Bank of America survey of Agents for September

In some neighborhoods in Chicago, Months Supply of Inventory (MSI) has already surpassed 10 months. The chart below is from B of A's nationwide survey.

Few lookers left in the market.

Traffic deteriorated further in September, falling short of nearly all agents’ expectations as our traffic index fell to 9.6 from 17.6 in August. 85% of agents said traffic was below expectations, 12% said it met expectations, and just 3% said it exceeded expectations. As one agent noted, “It’s another month, but the same problem: no one can get a loan and sellers want too much for their property, so buyers are back to sitting on the fence.” In addition, agents pointed out most potential buyers are also sellers and they can’t move because their homes continue to languish on the market. One agent said, “I had one open house where no one even showed up.”

Prices continue to fall, but buyers look for greater reductions.

Home prices fell again in September, as our price index was unchanged at 19.5 from 19.4 August (any reading below 50 indicates lower prices over the past 30 days). Despite the recent price declines, agents seemed to note a growing gap between buyer and seller expectations, with several making comments such as, “Sellers have unrealistic price expectations,” and, “buyers are looking for lower prices than sellers are willing to settle for.” Appraisers appear to be helping to jumpstart the negotiations, as agents say appraisals are coming in very low. “I had one house recently appraised at $400,000 just get reappraised for $370,000. Not surprisingly, inventories increased and time to sell lengthened in September, with our indices falling to 20.8 and 9.1, respectively, from 24.6 and 11.4 in August, short of a neutral 50.

Mega auto-mall planned for North Ave. & Clybourn

Grossinger Auto Sales has filed a zoning application to build a five-dealership auto mall on the site of the former Expo Design Center located at 1500 North Dayton - just south of the intersection of North Ave., Halsted and Clybourn.

Residents of nearby Old Town had been concerned that the auto mall would be located on Wells Street at the site of the former Tower Oldsmobile. Alderwoman Vi Daley (43rd) considers the new site "more appropriate than Wells Street." Considering the residential and recreational nature of Wells Street today, your guides completely agree.

Though the Clybourn Corridor is home to a myriad of retail destinations, the auto mall site sits immediately next door to the new SoNo development currently under construction. Smithfield development is near groundbreaking on two towers of residential condominiums with 550 one, two and three bedroom units plus retail space on the ground floor.

Though your guides find the idea of living in a vibrant area with a variety of retail options nearby, the automobile-centric nature of this retail corridor makes us just a bit wary of living this/close to an auto-dealer, (an already existing) car wash, and the busy parking lots that serve the Sams, Best Buy, Circuit City, Crate & Barrel, etc.

Monday Mortgage Humor - a couple days late

From the Monday Mortgage Humor blog:

A loan officer died and went up to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates to present himself for admittance to Heaven.

Peter said, “You did a lot of good helping people get into homes and you donated lot to charity and worked on that Habitat house. But you told too many fibs to the underwriters and were unkind to your processor. We aren’t sure where you are going to fit. So we’ve decided to show you around both Heaven and Hell and see where you feel more comfortable.”

As they toured Heaven, the loan officer really liked the big mansions and the streets paved with gold, but the harp music got on his nerves.

Then when they showed him around Hell, he noticed everyone had their choice of playing golf or tennis, hanging out by the pool, smoking and drinking, or dancing and playing cards in the clubhouse.

He told St. Peter, “Oh, this is going to be hard! Can I sleep on it?” So he was allowed to think it over during the night.

The next morning they asked him for his decision. He quickly replied, “Oh please send me to Hell!”

So they opened up the doors to Hell, but the whole picture had changed! It was just like you have always heard with fire and brimstone! People were burning and being tortured and screaming! Oh it was so hot and horrible!

“Hey, that’s not what you showed me yesterday!” the loan officer cried.

St. Peter’s cold reply: “You should have locked-in yesterday!”

More details released for Chicago Spire

From Crains Chicago Business

Prices at the Santiago Calatrava-designed twisting tower, which is to be the tallest building in the U.S. when it’s completed in 2011, will range from $750,000 to $40 million for the two-level penthouse in the tip of the 150-story skyscraper.

Price details as well as a look at the interiors were disclosed Wednesday to the media during a tour of the Spire’s lavish sales center on the 18th floor of the NBC Tower, which overlooks the building’s site at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive.

Progress on new homes along Honore at Wellington

I thought about posting on the subject of taxes today, but regular readers don't seem to be one bit interested. In case you want to read more about taxes, check out Mark Brown in the Sun Times or the Chicago Tribune.

In a far more interesting development, the architect who designed the house right on the corner of Wellington and Honore posted a billboard with the final design of the house. So, do you love it or hate it?

The three more modest (?) homes to the north are coming along nicely.

The second funniest man I know

I love Chicago. I love taking pictures. Therefore many of the posts here are pictures of Chicago. Many times I have resisted the temptation to post photos just because the photo is a good or interesting one. There are other blogs for that and this blog is about Chicago Real Estate.

