Real estate news & trends
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Distressed property
Last week the ever-informative Calculated Risk blog posted a table showing the share of the market accounted for by distressed properties, i.e. short sales and foreclosures, in 13 major cities. The market share of distressed properties declined significantly year-over-year in March in a number of cities. Las Vegas and Phoenix, for example, saw year-over-year declines ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 22, 2013
We last wrote about Eastgate Village, a troubled townhome / condo development on the Near South Side, back in October of 2011. At the time, 26 units were slated for auction. Those units had previously been the subject of a bulk purchase at a third of their original prices. A 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 4-level townhome in ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 6, 2013
Rogers Park developers periodically fall prey to a state of irrational exuberance. The peak of the most recent mania had already passed in May of 2008 when a 2-day survey of Rogers Park took us to more than 100 active condo conversions. It was already clear that the bubble had popped, and it only remained ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 22, 2013
In September of 2007 we reported that 75% of the loft condos at 123 N Sangamon in the West Loop were under contract and closings would begin the following month. In April of 2008 the plan was to convert half the building to rental units and unit deliveries were anticipated later that summer. In January ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 15, 2013
After hearing of a short sale that elicited 33 bids – 22 of them cash offers – within a week, I reached out to Vik Wadhwa of Urban Living to learn whether this was a common occurrence. Vik’s response to my email: Clients searching for properties in downtown neighborhoods – especially in River North, Gold ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 8, 2013
Well-located, attractively-priced properties, especially if they’re distressed, are once again generating a frenzy of activity on the part of buyers. If you doubt that, consider the email that Prudential Rubloff’s Donna Urbikas recently sent to the losing bidders on a River North listing: Thank you very much for submitting your offer for my short sale ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 7, 2013
RealtyTrac released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for October 2012 yesterday. The report shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 186,455 U.S. properties in October, an increase of 3 percent from September but still down 19 percent from October 2011. According to the report: One in every ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 16, 2012
The following market update arrived via a news release from RE/MAX Northern Illinois: The seven-county metropolitan Chicago real estate market delivered a strong performance in October, with 43 percent more homes changing hands than in the same month last year. The increase in sales activity was especially pronounced in Cook County and the City of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 15, 2012
The following market update arrived via a news release from RE/MAX Northern Illinois: The residential segment of the metropolitan Chicago real estate market extended the upswing experienced in the first half of 2012 through the third quarter, registering the largest number of third-quarter home sales since 2007. According to an analysis by RE/MAX, home sales ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 26, 2012
It could be just a case of a spring market up-tick, but a number of neighborhoods have seen the inventory of available homes drop sharply last month. In mid-March there were six neighborhoods with 4-6 months inventory (the accepted definition of a balanced market). Today, 17 neighborhoods are in that balanced category and two neighborhoods ...
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Posted by Jody Wise on June 2, 2012
The following market update arrived via a news release from RE/MAX Northern Illinois: A RE/MAX analysis of March home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market indicates that the marked increase in home sales activity seen in recent months is beginning to have a positive impact on home prices. According to RE/MAX, combined ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 17, 2012
CoreLogic has just released its April MarketPulse report (pdf), with a raft of statistical data from February and some analytical insights that are worth a close read. In the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville area 37.6% of sales were foreclosures or short sales in February. The House Price Index was down 1.7% month-over-month and 7.3% year-over-year. Almost one of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 11, 2012
CoreLogic released its February Home Price Index yesterday, and once again the Chicago numbers are down: In the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville area, home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 7.3 percent in February 2012 compared to February 2011 and declined by 9.1 percent* in January 2012 compared to January 2011. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 5, 2012
The following market update arrived via a news release from RE/MAX Northern Illinois: Home sales activity in the metropolitan Chicago real estate market continued to accelerate in February, posting its strongest increase in six months. There were 4,760 closed sales in the seven-county area during the month, 26 percent more than during February of last ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 16, 2012
According to CoreLogic’s March MarketPulse report (PDF), the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville CBSA saw 3,622 home sales in January of 2012, down 10.4% from the previous year. REO sales (1,267) and short sales (668) accounted for 53.4% of all January sales. Mean days on market for active properties increased by 22.4%, while the mean days on market for ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 9, 2012
The following market update arrived via a news release from RE/MAX Northern Illinois: Home sales in the seven-county metropolitan Chicago real estate market continued their upward momentum in January, led by strong sales gains in five of the collar counties, according to an analysis by RE/MAX. Home sales for the month totaled 4,433 and were ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 14, 2012
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