Sub-Prime Mortgages - what's up?

Many thanks to Dan Green at The Mortgage Reports Blog for posting about the current sub-prime mortgage mess. A great article on how we got here and what it's all about.

...the mortgage market turned sour in a very big hurry, but credit standards are still looser than they've been historically and there are plenty of homes for borrowers-in-need (pardon the pun).

The products getting flushed right now are the high risk loans that would never have had a prayer six or seven years ago...

In Lakeview, Inventory of Condo's & Townhomes still selling

The graph above shows Market Time for attached properties (condo's and townhomes) in the Lakeview neighborhood. When I began this research I was prepared for far worse news than the information suggests. With 4.6 months supply of inventory on the market, this would indicated that the neighborhood is balanced without either an over-supply of buyers or an over-supply of homes for sale.

It's also welcome news to see that the figure for July is lower than it was for June. Activity in the neighborhood seemed to halt during June causing anxiety among home owners with properties for sale. The drop in these supply figures shows that a good chunk of the inventory still for sale will be absorbed this summer.

BIG Party Weekend in Chicago

Get your groove on at Retro on Roscoe held in the Roscoe Village neighborhood. Check out the roster of performing artists. Other highlights include the Windy City Chili Cook Off, a Retro Car Show and one of the most popular games in Chicago history - Bozo Buckets!

Expect almost a million people to converge on Grant Park downtown for Lollapalooza - Chicago's largest outdoor concert. Lollapaloooza continues throughout the weekend, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Regina Spektor, Spoon and headlining sets from Muse and Interpol scheduled for today. Visit Billboard.com, their Jaded Insider blog and our Lollapalooza microsite for continuous updates.

Just because traffic isn't bad enough, let's throw in the Gold Coast - River North Art Fair being held along Clark and Wells Streets from Chicago Ave. to Ontario. It's billed as the third oldest in Chicago and features a variety of juried artwork, including painting, sculpture, jewelry, glass, photography and more. Includes an appearance by author and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" Ted Allen (10 a.m. Saturday), live music, food vendors, art activities and a craft area for kids.

Oh yeah, don't forget the Cubs host the Mets this weekend.

Now get out there and have some FUN!

TECH: New website ranks how "walkable" your neighborhood is

Check out walkscore.com. We have been publishing static "Home Turf" maps for all our listings on our websites, and printing these handy guides to area amenities to include with our property brochures. But having the link to walkscore.com seems to bring the map to life. A map pops up with the address in the middle, amenities in the neighborhood gradually fill the map as a slider moves from left (not very walk-able) to right (nice and pedestrian friendly.) Fortunately, as Chicago real estate agents, all of our listings are rated "Best" just by virtue of their location in the city.

Check out some of these walkscore maps of our listings:

• All our Wellington Park listings
• 2650 N. Mildred in Lincoln Park
• The Lights on Broadway condos in Uptown

Definitely a fan of the new walkscore.com.

Area Appreciation Statistics

Since you asked, here are some appreciation statistics for popular Chicago neighborhoods that we specialize in:

End of first quarter stats for the sale of attached homes (townhomes and condos) in...

Lincoln Park

• 2007 Average Sale Price: $442,683
• 2006 Average Sale Price: $429,014
• 2005 Average Sale Price: $379,387
• 1 year average was UP 3%
• 5 year average was UP 24%
• 10 year average was UP 107%

Lakeview

• 2007 Average Sale Price: $344,005
• 2006 Average Sale Price: $344,035
• 2005 Average Sale Price: $363,351
• 1 year average was even.
• 5 year average was UP 14%
• 10 year average was UP 129%

North Center which includes Lincoln Square, St. Ben's, Roscoe Village and Ravenswood

• 2007 Average Sale Price: $410,719
• 2006 Average Sale Price: $372,842
• 2005 Average Sale Price: $357,097
• 1 year average was UP 10%
• 5 year average was UP 27%
• 10 year average was UP 134%

Check back regularly for stats on Single Family Homes, and perhaps more popular neighborhoods. Feel free to post a comment or send an email with any requests!