But I made a new friend in Maine - a friend of a friend who has bought and sold many homes with your guides, and he is an avid photographer. He shared many tips and techniques on photography and I am grateful and humbled.

His photos are pretty good, too. So, if you're in the mood to take a stroll through the slightly twisted psyche of my new favorite photo-buddy, check out his FLICKR collections and his blog.

Greetings from Owls Head, Maine

I just realized that it's been 12 days from my last post and couldn't let the Blog continue for any more days with that old date on the top post.

I'm on a driving vacation from Chicago to Maine, spending the majority of the week in Maine. This home is in Owls Head, Maine, near Camden.

To give this post a real estate angle, this house is a four bedroom, five-and-a-half bath home built in 1997. There's a three-car garage with a studio apartment above. The basement features a full game room and home theater. The photo above was taken with the Atlantic Ocean to my back. I'd estimate the price of the home at $2-million.

As an investment property, this house rents for $3,400 a week plus an additional $700 a week if you want to use the studio apartment upstairs from the garage. So, let's see... At 50% occupancy - 26 weeks times $3,400 is $88,400 a year. I'd estimate that the expenses are around $5,000 to $6,000 a month. So, the house brings in a net of $16,000 a year, but has also more than doubled in value from just under a million to today's price of near two-million.

So, who's up for some coastline property in Maine???

Slight rise in web traffic to listings online

After several weeks of flat website traffic to listing data, the first full week of September brought more eyeballs to listing data on our websites. The week ending September 9 also included the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. The week ending September 16 is incomplete as this report was delivered overnight between September 14 and 15.

Keep in mind that this level is down from a high of nearly 1,500 views per week recorded the week ending May 27.

Tour historic homes of Edgewater this Sunday

Eight homes in West Andersonville will be open for viewing on Sunday during a housewalk in the Edgewater neighborhood.

The West Andersonville nighborhood is located just north of the original settlement that the community got its name from. The original Andersonville settlement was located just north of Foster and west of Bryn Mawr.

Brush up on your history and get info on the Edgewater tour at the Edgewater Historical Society at 5358 N. Ashland Ave.

www.edgewaterhistory.org.

Sshhh... It's a secret...

You'd never know this house in our neighborhood was for sale.

We wish we didn't have to tell sellers this over and over again: Yes, the sign in front of your house actually helps! The neighborhood this home is located in was recently named one of Chicago's hottest neighborhoods. It is filled with new developments with sales offices that drive tremendous traffic into their cars and those prospects spend their Sundays driving up and down the major streets that define the neighborhood. This house is nearly on one of the busiest corners in the area.

Other sales efforts undertaken read like a beginners course in "How Not To Sell Your Home in Today's Market"

• No additional photos in the MLS. Our local MLS can host up to 8 photos. Our local MLS also pushes all those photos to the national databases and other real estate websites.
• No virtual tour. Our local MLS will even link to an external virtual tour as well as include this link when the property info is sent to other Realtors' clients via email.
• No additional photos or virtual tour on the listing data at Realtor.com. It makes me wonder why the agent bothered to enhance the Realtor.com listing at all. It does have a headline and custom description.
• Originally listed $400,000 too high. Recently reduced $200,000 - now only $200,000 too high.
• Too low a co-operative commission to buyers' Realtors for our market. It's tough to entice Realtors to bring buyers to your listing when what you're offering is 20% less than they could earn elsewhere. There are 329 other houses for sale over $1-million to choose from in this area and the surrounding neighborhoods. A brief survey of these listings shows that only 3% of these homes are offering a lower than expected co-op to buyers' Realtors. In other words - there's plenty of others to choose from.

This transaction is being squeezed in all the wrong directions. From the choice of listing company to the sub-par co-op and the lackluster marketing materials, it's clear that these sellers had their eye on making the most amount of money on this sale as possible. The goal is completely understandable.

But all the cut-corners and choices on the cheap could actually be driving traffic to other homes in the neighborhood.

For a house of this caliber, the marketing materials needs to be first rate not half-hearted. Whether marketed by owner or listed with a Realtor, some inexpensive changes could make all the difference.

• A professional photographer should take a photo of every room in this home.
• A professional videographer should shoot a virtual tour of the major living spaces and two of the largest bedrooms in the home. Some companies here in Chicago will shoot the video tour and pro photos at the same time. This should cost less than $300!
• The photos and virtual tour should be promoted in as many online avenues as possible.
• This home calls out for a custom home web page. Go Daddy web hosting can walk you through a do-it-yourself website and do it all for under $100!
• A professional brochure should be available for prospects when they visit.
• A professionally produced sign (not a FSBO sign from the hardware store) should advertise the availability of this home!

The nicest home on the block shouldn't be such a well-kept secret.