North Shore Views

Glencoe Real Estate Trends

Glencoe’s data is fairly consistent with the other North Shore communities. Sales are up and so is market time. The good news is that prices appear to be stabilizing and inventory is shrinking, meaning that the worst is probably over and the recovery is taking hold. The wild card is the tax credit and what will happen once it expires. Stay tuned.

Glencoe Home Sales
December sales of Glencoe homes (including single family houses, townhomes and condos) rose 37% from November and 37% from year ago. Sales had been rising through the second half of 2009, but dropped off in November in anticipation of the expiration of the new home buyer tax credit. Once that was reinstated (and expanded), sales picked up again in December.

Housing Prices
Glencoe prices, which had been trending downward since early 2008, appear to be stabilizing. December’s average sales price was $1,337,882, up 78% over November and up 15% vs. December 2008.

Inventory and Months Supply
Inventory has been consistently declining since May, with December inventory of 108 homes down 3% vs. November and down 12% vs. December 2008. Months supply, which is a measure of how long it would take to sell all the inventory at the current rate of sale, was 9.8 months. This is a decrease over November’s months supply of 13.8 months.  The improving trend since May 2009 is good news for sellers, since prices and market time are affected by the supply of homes on the market.

Time on Market
Market time, which has been on an upward trend since the beginning of 2008, continues to climb. December market time for houses sold was 162 days, up 7% from November and up 34% vs. December 2008.

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

Winnetka Real Estate Trends

Here’s the data for Winnetka home sales through December 2009. It’s a mixed bag but generally heading in the right direction: sales are up and inventory is down, both good things for sellers. Prices are lower than 2008 but the downward trend we’ve seen over the last couple of years appears to be stabilizing.

Winnetka Home Sales
A total of 19 homes (single family houses, townhouses and condos) sold in December 2009, up 111% over December 2008 and 137% over the prior month. Total 2009 sales of 157 was comparable to 2008 sales of 158. Sales, which had been improving since mid-summer had slowed in November with the anticipated expiration of the new home buyer tax credit. Once that was renewed and expanded, sales picked up again in December.

Prices
The average sales price in December was $1,247,233, down 33% vs. December 2008 but up 23% from last month’s average price of $1,010,438. Although average and median prices bounce around from month to month, the rolling 3 month average indicates that the downward trend in prices has stabilized.

Inventory and Months Supply
Inventory of properties for sale in December was 178, down 13% from December 2008 and down 13% vs. November 2009. Months supply of inventory was 9.4 months. This means that it would take 9.4 months to sell all the houses on the market at the current rate of sale. This is the lowest level since April 2007, which is good news for sellers. Months supply had reached a high of 86 months in April 2009, which was the absolute low point for real estate sales in Winnetka.

Market Time
Days on market for December was 91, down 43% vs. December of last year. What this says is that sellers are now pricing their homes more realistically and buyers are getting off the fence and buying.

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• What’s Ahead for North Shore Real Estate

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

North Shore Home Sales – 2009 Summary

Here’s the data for North Shore single family home sales for total year 2009 vs. 2008. The year-end snapshot doesn’t tell the whole story, though, since the market was pretty dead in the first half of 2009 and only started picking up in the second half of the year. So, the trend in units sold is actually much more positive than the total year number indicates. Unfortunately, the improved sales trend has also been accompanied by lower prices and longer market time.

North Shore Detached Homes Sold 2009 vs.. 2008:

	2009	2008	% Chg
Units sold	2642	2523	+5%
Avg. List Price	$756,918	$879,722	-14%
Avg. Sold Price	$627,741	$774,503	-19%
% List Price Rec’d	83%	88%	-6%
Avg. Mkt Time Closed	202 days	178 days	+13%

Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed

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

North Shore Market Update – December 2009

In December 2009 sales of single family homes on the North Shore were up 32% vs. December 2008, while average prices were down 8%. Market time increased 21% to 200 days for sold properties.

Average prices declined in all towns except Glenview and Glencoe. Winnetka and Northfield had the largest price declines AND the largest increase in units sold, so price does seem to be the biggest driver in the market today.

Wilmette was the only town were there were fewer units sold in 2009 than 2008.

December 2009 vs. Year Ago*

	Units Sold	Avg. Price	Market Time
Town	% Change	% Chg	% Chg
Evanston	6%	-24%	20%
Wilmette	-22%	-14%	28%
Glenview	25%	16%	19%
Northfield	200%	-73%	159%
Winnetka	138%	-39%	-1%
Glencoe	38%	15%	69%
Highland Park	22%	-4%	-18%
Lake Forest	67%	-1%	25%
North Shore	32%	-8%	21%

* Single family homes (Source: MRED – Deemed reliable but not guaranteed)

Tags: Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Forest, North Shore market data, North Shore real estate trends, North Shore sales trends, Northfield, 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

November North Shore Market Update

North Shore real estate trends are currently a good news, bad news story.
The market is definitely inching towards a recovery, here as well as most
other markets, although the North Shore has benefited less from the first
time buyer tax credit than lower-priced markets. Sales on the North Shore
were up 21% in the latest two month period versus year ago, so reluctant
buyers are getting off the fence and things are moving again.  The not so
good news is that prices are down 7% and average time on market has
increased by 14% to 201 days. But that’s an average. Some properties are
selling quickly- those are the ones that are priced right from the
beginning, and buyers perceive a good value.

September-October 2009 vs. Year Ago*

Town	Units Sold % Change	Avg. Price % Change	Days on Mkt% Change
Evanston	+15%	-33%	+58%
Wilmette	-	-7%	-35%
Glenview	+22%	-12%	+51%
Northfield	+40%	-16%	+20%
Winnetka	-4%	-7%	+16%
Glencoe	+79%	-12%	-5%
Highland Park	+11%	-6%	-27%
Lake Forest	+119%	-3%	+12%
North Shore	+21%	-7%	+14%

* Single family homes (Source: MRED)



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