Evanston Illinois and Chicago real estate listings, home buying, selling and relocation information

Suzannah is more than a great realtor. She is trustworthy and patient. She goes out of her way to make her clients' dreams a reality, well beyond the closing table. Suzannah comes highly recommended and regarded by very satisfied clients.
--Beth & Andy

Market Analysis: April, 2010

Finally, for the first time in years, a *real* spring market! And an early one at that: things have really been rolling since the beginning of the new year as first-time buyers scrambled to get properties under contract prior to the expiration yesterday of the first-time buyer credit. Interestingly, however, I have a number of active first-time buyers who were not able to find the home of their dreams in the current inventory and are choosing to forgo the credit in order to wait for the "right one". To my mind, they are making an extraordinarily sage and conservative decision and I applaud them for their restraint. I'm going to guess that there were a number of Evanston buyers who made similar determinations because the hotsheet did not reflect the "mad crush" we all anticipated in the last week of April. So there's still hope for a strong May and June!

Contracts were up in March for both types of housing, but the differential was far more dramatic with single family homes than with condos: a whopping 71% increase for houses vs a measly 13% for condos. Foreclosures and short sales remain popular: 30% of condos and 36% of homes contracted in March were financially distressed. New inventory was also up--way up--offsetting these contracts and resulting in an overall higher inventory. Closings more than doubled, reflecting strong activity after the beginning of the new year.

Compared to March 2009, condos have SIGNIFICANTLY improved, with a 50% improvement in condo contracts and a 61% improvement in single family home contracts. Consumer confidence is clearly improving, as is lender confidence.

Absorption rates are generally in the "slightly higher than healthy" zone for condos, particularly at the entry level (up to $300k) and in the $350k-$450k price point with over 10 months of inventory. There's a dip down to 6 months for the $300k-$350k price point, and an opportunity for anything over $450k. Even the luxury end is not obnoxiously oversupplied, which is unusual! Absorption rates for single family homes is wonderful for everything up to $900k (averaging around 6 months). The $900k-$1M has an abysmal oversupply, but then things improve to 10 months for $1M to $1.5M, after which you might as well just give up.

It remains to be seen when the dreaded and very much expected rise in interest rates will occur. At the moment, the nightmare that we call Greece's economy is keeping investors safely within US securities but it's not going to last forever. Once rates rise, real estate activity will likely spike and then slough off again for a while.

And as entertaining as it is to watch Goldman Sachs get a congressional and media smack-down, the fact is that such derring-do is the bulwark of our economy and we aren't likely to get much security (in the form of regulation) out of it. Does make for good reading though (and from now on, I'm going to go by "suzulous Suz")!