Karp Real Estate

North Shore Market Watch - Wilmette and Winnetka

This is my 8th and final post in the series orbout real estate housing trends on Chicago's North Shore (until I repeat this exercise in 6 months!).  I did leave out some communities that are also part of the North Shore this time around.  If you are interested in this info for Northfield, Glenview, or another community on the Shore,  let me know and I can pull the numbers for you.  The Spring market has been SOOOO busy that I had to cut back on my research a little bit in order to continue to provide my clients with the top notch service they deserve. 

I just pulled the data for January 2012...the number of homes that went under contract in January 2012 increased on the North Shore (same communities that I reported on in these recent posts) by over 44% versus 2011!!!  So things are looking up. 

Wilmette

• The number of homes sold in Wilmette declined in 2011 versus 2010 by 1.8%. 
• Over 90% of the Wilmette home sales in 2011 were traditional sales.  Over 5% were bank-owned properties and almost 4% were short sales.
• Inventory for single family homes in Wilmette is just under 7 months, which is the closest to a balanced market (experts say that a “normal” or balanced market has 5 – 7 months of inventory) on the North Shore.  The inventory for condos and townhomes is over 12 months in Wilmette.
• There are 51 homes in pre-foreclosures right now in Wilmette and 22 bank-owned properties for a total of 72 distressed properties.  This is a decline in distressed properties from last July when this number was 92.  Distressed properties in Wilmette are 0.7% of the total housing units (THU) in Wilmette.  Wilmette and Winnetka are tied with the lowest/best percentage of distressed properties as a percent of THU.
• The median price of single family homes in Wilmette fell slightly by 1.5% versus 2010.  Condo/townhome prices slipped by 8.8% - this is the only community that had a price decline of less than 10%.

The market for single family homes in Wilmette is strong.  Sales and prices declined only slightly and the inventory level suggests that it is NOT a buyers’ market anymore - great news! The condo/townhome market is not doing as well, though it is much better than all of the other North Shore communities. 

Winnetka

• The number of homes sold during 2011 in Winnetka increased by 6.7% versus 2010.  For single family homes the increase was 8.2%.
• Almost 95% of the 2011 sales were traditional sales.  The remainder of the sales was equally divided between short sales and bank-owned properties.
• The home inventory in Winnetka is over 9 months for single family homes and almost 16 months for condos/townhomes.
• There are 22 homes in pre-foreclosure in Winnetka, according to public records.  And are 7 bank-owner properties.  This is actually an INCREASE in distressed properties versus last July when there was a total of 20 distressed properties.  Winnetka is tied with Wilmette; both communities have the lowest/best number of distressed properties as a percentage of total housing units (THU) of 0.7%.
• The median price of a single family home in Winnetka fell by almost 9%.  For townhomes and condos the median price fell by over 21%. 

The Winnetka market is doing quite well.  Sales increase versus last year, and there are very few distressed properties.  However, the inventory levels suggest that the number of sellers still exceeds the number of buyers, so it still may be a buyers’ market.  Median prices also fell by more than I would expect given the relatively low level of distressed properties.  I expect to see the number of sales continue to increase and price stabilization over the next several months in this community.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to understand how this information affects you and your home buying/selling decisions, contact me directly for a consultation.

 

To find any property for sale in the Chicago area, click here.

For up-to-the minute market information, including recent sales, on any North Shore community, click here.

 

 

Scorecard: market update for the North Shore Communities

After reading my recent series of posts providing an update on the North Shore real estate market, you may still be wondering how the various communities compare to one another.  So, here it is, the executive summary…

This is my personal ranking of the North Shore communities based on these factors within each suburb:

• Number of distressed properties that sold in the past 12 months (foreclosures and short sales)
• Number of properties currently in pre-foreclosure situation now versus 6 months ago.
• Number of bank-owned properties either on the market, or going on the market soon versus 6 months ago.

The communities at the top will see price recovery before the ones lower on the list….Skokie and Evanston at not looking good with an high and increasing levels of distressed properties.

