Chitownproperty

Sales of existing homes jumped in July, up 7.2 percent over June, and 5 percent higher than July 2008. While a large number of these sales (30 percent) were short sales and disclosures, much of the credit goes to falling prices, lower interest rates, and the continued first-time home buyer credit from the government.

Two separate reports this week showed new home sales and prices increasing after the long downturn. On Monday, the Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes rose 11 percent in June, the third month in a row. And on Tuesday, the Case-Schiller Price Index from Standard & Poor’s showed that eight [...]

Existing home sales rose 18.7% in Chicago from April to May but are still down 27.5% from May of last year, according to data from the Illinois Association of Realtors. Within the city, the median price rose 2.3% to $225,000, which is still 29.5% down from last year as well.

Housing affordability is at its highest point in 18 years, according to the Housing Opportunity Index released by Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders last week. Over 70 percent of homes were affordable to families earning the national median income during the first quarter of 2009, up 10 percent over the [...]

Realty Times – In a Down Market, Pricing Needs to Get Out Ahead of the Curve
The hardest part about a declining or stagnant market is deciding where to set your asking price. In an “up” market, this was easy: you could look at recent sales of similar homes and set your price a little [...]

10 New Year’s Resolutions for Home Sellers
Homescape’s Duane Hopper offers up a real estate version of the perennial list of resolutions, this time for home sellers in a tough market. All ten are good ideas, but our two favorites are:

Create the “wow” factor – Staging, staging, staging. You may think you have impeccable [...]

Homescape: Why Now is the Best Time to Buy
Steven Hyman, a real estate broker and blogger at Homescape, calls the time of year from Thanksgiving until the Super Bowl the “white death,” because of the general slowdown in real estate activity. Potential buyers are busy with the holidays and don’t spend much time shopping [...]

Finding an area with appreciation potential — chicagotribune.com
This syndicated article in the Tribune says that the trick to buying a home now is finding a neighborhood with appreciation potential:
Real estate specialists who view the economy on a large screen are confident that those with the nerve to buy a home in the current market will [...]

Is Now a Good Time to Buy a Home? – WSJ.com
Doesn’t it seem like someone is always saying it’s a good time to buy a home? Obviously, this is a tough time to be doing any kind of significant spending, let alone making purchase as large as a home. But the Wall Street [...]

Wacko world of willfully weak market — chicagotribune.com
Are homeowners still in denial about falling home values, or have they learned to be realistic? It depends who you ask, naturally. Mary Umberger tells us that Zillow.com thinks homeowners are in denial, not surprising for a company whose business model is based on the presumption [...]

Buying vs. renting, or cost vs. time — chicagotribune.com
Since the slumping home market has changed the equation determining the benefits of buying or renting, the Tribune is taking a fresh look at this age-old question. Prices are generally lower now, meaning it might be a good time to buy, but a tight credit market [...]

Top 100 markets forecast: Where home prices are headed next
CNN/Money reports that housing prices should continue to decline in 75 of the top 100 U.S. markets over the next 12 months. As of May 2008, Chicago’s median home price is $279,000, a 29.2% increase in the past five years. However, this is expected [...]

In a recent survey conducted by Coldwell Banker, 78 percent of its agents reported that their clients have indicated more interest in living in the city instead of the suburbs because of higher energy costs.
The overwhelming reason for this change of heart is to reduce commuting costs, but a majority of those surveyed also cited [...]

Even in this climate, there’s no rule like an old rule — — chicagotribune.com
This week’s Tribune has a useful article about how longstanding “rules” of real estate still apply, even in today’s changing market. Buyers and sellers can count on certain maxims to get the best deal, regardless of the financial environment, including:

You [...]

Zillow.com has just released their quarterly home value reports for major metropolitan real estate markets. The good news is that home values didn’t decline in the Chicago area as much as they did in the rest of the country. The bad news is that they did decline 5.8 since the first quarter of [...]