Finding a Home in the Right School District
Moving to Chicago is hard enough without children, but when you add finding a school for your kids into the mix locating that perfect home becomes all the more difficult. When you are looking for yourself you likely ask yourself a number of questions: What are good Chicago neighborhoods? Do I want to live on the North or South side? Which neighborhood has the most convenient public transportation? You have a few more questions to consider when you are looking for a place for you and your children. What are the best school districts? What are the boundaries for the district you want your children to be within? What are the school rankings for Chicago Public Schools?
Until now there hasn’t been a very helpful means to get all of the important questions answered, outside of recommendations from locals, but what if you don’t know anyone from Chicago? Thanks to the creator of www.schoolsparrow.com you don’t have to dig too deep to get most of your questions answered. They have taken the most common questions into consideration when developing their website. School Sparrow makes the claim that you can “See the entire landscape of good school districts that also have homes for-sale (or rent) . . . within your budget. [Their] integrated data includes school performance, school boundaries and current real estate information.”
The creator of School Sparrow, Tom Brown, is a local Chicago dad who recently went through the process of finding a school for his daughter and he “created School Sparrow to make it easier for Chicago parents to find a comprehensive list of potential schools to explore, and to find a home in the correct attendance boundaries. After building School Sparrow [he] identified several schools that [he] wished [he] had explored because not only did they look good on paper, but also the housing stock is significantly more affordable than their current location in Ravenswood. Tom loves his current neighborhood and is very happy with the school in which [his] daughter is enrolled, but [he] thinks [he] made the decision without being fully informed about all the options that were available.”
To find out more about School Sparrow and search all of their active listings visit: www.schoolsparrow.com
Presenting Your Home: Staging and Storage
BY Joseph Ver
Presenting your home to prospective buyers is an important part of selling your home, so it’s important to have a presentable home. “Home staging” is a buzzword that gets thrown around when one puts their home on the market, but it’s important for a reason. Home staging is a process that is as simple as making sure your lawn is kept trimmed and orderly, but can also be as complicated as completely changing the layout of a room. Assess your home and use these tips when you put your home on the market.
Easy does it. Home staging is a process. Start out slowly by doing typical things to clean your home. Vacuum, dust the furniture, make your beds, and throw out your trash. Make this a daily habit. Once a showing happens, just do these quick clean tips and you’re ready to get out of your house!
Look at things with a new perspective. What are you looking for in a new home? What do you expect to see when you walk in for a showing? Now, look at your home in the same way. Will moving that nightstand into another part of your home change your home drastically? Will pushing that sofa a little bit closer to the television make all the difference? It’s definitely a possibility. Rearrange different rooms in your house.
Declutter declutter declutter. You see that giant treadmill that takes up half of the space in your living room? Get rid of it! Unless you are a treadmill fiend, the last thing you want is for prospective buyers to bump into a bulky machine in the middle of your living room. Once again, assess the items in your home. Throw away that pile of newspapers that you’ve been collecting. Put away your children’s toys. Declutter your home to open it up. It will help make your home seem a lot bigger. Can’t find a place to store your things? Think about using a storage unit for a temporary home for your belongings.
Do you have any other home staging tips? Let me know!
Joseph Ver is part of the SpareFoot marketing team. Use SpareFoot storage finder to help find the best price and location for your storage unit.
Put Your Best Features Forward
Your sellers may be covering up some of their home’s best features—literally. In your listings, don’t let clutter or poor design choices lessen the appeal of subtle selling points such as upgraded kitchen countertops, fireplaces, and built-in shelving units. Staging can put these features in the spotlight during showings.
Roomy Kitchen Countertops
Stage a kitchen so that it shows off counter space. Stager Anthea Click of Fresh Perspectives in Nashville offers three tips for countertops.
- Put extras away. Have no more than three appliances on the countertops—even fewer if the counter space is small. Remove extra items such as knife blocks, phones, and baskets, which will make the countertops look smaller than they really are.
