Tonight I’ll be watching the Super Bowl at a friends’ home in Rogers Park. Compared to neighboring Evanston and Edgewater, Rogers Park has very attractive home prices! I recently listed 7612 N Rogers #2 in Rogers Park. It’s a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath condo with a garage just a couple of blocks from the lake for just $350K!

As shown below sale prices for Rogers Park 3 bedroom condos and townhouses in the past year ranged from less than $50K to just below $450K.^* The median sale price was $243K, well below the median in north neighbor Evanston at $287K and south neighbor Edgewater at $345K.

Distribution of Rogers Park 3 bedroom condo & townhouse sale prices during the past year

Search Rogers Park 3 Bedroom Condos For Sale on BairdWarner.com
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^*Based on Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) Data.

The average sale price for Glenview houses sold during the past year compared to those sold during the previous year is down over 24%. Part of why the average price is down can be attributed to more sales of 2 bedroom or less houses and less sales of 5 bedroom or larger houses.

As shown in the table below the number of 2 bedroom or less houses sold in the past year was up from 4% of sales to 6% of sales. The number of 5 bedroom or larger houses this past year was 20% of the market compared to 23% the year earlier.

Average sale prices for 3 & 4 bedroom Glenview houses dropped the least this past year

Those segments of the market also experienced the greatest price declines. The average price of 2 bedrooms or less houses dropped 36%, twice that of 4 bedroom houses! The average price of 5 bedroom or larger houses dropped 26% while the average price for 3 bedroom houses dropped 22%.

Morton Grove's Metra Station

Today’s Chicago Tribune has a nice article on Morton Grove, one of the near north suburbs. As the article, “Morton Grove: Easy to get to, easier on the wallet” suggests you get more home for the money in Morton Grove than in several of the near north suburbs.

It isn’t that Morton Grove doesn’t have a lot going for it. It’s close to the city. There are excellent transportation options with a Metra Station downtown, the Edens Expressway (I-94) on the east edge of town and even access to the CTA Yellow Line in neighboring Skokie. There are lots of parks, highly ranked schools, and the streets are well maintained.

What Morton Grove doesn’t have are good restaurant, entertainment and shopping choices. However, all of those are within 1 or 2 neighboring suburbs. With the median price of houses in Glenview at $485K and Evanston at $438K and the median price of houses in Morton Grove only $275K,^* Morton Grove homes for sale are definitely worth a look, if you’re interested in the near north suburbs!

^*Based on Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED) Data for the past 12 months.

While looking at sales data as I write my market outlook for the latest issue of “Maximizing Equity” I noticed that there have been more house sales in the past 30 days in Cook County in the $650K to $700K price range than in the $600K to $650K price range or even the $550K to $600K price range. Typically, higher price ranges have fewer sales than lower price ranges since there are less people who can afford more expensive homes.

28 houses sold in the $650K to $700K range as compared to only 18 in the $600K to $650K range and 25 in the $550K to $600K range. Only 5 of the 28 homes were in the city. Wilmette had the most sales of any suburb with 3. 4 of the 28 sales were short sales or foreclosures.

For more in-depth Chicago Metro Area housing market analysis, sign-up for my monthly email update, “Maximizing Equity“.

On Sunday a gentleman called me inquiring about contemporary homes in the north suburbs. I immediately suggested he and his wife consider Highland Park. I’ve shown many contemporary houses there. Shown left is a contemporary home a couple of my clients were very interested in. Unfortunately for them, the sellers accepted an offer before my clients could fly here to see it. It sold for $752K a little over a year ago.

It isn’t that there aren’t contemporary homes in other northern suburbs. It’s just that Highland Park has more than its share of them. Currently in our multiple listing service there are 42 houses for sale in Highland Park where the style is contemporary. The next highest is Deerfield with only 13 contemporary houses for sale.

This morning I met with a seller looking for a new listing agent for her 2 bedroom condo in Northbrook. She wasn’t thrilled with the market data I provided, but I believe in telling sellers what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.

The median sale price for Northbrook 2 bedroom condos for the past 12 months was $244,000, down over 21% from the previous 12 months.^* 56 2 bedroom condos were sold, down over 46% from the previous 12 months. Average market time was up over 60% at 232 days.

What’s bad new for sellers is good news for buyers!

^*Based on Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC (MRED) Data

Today I toured a 3 bedroom condo in Evanston that the owner will be putting back on the market this spring. I also had lunch at Lupita’s Restaurant in Evanston with a buyer considering Evanston, Skokie and Rogers Park.

I really like the ambiance of Lupita’s. It was quiet enough so my buyer and I could talk. The wait staff didn’t interrupt us more than necessary. Try the non-alcoholic sangria with lunch.

Want a home near a mall with top name brands and the level of service you expect from them? Then consider, Northbrook, IL or its neighboring suburbs of Highland Park, Glencoe, Wheeling, Deerfield, and Glenview. Northbrook’s Northbrook Court is home to numerous top brands including Tommy Bahama’s, Crate and Barrel, Ralph Lauren, Cole Haan, and Louis Vuitton.

Yesterday I went to the Tumi Store in Northbrook Court to exchange a small bag I received as a Christmas present. (Yes, I know I should have gotten to this sooner! ) As I walked in the store the clerk said, “You’re the Realtor!”. I was stunned! I hadn’t been in Tumi in 2 years since I bought my laptop backpack there. Even more impressive, she wasn’t the clerk who helped me 2 years ago.

The Tumi clerk remembering that I’m a Realtor and the fact that she took the time to acknowledge it is the level of customer service I hope my clients will remember me for. I also now have an awesome Tumi bag that holds my essentials and slips in and out of my laptop backpack very nicely!

While it’s been an exciting political season, I won’t miss the barrage of misinformation that has been spewed forth. Fortunately, there are several political fact checking sites such as PolitiFact.com, FactCheck.org and The Fact Checker to help us sort out the half-truths and outright lies. Between my own fact checking and the sellers’ own words, a couple of outright lies came to light for a home purchase in Wilmette recently.

During the negotiations the listing agent tried to get me to feel sorry for the sellers stating that the husband couldn’t work and that they had moved to a smaller house. What the listing agent didn’t know was that I already knew about the house that the sellers moved to. It was a larger house (nearly 4,000 SF) with a sale price of $1.65M – hardly the kind of home you move to, if you need to scale back financially!

The husband appeared briefly during the closing last week. We learned that he was a dentist and couldn’t stay because he had a patient waiting for him. So much for not being able to work!

A Frank Lloyd Wright designed home for sale in Glencoe has caught the attention of several national blogs. Move.com, ZillowBlog.com, and The Huffington Post among others have written about the home for sale at 1027 Meadow in Glencoe.

As you would expect for the low price of $625K in Glencoe the 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home is in need of restoration. However, your investment and hard work could pay off nicely. Baird & Warner sold a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park last year for $2.5M!