1.Kenilworth

2.Winnetka

3. Glencoe

4. Lake Forest

5.  (4-way tie) Glenview, Northbrook, Northfield, and Riverwoods

9.  (3-way tie) Highland Park, Deerfield, and Wilmette

12. Evanston

13. Skokie

FYI, if you are ever interested in seeing information on recent sales in any suburb on the North Shore, you can find it by clicking here.  Then just click on the community of interest.

Thank you for reading!!  New topic next time, I promise.

Nancy S. Karp

 

To find any property for sale in the Chicago area, click here.

Market Update: Northbrook, Northfield and Riverwoods

This is the 6th article in a series I am writing about the real estate market on Chicago's North Shore.  I have been talking about "shadow inventory" and how this affects home prices.  There are homes that are in pre-foreclosure (the owners are 3 months or more behind on their payments) and homes that have already gone through the foreclosure process and are bank-owned.  Some of these homes may already be available for sale, but most of them are not.  They are called "shadow inventory" because most of them will be for sale in the coming months at discounted prices (as short sales or bank-owned properties) because of their distressed status.  When these types of properties are for sale, this causes prices to decline.  So the fact that these properties are potentially going to hit the market in the coming months is NOT A GOOD THING.  There are many other factors that affect home prices, such as interest rates and unemployment rates - in these articles I have not been discussing these factors directly.  To a large extent these factors are already reflected in the shadow inventory numbers.

Northbrook

Northbrook showed a dramatic decline in shadow inventory, which is a positive indicator for this community.  There were 286 distressed properties (bank-owned and pre-foreclosures) in January, and now it is down to 218.  Over 70% of these are pre-foreclosures.

Northbrook - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	56	49	105
% single family homes	68%	73%	70%
% condos/townhomes	32%	27%	30%

 

 

Another positive sign for Northbrook is that the number of distressed properties that sold in the past 12 months (see chart above) is about 48% of the size of the current shadow inventory (105 divided by 218).  This is better than the North Shore average of 38%.  Things are headed in the right direction for Northbrook.  We’re not at the bottom yet with regard to pricing, but hopefully that is just around the corner. 

 

 

Please bear in mind that once prices do hit bottom, they aren't going to just pop right back up to where they were before the bubble burst.  Experts are saying that we will see small increases in real estate prices over the next several years. 

Northfield

This is a small community in the New Trier school district nestled between Winnetka, Wilmette, Glenview, and Northbrook.  During the past 12 months there were a total of 5 distressed properties sold, as shown in the chart below:

Northfield - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	4	1	5
% single family homes	75%	100%	80%
% condos/townhomes	25%	0%	20%

 

 

The shadow inventory in Northfield dropped from 32 to 24 over the past 6 months (8 are bank-owned properties).  Distressed properties sold in the past 12 months as percentage of shadow inventory is under 21%.

This is well below the 38% average for the North Shore, but like Kenilworth, when the numbers are this small it is difficult to gauge whether or not this is significant.  I believe that there will continue to be downward pressure on prices in Northfield until the 8 bank-owned properties are sold and the remaining pre-foreclosure properties are resolved one way or another. 

Riverwoods

Part of the Deerfield zip code, Riverwoods is another small community on the North Shore, known for its homes on large wooded lots.  Shadow inventory in July was 25, about the same as it was in January (26).  On the positive side, Riverwoods had 11 distressed properties sold during the past 12 months.  The distressed sales as a percentage of shadow inventory is 44% - this is above the North Shore average. 

Riverwoods - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	5	6	11
% single family homes	100%	100%	100%
% condos/townhomes	0%	0%	0%

 

 

This means that even though there were 11 distressed sales, there are still households experiencing financial difficulty because the number of distressed properties in the pipeline stayed the same.  Translation – in this wooded community, we’re not yet out of the woods on declining prices. 

Thank you so much for reading!  The next and last installment in this series will cover Skokie, Winnetka and Wilmette.  If you would like the entire analysis all in a single report, please contact me directly and I can send it to you in PFD or WORD format.

To find any property for sale in the Chicago area click here.

To look at recent sales and other sales statistics for your community click here and then click on the map to specify the community you want to see.

nsk

Nancy S. Karp

 
 
nancy@nancykarp.com

@properties | Consultant, MBA, ePro, SFR, CREN |   

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