- Highlight. If the home has a center island, make it a focal point with greenery, such as an orchid, or a bowl of fresh fruit. If the island is big enough, have place settings on display with up to three bar stools. If the kitchen doesn’t have an island but there’s space for one, bring in a portable one to add counter space.
- Add color. Try placing kitchen canisters on the counter for color, interest, and balance.
CRER Presents: Mobile Optimized Chicago Property Search
Chicago Real Estate Resources is excited to announce that we now provide on-the-go property search capabilities! Our Mobile Property Search brings powerful search features to mobile devices; allowing mls access to iPad or Android tablet users and is also for use on your Android, Blackberry or iPhone. Find listings and open houses near your location or search the entire mls directly from your mobile device.
You can now take your property search with you, wherever you go! With a single click visitors can save any mls listing to reference at a later time. In addition, we now support a new radius search; type in a starting street address and search for homes within a radius of anywhere from 1/4 to 20 miles. Search by street name, number or full street address and see instant results as you type!
You can quickly contact a CRER Agent for additional information or to schedule a showing with just a click from your mobile device.
Scan the QR code below or visit, www.crer.com/propertysearch from your mobile device to get started!
Chicago Homes: March Mortgage Interest Rate Report
Mortgage Rate News & Analysis
Long-term interest rates were largely stagnant in February, according to data from mortgage finance company Freddie Mac, as investors responded to mixed economic reports.
February 2
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the month took a dive to new record lows with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate falling to 3.87 percent, excluding fees, from 3.98 percent the previous week. The 15-year FRM also declined, falling to 3.14 percent from 3.24 percent, but the one-year adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) rose to an average of 2.76 percent from 2.74 percent.
“Most mortgage rates eased to all-time record lows this week as fourth quarter growth in the economy fell short of market projections,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac. “The Gross Domestic Product rose 2.8 percent in the final three months of 2011, below the market consensus forecast of 3.0 percent, while consumer spending in December was flat.”
February 9
There was very little change in interest rate during the next week, as the 30-year FRM was unchanged at 3.87 percent, the 15-year FRM inched up to 3.16 percent, and the one-year ARM fluctuated to 2.78 percent.
February 16
The situation further stagnated in the third week as both the 30- and 15-year FRM were unchanged and the one-year ARM rose to 2.84 percent.
“Fixed mortgage rates were unchanged this week amid mixed confidence measures,” Nothaft commented. “Small business confidence ticked up slightly in January, representing a fourth consecutive month gain, according to the National Federation of Independent Business index. However, the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell in February by more than the market consensus forecast breaking a five month trend.
February 23
By the last week, interest rates rose back to where they ended in January. The average rate on a 30-year FRM was 3.95 percent, the 15-year FRM grew to 3.19 percent, but the one-year ARM dropped to 2.73 percent.
What’s Next for Interest Rates?
With most major economic reports trending toward the slightly more positive, rates will most likely stay very close to their current position as they are tempered by a continued pessimism from the Federal Reserve.
Real Estate 2012: The Big Picture on the Housing Market
What does 2012 hold for the U.S. housing market? Here’s a quick look at the issues to see where we’re headed.
Interest Rates
In its most recent meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve decided once again to leave its target interest rate unchanged in the range of zero to 0.25 percent. That rate has not changed since December 2008, and it looks as though there will be no movement for some time to come. In its statement, the FOMC said that in order to support a stronger economic recovery, “The Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy,” as it “anticipates that economic conditions…are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate, at least through late 2014.” Low Fed rates, in addition to the Fed’s program of buying mortgage-backed bonds, are likely to keep mortgage interest rates near historically-low averages for the whole of 2012, although rates could end the year higher than they started as the economy improves.
Foreclosures
Although the number of new foreclosures fell 40 percent in 2011, it wasn’t because there were actually fewer homeowners going into default. This decrease results from the “robo-signing” scandal and the resulting backup in processing.
“Nationally, foreclosure pipelines remain at historic highs, but they are clearing at very different rates depending upon state procedures,” said Herb Blecher of LPS Applied Analytics.
