Quote of the day: Federal guidelines hindering Chicago condo sales
"We’re encouraged to see the bank-owned inventory moving in the marketplace, indicating buyers are finding good bargains, especially in single-family [...]
Quote of the day: Look to 2012
"We expect prices to drop for another year and then stabilize before starting to rise with incomes."
- Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wy [...]
Congrats to Joeff Davis
We were saddened several years back when our longtime photographer, Joeff Davis, headed for Atlanta and a position with the Creative Loafing chain o [...]
Home price bottom – are we there yet?
According to Calculated Risk, the answer to that question depends on the answer to this question: has the unemployment rate peaked?
See the informati [...]
Condo lending guidelines causing problems
As President of the Chicago Association of Realtors and Managing Partner of Prudential SourceOne Realty, David Hanna is well-positioned to understan [...]
Touring Chicago on a miniature scale
As a part of the year-long celebration commemorating Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Foundation has unveiled a scale [...]
Is your developer a poster child for "failure to communicate?"
As developers hunker down against the storms slamming their business, they often leave their buyers twisting in the wind with no direction home.
We'v [...]
Quote of the day: An auction spells desperation
"An auction spells desperation in capital letters. It marks the property in a way that sends the wrong message."
- Michael Signet, director of sales [...]
Quote of the day: "Which comes first?"
"Banks are now demanding 20% and 25% down, AND that at least 70% of the condo development be sold before they will finance a condo buyer. But this bri [...]
Quote of the day: Nearly new is the new new
"Everybody I’ve sold to this year has been looking at brand-new and decided they prefer to do nearly new. For a little less money, they know exactly w [...]
Are sales slow because agents don't know how to sell?
A very wise friend of mine, a man with many years experience advising new home developers on sales and marketing issues, bemoans what he considers the [...]
One way to avoid bad Realtors
The Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR) is a professional designation granted by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council of the National Association [...]
Share your new construction photos
Do you take digital shots of the new home projects and neighborhoods you visit? Odds are that your pics will interest and be helpful to other home buy [...]
Appraisal Research: Condos for rent, online resources putting pressure on apartments
With 4,546 new construction condo units delivering in 2009, we expect the number of condo units available for rent to continue escalating.
We continu [...]
Declines continue in latest Case-Shiller report
You know the drill: It's the last Tuesday of the month, which means it's time to look at the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
The head [...]
Blog your search for a new home in Chicago
The average new home buyer looks at more than 20 developments before making a decision.
It's far from intuitive, but a blog can be a great way for ho [...]
Appraisal Research: Reasons for optimism
From the summary of Appraisal Research Counselors' 1Q 2009 Downtown Benchmark Report.
So what are the reasons for optimism in the market?
No more [...]
Appraisal Research: This year's challenges
For 2009, the challenges remain:
Unemployment levels remain high in the Chicago metropolitan area.
There are still issues of consumer confidence.
[...]
Appraisal Research: Climate good for first-timers, tough for luxury buyers
The strongest player in the downtown market today is the first-time buyer, according to Appraisal Research Counselors' 1Q 2009 Downtown Benchmark Repo [...]
2009 Good Neighbor Awards: Far North, Northwest, and South Side winners
The following is a list of 2009 Good Neighbor Award winners and nominees on the Far North, Northwest, and South sides that still have homes for sale. [...]