Today my partner, Mary Kaye, and I hosted an open house for a vintage condo in Oak Park we recently listed 320 N Maple 2N. We had a nice turnout of 7 groups which we were pleased with considering that Oak Park only allows a sign in the yard of a property to advertise an open house. Additional signs off the property directing people to the open house are prohibited. This ties in with Oak Park’s long standing rule against for sale signs.

We typically put out another 4 to 6 signs in high traffic areas to direct prospective buyers to our open houses. The overwhelming majority of people who have attend our open houses learned about them because they were driving/walking in the area and saw one of our directional signs.

So if you’re thinking of visiting some Oak Park open houses, look them up on BairdWarner.com’s open house search which shows all listed open houses regardless of broker. You’ll have a tough time finding them buy just driving around.

Chicago suburb Oak Park made Money Magazine’s top 25 list of American’s best places for the rich and single. Chicago suburbs Batavia and Buffalo Grove made Money Magazine’s top 100 list of America’s best small towns.

Oak Park just west of Chicago ranked 7th on Money’s list of the best places for the rich and single. Residents are described as an “artsy, well-educated crowd”. See Money’s feature on Oak Park.

Far west suburb Batavia ranked 56th on the list of America’s best small towns was noted for its old-town feel, commuter train access to Chicago, and “nearly 200 manufacturing, research, and warehousing firms as well as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a world-renowned center for physics research.” See Money’s feature on Batavia.

Northwest suburb Buffalo Grove ranked 65th on the list of America’s best small towns was noted for its 400 acres of parks, annual fine art festival and “Buffalo Grove Days”. See Money’s feature on Buffalo Grove.

Recently, I worked with buyers who have 2 dogs. They seriously considered a new condo development in Oak Park and mentioned the dogs to the staff at the sales office who didn’t mention an issue with the dogs. Later while at an open house for a townhouse in neighboring Forest Park, they mentioned the dogs and that they had considered the new condos in Oak Park to the hosting agent. The hosting agent informed them much to their surprise that they couldn’t have more than one dog in a condo in Oak Park!

That isn’t exactly true. According to the city of Oak Park, up to 3 dogs are allowed in Oak Park townhouses and up to 2 dogs are allowed in units in 2 and 3 flats. These can be condos. However, in all other condos (including the new condos my buyers considered!) the one dog rule applies. Read “Facts About Keeping Animals in Oak Park” for the details.

I showed 20 houses in Oak Park during the past 2 days to some out-of-state buyers. They asked about what’s happening in the Oak Park housing market and the answer is, “It depends on whether the houses are north or south of Madison Street which divides the 60302 and 60304 zip codes.”

Median house prices for the 3rd quarter of this year (July – September) in 60304 (south part of Oak Park) fell 4.2% from the same period a year ago^*. However, in the rest of Oak Park they rose 3.9%!

The north part of Oak Park is primarily the 60302 zip code, but also includes 60301 for Oak Park’s downtown. The median sale price for houses in these zip codes in the past quarter rose to $560,000 while it fell to $421,750 in 60304.

^*Based on Multiple Listing System of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) Data

On Saturday I showed houses in Oak Park to my buyers relocating to Chicago from Ithaca, NY and showed them what I consider some of the cool places in Oak Park. We looked at a house by the Buzz Cafe in Oak Park’s Art District and then stopped in for coffee. After looking at houses, I took them to Barbara’s Bookstore downtown. We then stopped in at the Starbucks just down the street from the Barbara’s Bookstore to discuss the houses we’d looked at. They had dinner in Oak Park at the Khyber Pass, an Indian restaurant and told me the next day that they were quite impressed!

The last two days I’ve been showing homes to a couple of buyers in Oak Park, Jefferson Park and Schaumburg. Those might seem like very different areas (they are), but all of them are close to expressways which is important to my buyers.

Yesterday we had lunch at Penny’s Noodle Shop in Oak Park. The Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Pad Se Eu were excellent! I highly recommend it!

Today’s Chicago Tribune has a great story on what a couple discovered when they bought an ordinary-looking Oak Park bungalow last year. “Delicious discovery: Mr. Twinkie slept here” details how the owners, Nelson Taruc and Cara Hanson, discovered that the inventor of Twinkies, James Dewar, was a former owner and resident of the house. At the end of the article are “Twinkie tidbits” including the statistic that Chicago consumes more Twinkies per capita than any other U.S. city.