Chicago Metro Area Real Estate — Insights for Home Buyers & Sellers by Fran Bailey, Baird and Warner Realtor

Chicago Tribune reports on oversupply of downtown apartment rentals

February 12, 2010

Today’s Chicago Tribune has a good article by Mary Ellen Podmolik on the deals available on downtown apartment rentals. According to the article, “A record 2,234 apartments will be added to downtown Chicago this year; increasing the supply of rental units at a time when inventory is already outstripping demand.”
According to Appraisal Research Counselor’s [...]

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Lincoln Square January house median $1.3M?!

February 9, 2010

While working on my monthly real estate newsletter, “Maximizing Equity“, one statistic really caught my attention. The median sale price for houses in Lincoln Square for January 2010 was $1.3M! As shown below, it’s well above the monthly median sales prices in Lincoln Square for the past 2 years.
A closer look revealed that only one [...]

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Rogers Park 3 bedroom condo prices well below those in neighboring Evanston and Edgewater

February 7, 2010

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 [...]

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Slightly misleading kitchen photo :)

February 4, 2010

A buyer and I were quite surprised when we viewed the kitchen of a house for sale after seeing photos of the home online.
Shown left is the photo of the kitchen in the online listing.
Below is what we actually found!
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The master [...]

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CAR 2010 Economic Forecast Highlights: Strong buyer’s market for $1M+ downtown Chicago condos

January 29, 2010

Yesterday I attended the Chicago Association of Realtors’ 2010 Economic Forecast. Last year I wrote a few blog posts about the 2009 Economic Forecast. Gail Lissner with Appraisal Research Counselors was one of the panelists again this year. One of her slides that caught my attention is shown below.
The graph compares the number of downtown [...]

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Chicago’s Case-Shiller Index falls from October to November 2009

January 26, 2010

Chicago’s Case-Shiller Index seasonally adjusted for November 2009 fell 0.8% from October, falling for the second month in a row after the housing index rose for 5 straight months last year. The drop was less than the drop from September to October which was 1%.
The index is down 6.5% for 2009 and 8.5% from [...]

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Lakeview 3 bedroom 2 bath condo prices fell 5.9% in past year

January 23, 2010

This afternoon I showed 3 bedroom 2 bath condos and townhouses in Lakeview. As shown below by the green and black dashed lines the median sale prices for these 3 bedroom 2 bath homes for the past year fell from $507,500 to $477,500, a drop of 5.9%.
The distribution of prices didn’t change much, just the [...]

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Baird & Warner to match Realtor and employee donations for Haiti

January 20, 2010

Baird and Warner’s CEO, Steve Baird, on Baird and Warner’s plans to raise money for the Haitian relief effort:

B&W Good Will Network Haiti Relief from Baird Warner on Vimeo.
It’s another example of why I’m proud to be a Realtor with Baird and Warner!
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Home sellers should insist on electronic lockboxes

January 17, 2010

Yesterday when I tried to schedule a second showing for a house in Park Ridge I was informed that showings were canceled since the key was lost. I recall from the first showing that the house only had a manual lockbox. Such lockboxes invite problems. There’s no record of who opened the lockbox and when. [...]

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Gold Coast’s E. Lake Shore Drive Broker Tour 01/12/2010

January 12, 2010

This afternoon I attended broker tours on East Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast. Eight different agents from a variety of brokerages wisely coordinated and promoted their tours so that agents could tour 9 different condos on the 2 block strip of East Lake Shore Drive between Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. One [...]

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