The Chicago 77

On April 1 the Chicago Association of Realtors® (CAR) released some data that I thought was interesting in this time of dropping property values. However, I didn’t see these numbers discussed anywhere other than their web site. I think these numbers deserve a second look and hopefully some comments from our readers. The goal of [...]

Carl Case of S&P/Case-Shiller Price Index warns buyers that in good neighborhoods, you aren?t going to find bargains. People are not willing to sell and take a huge hit on the value of their home unless they absolutely must. He went on to explain that their research is showing that bargains are generally only found in lower-income areas.

Mortgage bonds, like stocks, and just about everything else in a free-market society, work on supply and demand. When demand goes up, so do prices. And when prices on mortgage bonds go up, rates go down.

In this market of long listing times and high inventory, there are a few ways to make your home stand out and sell quicker. You’ve Got to Start with Price, Price, Price A Clean Well Lit Place Sells The absolute most important item is price.  If your price is not competitive and realistic to what the market will bear, then [...]

The Illinois Association of Realtors® (IAR) announced yesterday that both home prices and home sales were down in Chicago when comparing December 2008 to December 2007. They are also down when comparing all of 2008 to 2007. Chicago Home Sales Figures In December a total of 1,215 homes were sold in Chicago. This is down [...]

So, how do you Ms/Mr Agent know how much to recommend lowering the price? How do you, Ms/Mr Seller know if the reduction is warranted? How do you know it’s the right amount of reduction? Do you guess? Do you feel your way along? Instinct is important to an agent, but the appraiser side of me also forces me to present [...]

This year is a whole new ball of wax. Buyers are thinking short sales, foreclosures, and taking advantage of buyers who have to sell. They are thinking depreciation and buying at prices prior to the “boom.”

I was looking through CNN Money the other day and found an article about houses for sale for less than $1,000. They called them Radical Cheap homes. The article mentioned that there were 18 listings in Flint, MI that were under $3,000, 22 in Indianapolis, 46 in Cleveland and the eye-popping number of 709 in [...]

Yesterday Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) announced, in conjunction with Realist.com, that it had rolled out a new product today entitled Realist ValueMap (RVM). It’s a automated valuation model (AVM) which is very similar to Zillow’s Zestimates.

Simple supply and demand are having a strong impact in the South Loop. A quick search in MRED for condos in the South Loop (I defined it as Congress to 18th, Dan Ryan to Lake Michigan) shows a huge number of condos on the market. If we look under the new, stricter maximum HUD loan [...]