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.

 

 

Nancy's Chicago North Shore - Real Estate Market Update

This is the first in a series of posts about the real estate market on Chicago’s North Shore.  For this analysis I have been reviewing the year-end data for the following communities:

Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Forest,  Northbrook, Skokie, Wilmette, and Winnetka. 

Before I get into specifics for each of these communities, this post includes some statistics about Illinois and the greater Chicago area for comparison to the North Shore:

Illinois

• December 2011 represented the 6^th month in a row with an increase in the number of homes sold in Illinois, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors.
• The total number of sales for the year was down versus 2010 by 0.1%, which basically means that the number of sales were about the same.   Some people that follow the real estate market may point out that 2010 sales were slightly inflated by the incentive of the first-time-buyer tax credit that was in effect during the first quarter of the year.  On the other hand, if you do the math, the current interest rates provide a much better long-term savings for buyers than those tax credits.
• The median price of a home in 2011 declined versus 2010 in Illinois by 9.2%

Chicago PMSA

(The Chicago PMSA, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, includes the counties of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will)

• The number of homes sold in 2011 increased versus 2010 by 1.3%. (Better than the state of Illinois).
• The median price of a home declined by 11.9%. (worse than the state).

The City of Chicago

• The number of homes sold in 2011 declined by 6.2%. (worse than the state and the PMSA)
• The median price declined by 13.8%. (worse than the state and the PMSA)

Now when we look at the North Shore and see that total home sales increased in 2011 by 1.3% over the prior year.  This “bucks the trend” for the state, matches the Chicago PMSA, and is much better than the city!  Sales of single family homes on the North Shore increased by 2.5% in 2011, while condo/townhome sales actually declined by 1.3%.

It is my personal observation that the condo/townhome market has suffered much more than other types of properties this past year with prices taking a much harder hit than single family homes.  This is not only due to economic conditions – I believe that demographics play a factor as well.  Baby boomers that are now empty nesters are not rushing out to buy condos as quickly as their parents did back in the 1980’s.  That may explain why the numbers in the city are so much worse than the Chicago PMSA.

Tomorrow I will start posting information about specific communities on the North Shore.

Thank you for reading! If you want to know what is going on in your local market and why, please contact me directly.

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: Skokie, Winnetka and Wilmette

This is the 7th and FINAL article in a series I have written about the real estate market on Chicago's North Shore.  I have been using the concept of "shadow inventory" to understand how much longer home prices will be declining in each community on the North Shore.  Shadow inventory refers to 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.  When they do hit the market, it will be 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 of other properties in the area to decline.  So the fact that these properties are potentially going to hit the market in the coming months is NOT A GOOD THING.

Skokie

Shadow inventory increased by almost 20% over the past 6 months to 589 properties in Skokie.  Almost 27% of these are bank-owned properties. There are 430 households that are behind in their mortgage payments in Skokie – that represents 30% of the pre-foreclosures on the whole North Shore!  Skokie seems to be hit hardest of all the communities on the North Shore with distressed properties.

Skokie - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	126	74	200
% single family homes	59%	61%	60%
% condos/townhomes	41%	39%	40%

 

 

Skokie leads all of the other North Shore communities with 200 distressed property sales during the past 12 months.  These sales are just under 34% of the size of the current shadow inventory.  If these trends continue in Skokie it will definitely be the last suburb on the North Shore to see an end to falling prices.

Wilmette

Wilmette saw shadow inventory increase by 24% to 92 properties.  About 76% of these are in pre-foreclosure, and the rest are bank-owned.

Wilmette - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	12	10	22
% single family homes	75%	80%	77%
% condos/townhomes	25%	20%	23%

 

 

On top of the increase in the shadow inventory, only 22 distressed properties were sold in the past 12 months.   This is only 24% of the size of the shadow inventory.  This means that it will take some time for Wilmette to recover from falling prices because the number of distressed properties in the “pipeline” is increasing and sales of distressed properties is relatively low in comparison. 

Winnetka

Winnetka had a total of 6 bank owner properties and 14 homes in pre-foreclosure as of July 26, 2011, for a total shadow inventory of 20 homes.  This is a decrease from 39 homes in January 2011, a good sign of recovery.

Winnetka - 12 months ending 7.26.2011	Bank-owned properties Sold	Short Sales	Total distressed property sales
Total	6	8	14
% single family homes	100%	88%	93%
% condos/townhomes	0%	12%	7%

 

 

There were 14 distressed properties sold during the past 12 months in Winnetka, which is 70% of the size of the current shadow inventory.  The declining shadow inventory AND the relatively strong sales of distressed properties indicate that this community is close to turning the corner on pricing!!

 

Thank you for reading!!!

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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