The number of properties that are bank-owned or in pre-foreclosure in Evanston increased during the past 12 months by almost 6% to 405. Seventy-five percent of these are pre-foreclosures, that is, people that are not current on their mortgage payments.
There were 109 sales of distressed properties in the past 12 months in Evanston. But unlike Deerfield, over 70% of these were condos and townhomes (“attached” properties), and about half of the sales were foreclosures and half were short sales. The problem in Evanston is that demand for attached properties is very low relative to the number of units available for sale. This is in addition to the fact that many of these are distressed properties, so it is like a double whammy on values for attached properties. As of August 1, 2011 there were over 440 attached properties listed for sale on the MLS in Evanston! These have been selling at a rate of about 33 a month – so that means the current inventory could take 14 – 15 months to sell. When you add to that the fact that there will be more of these properties coming onto the market in distressed situations...the downward pressure on prices will continue for a while.
The bright spot for Evanston is that the inventory level of single family homes is much better, at 5-6 months. There will be more short sales and bank-owned properties on the market in the coming months, but with the lower inventory levels hopefully these will be absorbed by the market quickly.
Thank you for reading!!!
NOTE: This is third article in series with local market info on the North Shore.
nsk
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