And, as of the end of 2011, most banks had resumed full-scale processing of foreclosures, with a jump in new foreclosure activity in the last quarter of the year.
“The big increase in new foreclosure actions may be a signal that lenders are starting to push through some of the foreclosures delayed by robo-signing and other documentation problems,” RealtyTrac’s CEO James Saccacio told CNBC in September. “It also foreshadows more bank repossessions in the coming months as these new foreclosures make their way through the process.”
It appears very likely that that the number of foreclosures will rise significantly in 2012.
Home Prices
There is not much hope for a recovery in home prices before all the foreclosure inventory is worked through. The most recent Reuters poll of economists found that most do not expect to see any real movement in home prices this year. States in the hardest hit areas of the country are especially likely to see further drops in housing values as non-foreclosure properties for sale must compete with so many discounted distressed homes. For example, in Nevada, according to RealtyTrac, distressed properties made up 57 percent of all home sales in the third quarter of 2011, and they sold for only 20 percent less than traditional home sales. The national average for foreclosure discounts was much higher at 34 percent.
Home Sales
With interest rates remaining low and a large stock of foreclosures helping to keep home prices low, 2012 will be a buyers’ market. Yet mortgage credit remains tight and the uncertainty of the employment scene will likely keep home sales from blossoming. A recent forecast from mortgage giant Freddie Mac predicted that sales of existing homes will increase between 2 percent and 5 percent this year.
Overall, the theme for 2012′s housing market should be one of progress. It might be incremental and it might be the progress of finally bottoming out, but things should be somewhat better by the end of the year than at the beginning.
Existing Home Sales: On the Rise
Home Sales Pace
Sales of existing U.S. homes rose for the third consecutive month in December, according to the National Association of Realtors, a possible sign of a “sustained recovery.”
“The pattern of home sales in recent months demonstrates a market in recovery,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Record low mortgage interest rates, job growth and bargain home prices are giving more consumers the confidence they need to enter the market.”
Total existing home sales grew 5.0 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million units from a downwardly revised 4.39 million in November. Compared with one year earlier, sales were up 3.6 percent.
The national median home price rose on a monthly basis for the second month, rising to $164,500 from a downwardly revised $164,000 in November. The median price is still down 2.5 percent from December 2010.
The NAR defines existing homes as all previously-owned single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and co-ops. The group “seasonally adjusts” the sales numbers to factor in things like inclement weather, school sessions, winter holidays, etc to smooth out the trends.
The NAR also describes its sales data based on an annual pace. The monthly figure represents the total number of housing units that would be sold in one year if the current rate were to continue unchanged.
Sales Pace by Region
Regionally, sales rose all across the country, led by another major increase in the Northeast.
In the Northeast, sales jumped 10.7 percent to an annual rate of 620,000 in December from 560,000 homes in November. Sales are up 3.3 percent compared with November 2010.
Sales in the Midwest increased 8.3 percent to an annual pace of 1.04 million homes from 960,000 the month before and up 9.5 percent from the previous year.
In the South, sales rose 2.9 percent to an annual level of 1.76 million units from November’s 1.71 million homes. On a yearly basis, sales have risen 3.5 percent.
In the West, sales moved up 2.6 percent to an annual pace of 1.19 million in December from 1.16 million. Compared with the year before, sales were down 0.8 percent.
Home Prices
The median home price, the point at which half of all homes are sold for more and half are sold for less, rose in the West and South, but fell in the Northeast and Midwest.
In the Northeast, the median price fell to $231,300 from $237,300 in November, and was down 2.7 percent from the previous year.
The median price in the Midwest declined to $129,100 in December from $132,400, and fell 7.9 percent the year before.
In the South, home prices rose to a median of $146,900 from November’s $142,200 but decreased 1.1 from last year.
In the West, the median price grew to $205,200 in December from $200,600 and increased 0.3 percent from December 2010.
Inventory
Total existing-home inventory fell 9.2 percent in December to 2.38 million homes for sale. At the current sales rate, that represents a 6.2-month supply, down from an 7.2-month supply in November.
