Chitownproperty

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 last year. [...]

Recognizing value key to buying home — chicagotribune.com Calling today’s market a “buyer’s market” implies that now is the time to find a deal, but buyers show signs of wanting to wait a little longer, to see if prices will go any lower. That’s not a bad strategy, says the Tribune’s Carolyn Bigda, but the [...]

It’s still buyer vs. seller — chicagotribune.com The Trib’s feature real estate story this week points out something that’s painfully obvious to those of you trying to sell your homes right now: the buyers are in control, and not just by having a large selection. Buyers know that some sellers are desperate to move, and [...]

Most housing markets are less overvalued – CNN/Money Analysts from National City Corp bank say that the home valuations–the difference between what a home should cost and its actual price–are at their lowest in four years. That isn’t to say that home prices have stopped declining, but now, even in a market like Chicago that [...]

A sampling of news articles on the real estate market this week. In a word: sellers, bad; buyers, good: So what’s the incentive? Builders ask – Mary Umberger says builders are cutting back on some of the more ridiculous $70-80,000 incentives they had been throwing in to entice buyers. Builders are more likely now to [...]

We know calling the current tough real estate market a “buyer’s market” sounds like rationalization, Realtors trying their best to put a shine on something that isn’t there, but there are solid reasons for why new buyers can find a good deal now more than ever: “It’s no secret that home buyers can grab real-estate [...]

Before you catch yourself thinking that today’s tough housing market is an unprecedented event, read Mary Umberger’s column this week. She reminds us that real estate markets in every part of the country have suffered through tough times before that lasted much longer than the current market correction is expected to last. Remember, the latest [...]

The recent downturn in the local condo market has opened up new opportunities for first-time buyers, the Tribune says. Some owners anxious to sell in today’s tough market are more willing to negotiate, and developers are throwing in more amenities as part of the base price to entice purchasers.

With the current environment of stagnant or even falling home prices, coupled with a tightening of the mortgage market, buying a home can seem like a risky proposition right now. But it carries the same risk it always has, provided you are realistic about what you can afford, says a marketing professor in this week’s [...]

The big real estate news of the week of course was the median price of American homes will fall this year for the first time since the government started keeping such statistics in the 1950s. This is more proof of the long slowdown in the housing market, and further underscores what we’ve been saying about [...]

$1 million is a lot of money for a house, but what exactly does that get you? CNN/Money has a tour of $1 million homes around the country, incluing this woodframe single-family home near Wrigley Field. No offense to those Cubbie fans, but if we had a $1 million to spend, we’d take this floating [...]

Those of you who can remember your economics class in high school will be happy to know that the basic laws of supply and demand still apply to the real world, especially to the real estate market right now. The general slowdown in the market means that inventory, i.e. supply, is up, meaning that now [...]

A reader at CNN/Money asks the question whether they should buy now and take advantage of low interest rates, or wait and see if prices are going to fall even more. The answer, of course, isn’t as simple as they would probably like. You could take advantage of falling prices to bargain your way into [...]

The New York Times ran a great piece this weekend about the thought process that goes into setting a market price. The number are huge because they’re talking about New York, but whatever the market, an asking price isn’t so much a flat statement of how much the seller would like to get for their [...]