Daley Plaza: killing time during a stalled closing. No loan package...

At least in Chicago when things don't go your way, there's someplace interesting to go and cool your jets. Fortunately for me, today, the weather was gorgeous. I was a bit overdressed as I was attending multiple closings, but an hour in Daley Plaza was still a welcome respite from a closing going nowhere fast.

TECH: Website statistics reveal fascinating visitor info

Your guides were rummaging through website visitor statistics provided by our web hosting providers and sitemeter.com and discovered some amazingly detailed reports on web traffic to our websites. This isn't meant to scare the bajeezus out of you, but it does give us some great info on what people are looking for when they happen upon our various websites.

The coolest new data we discovered was the referring URL. Your browser will gladly tell a website (if asked) where they came from as they begin browsing a new site. Plus, if the previous website was a search engine, the search engine forwards along a package of info containing the search words that referred to the website.

In the last day or so, I now know that people clicked on our websites while looking for:

• Chicago residential price appreciation, 2007, by neighborhood
• Selzer library (a Chicago Public Library in Lincoln Square)
• ravenswood condo appreciation
• Scott Waguespack (my alderman in the 42nd ward)
• Chicago lakefront cafe
• windy city great fire pictures

This is the most amazing info! Look for us to post shortly on topics you request - without you even knowing you've requested these posts.

Home Maintenance: Clean your dryer vents

About two weeks ago we began to have trouble drying our clothes. We found we had to use two or three drying cycles to dry the clothes. We also noticed more than the usual heat and humidity in and near our laundry room and the odor of combustion products.

It turned out our dryer's vent had plugged up with five years worth of lint. I cleaned what I could from the inside, but we continued to have difficulties. Finally, I called a handyman with a long ladder and he quickly took care of the problem by removing the vent grille on the outside wall while the dryer was running on the "air only" setting. Quite a bit of lint blew out of the vent.

It's also possible to go outside and remove the exterior grill covering the vent exhaust. Stuff the hose of a canister vacuum down the dryer vent as far as you can and push and pull several times. You'll be amazed at the amount of dryer lint that is removed by this operation.

Perform this task as part of your normal SPRING routine - once per year.

If any of you notice that clothes are not drying properly or if you notice excessive heat and humidity in or near your laundry room, check your vent.

'Tis the Season: Fall Semester at DePaul starts soon

Mom and Dad stopped by one of my open houses on Sunday. I think I almost gave them a heart attack as they were out shopping for a studio or a one-bedroom condo for an incoming freshman at DePaul University this fall. The condo they stopped into was a three-bedroom, two-bath luxury condo listed for $560,000.

I quickly rattled off some statistics about recent sales, and then followed up by checking the MLS for exactly what was available within walking distance of DePaul right now.

Just to add to the challenge, DePaul happens to be located in the heart of Lincoln Park - probably the third most expensive neighborhood in Chicago. Lincoln Park has humble roots as a working class neighborhood developed mostly in the 1920's. It became popular in the 1980's and has experienced rapid price appreciation in the following decades. Modest housing has been converted into condominiums for Yuppies, and in very recent years, multiple buildings have been razed to make way for 12,000 square foot mansions on the south-east end of the neighborhood.

Options for students do exist, however. For your consideration:

625 West Wrightwood is a conversion of an apartment building into standard quality condominiums. The building features studios, one bedrooms and two beds. For a student living alone, a studio could be purchased for $151,400. Parking is available for purchase in this building - a rarity in affordable Lincoln Park condominiums. Our advice to clients is that parking frequently appreciates faster than the condominium, and for an investment, the parking is a wise purchase. But for a student, save the cash and send the kid to college without wheels. A car simply invites too many problems and the additional cost is excessive when trying to hold together a student budget.

