-ball offer.
But those days are gone. Nowadays we have so little inventory on the North Shore, that good homes are selling fast and buyers are finding themselves in bidding wars to get the house they want. Just as it took sellers a long time to accept the fact that their homes were no longer worth what they were back in 2007, today’s buyers are having trouble getting their heads around the fact that they aren’t going to get the deal of the century when they buy. Read the rest of this entry »
Wilmette Home Sales by Elementary School – 2012
Once or twice a year I like to get really granular with the data and go to the neighborhood level to get a good picture of what’s going on in a given community. Wilmette is among the more diverse communitities when it comes to housing stock, with prices generally going up as you travel west to east. Despite the variety in housing stock, the good news is that all neighborhoods saw a dramatic increase in home sales in 2012 vs. the previous year. Avoca was up the most, with an increaae of 125%, followed by Central (+117%), Romona (+100%), Harper (+97%) and McKenzie (+70%).
Price improvement has lagged sales everywhere. Median prices were up slightly in all neighborhoods except Central, while average prices stayed mostly flat. Market time decreased in all neighborhoods except Romona, with the shortest average time on market in McKenzie.
Wilmette Sales by Elementary School – 2012
Source: MRED LLC – Data for single family homes. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed
Wondering what your neighbor’s house sold for? Just email us with the address of the property and we’d be happy to send you that information. Or call us at 847-881-6657. We’re always happy to answer your questions!
North Shore Real Estate Data – January 2013
For the first month of the year North Shore home sales decined 7% from January of 2012. After months of positive trends you may be worried that the housing market recovery has stalled. What’s really going on is that there are plenty of buyers out there looking for homes, but there just aren’t many good homes for them to buy and the few good houses that do come on the market are snapped up quickly, often in a bidding war. A case in point is Wilmette, where the average market time is an unheard of 1.8 months (market time in a normal market is six months). There are only 79 houses on the market in Wilmette, which is about half the number for sale this time last year. You can find out what’s driving the shortage of home for sale here.
North Shore Real Estate Update – January 2013
On a more positive note (for homeowners) the median sales price was up 4% from December and up 10% over January 2012. As supply and demand dynamics take hold, we should see prices continue to rise modestly in the coming months.
As for prices in individual towns, these tend to bounce around from month to month, and there are too few houses selling right now in each town to draw any conclusions about what’s going on. As we move into the spring market we will be able to get a better handle on market health.
Want more data? You can see statistics by individual town in Market Statistics.
Looking for real estate on the North Shore? Click here to see homes for sale on the North Shore.
Thinking of selling your home? Give us a call at 847-881-6657 to set up a marketing consultation with the Come Home North Shore Team. We’ll provide you with a comprehensive analysis of what your home is worth in today’s market, advise you on how to maximize its selling price and customize a marketing plan to maximize buyer exposure to your home.
Home Buyers: Here’s Why You Can’t Find a House to Buy on the North Shore
January home sales on the North Shore were down 7% from a year ago after a year where home sales rose 17%. What’s going on? Is the recovery stalling again?
Probably not. One month of data does not a trend make. Lower sales activity could have to do with the fact that we had a colder January this year than last, keeping some potential buyers indoors.
But more likely it is because there are so few homes for sale. The months supply of homes for sale is at its lowest point in more than three years and good houses are selling quickly, often with multiple offers. Would-be home buyers are scratching their heads in confusion. Wasn’t this supposed to be a buyer’s market?
Not any more. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal explained why willing and able home buyers are walking away empty-handed and frustrated because they can’t find a home to buy. In a nutshell, here’s what’s going on:
1. A lot of homeowners who bought between 2002 and 2008 are underwater on their mortgages. For all intents and purposes they are trapped in their homes until prices rise above what they owe on their mortgage.
2. Even those who are not underwater have lost significant equity on their homes with the decline in prices. That equity is what would have enabled them to put a down payment on a bigger house. They, too, are stuck until prices rise. Read the rest of this entry »
Gorgeous New Construction in Glencoe
985 Bluff Rd, Glencoe, IL 60022
This beautiful new construction is waiting to become your dream home! Just listed by the Come Home North Shore team, the house will be built on a fabulous property on one of the loveliest streets in Glencoe. Scheduled to be ready by spring 2014, everything about this home will be of the highest quality and built with the attention to detail that Highgate Builders is known for. The home is being offered at $2,850,000.
The property is almost a half acre on a street of upper bracket homes. The home itself will have gracious formal rooms designed for entertaining, a top-of-the-line chef’s kitchen with separate eating area, and a panelled library on the main floor. Patios will extend the entertaining spaces to the outdoors.
The second floor can be designed to have either five bedrooms or four bedrooms and a sitting room. The master suite will be the ultimate spa retreat.
The finished lower level will feature ten foot ceilings, a rec room, media room and excercise room, as well as a sixth bedroom and full bath.
Highgate Builders is one of the most well-respected and in-demand builders on the North Shore. Winner of the 2009 Preservation Award, the firm has been featured in Luxe Interiors + Design and Home & Architectural Trends magazines. Highgate is also known for building certified green and sustainable homes. You can see some of Highgate’s new homes here.
If you would like to learn more about plans for this new construction, please call us at 847-881-6657 or email us. Come Home North Shore co-founder Paula Weiss has deep experience in all facets of new construction and can provide you with expert guidance throughout the process.
Planning a Move to the North Shore? Start With Our Tour of the Shore
There’s a right way to go about finding a home on the North Shore, and there’s a wrong way. Unfortunately, most people go about it the wrong way, putting the proverbial cart before the horse. And sometimes they make a home purchase decision they live to regret.
The Wrong Way to Find a Home on the North Shore
1. Surf real estate web sites looking at houses for sale anywhere in the general vicinity of where you want to live.
2. Get in the car and drive around the North Shore willy-nilly, visiting Sunday open houses.
3. Walk into a house and fall in love with the shiny new appliances and Pottery Barn decor. And then buy the house, without doing enough due diligence on the community and the location of the home.
4. Move in and discover that, while you still love the house itself, the location is wrong, for example:
- The house is in a flood plain and the yard has several inches of standing water every time it rains.
- The street that seemed so quiet on Sunday afternoon sounds like a super highway during morning and afternoon rush hour.
- The village ordinances won’t permit an addition on the back of the house and now you are stuck with no family room.
- The neighborhood is full of empty-nesters and “snowbirds,” when you were counting on a neighborhood full of playmates for your kids
- The elementary school your kids will attend is not the one right down the street but the one on the other side of the expressway. Read the rest of this entry »
Battle of the Bands
Wilmette is going to rock tonight when the Battle of the Bands gets underway at the Junior High.
Battle of the Bands is an annual event produced by Youth Connection and this year promises to be the biggest and best one ever with a record number of talented Wilmette kids performing in bands or as solo acts.
Rufio from KISS -FM will be the guest DJ and Rock House of Wilmette is the sponsor.
There will also be a drawing for two tickets to see Swedish House Mafia at the United Center on February 20.
When: Friday, February 1 at 7:00 pm
Where: Wilmette Junior High School auditorium, 620 Locust Rd., Wilmette
Tickets: $10.00
- 1 Lake Bluff
- 2 Lake Forest
- 3 Deerfield
- 4 Highwood
- 5 Highland Park
- 6 Northbrook
- 7 Glencoe
- 8 Winnetka
- 9 Northfield
- 10Kenilworth
- 11 Glenview
- 12 Wilmette
- 13Evanston
- 14 Skokie
Contact Us
Anne West
Paula Weiss
Daverille Sher
Realtors
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
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