Moving up to a full-blown one-bedroom gains you a separate bedroom, a more formal kitchen and separate living room. 2604 North Burling is a vintage building from the 1920's. Unit #3 is on the market for $219,900. My most recent clients that chose to own a condo for their DePaul daughter chose a one-bedroom condo like this one and added a roommate to share expenses. In this vintage condo, parking is not available at any price. Another strong argument to come to Chicago without a car.

The best price on a two-bedroom can be found at 2224 North Burling, #1B for $279,900. Located in a classic Chicago graystone, the spacious apartment has one bath, a separate kitchen and a huge living-dining room combo. It is a garden unit, however, but for college kids, this just means pesky sunlight won't intrude on late-sleepers and you won't be able to hear the too-loud music emanating from the underground college-lair.

Not tempted yet? How about this statistic: The ten year appreciation for condo's and townhomes in Lincoln Park was 107%! The five year appreciation was 24%. (Statistics from the Chicago Association of Realtors.) How nice might it be to buy for $151,000 and sell in 10 years for $312,570? Give a call if you'd like to explore these options further for your college attendees.

Tour: Architecture Boat Cruise on the Chicago River

Chicago is a city filled with landmarks. From the world's first skyscraper to the founding of an entire school of architecture, Chicago is home to some of the finest examples of buildings in the world.

Your guides are fortunate to have season VIP passes to Chicago Line Cruise and Chicago History Museum's Architectural Boat Cruise along the Chicago River.

Born of the Great Fire, structural steel and an indomitable spirit, skyscrapers were invented here … and we have the best way to see them. Join us for 90 minutes of genuinely tall tales and head-turning sights from the breathtaking vantage point of our cruise deck.

The tour leaves the North Pier terminal & the Ogden Slip and heads towards Navy Pier. Turning through the Basin, the tour then heads up the main branch of the River. The first important examples of Chicago Style of Architecture pass by pretty quickly. These clean lined buildings from the 1970's and the 1980's are perfect examples of what became the Chicago Style of Architecture.

Continuing westward, the scenery of Downtown Chicago passes almost too quickly for comprehension. Just sit back and enjoy the sights of Michigan Avenue, the banks of Wacker Drive and famous skyscrapers like the Trump Tower (currently under construction) and the Marina Towers.

You don't really have to pay attention until you reach Wolf Point - where the river splits into the North Branch and the South Branch. The most important lesson in the tour contrasts the styles of post-modernism with contextualism as relates to the Sun Times Building (a.k.a. The Apparel Center) and the blue-glass high rise across the river that echoes the curve of the river and the surrounding buildings.

Up the North Branch and hear about the legacy of Chicago's great mail order shops and view the enormous old warehouses of Montgomery Wards.

After turning around and motoring past new construction townhouses, luxury condos and modern high-rises, the tour heads south past Boeing, past Chicago's Lyric Opera House, the Sears Tower and the Riverside Plaza buildings by Skidmore Owings Merrill.

South of the Sears Tower, the boat turns around near the River City Condominiums, a bland yet architecturally significant building by Bertrand Goldberg. Goldberg is well known in Chicago as the architect of the Marina City Towers seen earlier in the tour near Trump Tower. More of Goldberg's designs can be found throughout Chicago's Gold Coast.

Not to brag, but the photo above is notable for what's not there yet: along the river just west of Lake Shore Drive is the site of the Santiago Calatrava designed Chicago Spire. Savills, the international property advisor leading the global sales effort for The Chicago Spire, announced in July that @properties has been awarded the contract to help manage Illinois sales of the iconic residence. The Chicago Spire received final approval from the Chicago City Council in May, and construction is currently underway. Completion of the 2,000-foot tall elegantly twisting tower is expected late 2010.

Just after passing under Lake Shore Drive again, the tour turns back to the dock at North Pier. The Architecture Boat Cruise sponsored by the Chicago History Museum is packed with more info than we covered here, and every time I take the tour, I learn something new. Give us a call if you'd like to take the tour as I hope to ride the boat several more times this season.

More Architecture Boat Cruise photos at Flickr.