According to a new report, rental vacancies are at a low not seen since 1985 and the prospects for the future for rental property owners are bright. Vacancies in the second quarter of 2015 were 6.8 percent based on U.S. Census data, down from 7.5 percent in 2014. According to the report, multiple applicants are vying for the same apartments and owners are raising rents...
The latest numbers are in and while Naperville, Aurora, and Joliet typically lead the list of top-sellers they aren't the most competitive markets for suburban buyers. That honor for the month of August goes to Lake Zurich, with an average market time of 11 days, followed by Prospect Heights at 14 days and South Elgin at 15 days. And the suburbs with the lowest inventory were Villa Park with 2.6 months of supply, Romeoville with 2.7 and Crest Hill with 2.9...
According to the latest data, mortgage applications last week rose 25.5 percent from the previous week. The Mortgage Applications Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that refinancing increased by 24 percent and purchase mortgages increased by 27 percent. Refinancing was a little over half of the activity, comprising 58 percent, while adjustable-rate mortgages comprised 7.6 percent...
Developers have flooded Chicago city hall in the last 30 days with new residential projects. Last month 40 plans for new projects were submitted to the city, a 46 percent increase from the previous month. The surge in applications was certainly prompted, at least in part, by a new Affordable Requirements Ordinance that will require additional affordable units in each project submitted after Sept. 24, 2015 but it isn't just that...
While the highest-volume neighborhoods tend to be the same, lining up well with the neighborhoods with the highest condo inventory. But when you consider other variables like time on the market and highest sale price versus list price, the list of neighborhoods changes considerably. Last month the city's most competitive market was Mount Greenwood with only seven days on the market. The West Loop and McKinley Park at eight days and Wicker Park with nine...
Two new towers are proposed for a strip of retail in the Clybourn Corridor of the popular Lincoln Park neighborhood. Developers are hoping to build two rental towers just off Clybourn, at 901 W. Weed St. The site is currently home to a strip of retail but the towers would add 407 new rental units to the area. For more, head over to Curbed Chicago here . Image via Curbed...
Cash sales, which dominated the market during the economic recession, are nearing normal levels in Chicago, according to a new report. CoreLogic reported this week that cash sales in Chicago were at 27.9 percent in June, their lowest level yet and near the long-term trend line of about 25 percent. They declined 5 percentage points year-over-year. Chicago is also doing better than the national average of 31.3 percent of total cash home sales in June...
The numbers for August are in and the top-selling neighborhood in the city of Chicago was, unsurprisingly, the Near North Side. The popular neighborhood with abundant condo options made a total of 266 sales as the summer wound down. It was followed by Lincoln Park with 175 and West Town with 166. Home sales volume for the city was up 6.3 percent but the top neighborhoods saw declines in volume with the close of warm weather...
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Homes prices in Chicago edged up again in July according to the latest figures. The S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index reported that Chicago saw a modest increase of .9 percent from the previous month, beating the national average increase of .7 percent. On an annualized basis prices are up 1.8 percent. Read more at the Chicago Tribune here .
The South Loop is red hot right now. Last week, in a single evening , nearly 1,500 apartments were proposed in new towers for the neighborhood. Those towers include a show-stopper by Helmut Jahn which would become one of the tallest buildings in the city. To read about all the projects, head over to Curbed Chicago here . The latest figures are in for the top-selling suburbs in the Chicago metro area for the month of August, and Naperville was the leader again...
The latest figures are in for the top-selling suburbs in the Chicago metro area for the month of August, and Naperville was the leader again. Overall, sales in the suburbs picked up by 4.3 percent year over year. The three leaders, Naperville with 254, Joliet with 229 and Aurora with 222 actually saw their numbers decline but the condo/townhouse numbers increased across the area. For more, head over to Chicago Agent Magazine here .
It truly seems that not a day can go by in Chicago without another announcement of a new residential tower, but today's announcement was particularly impressive. Architect Helmut Jahn is behind the design for a new South Loop tower that would rise 86 stories, making it among the tallest in the city, the fifth tallest, in fact, at 1,030 feet. It would include as many as 506 residences at 1000 S. Michigan Ave. For more, head over to Curbed Chicago here .
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Home sales continued to mark increasing prices in August as sales saw an expected decline with the end of the summer, according to a new report on the national market from the National Association of Realtors. In the Midwest existing home sales declined 1.5 percent to 1.28 million, but that figure represented a year-over-year increase of 5.8 percent. Perhaps the best news in the report is that first-time homebuyers are making a come-back...
A joint venture is proposing more than 900 additional housing units south of River City , according to a proposal unveiled last week. The developers, CMK and Australian construction company Lend Lease are also planning to build 2,700 homes north of River City in a riverfront site they've dubbed River South. If all their plans come to fruition, the area could be home to thousands of additional residents and look very different in a decade...
If you've been looking for a new home in Lincoln Park, then you may be in luck (though you'll probably have to wait a year or so). A new developer came forward yesterday with a plan to redevelop a former industrial site at Wrightwood and Hermitage with two, four-story residential buildings. The project would include a mix of 30 condos and 60 rentals and has been designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners. The average size of the apartments would be 2,500 square feet...
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It looks like developer Centrum Partners have been given the green light to move forward with a new, mixed-use building for a corner site adjacent to the new 606 trail. The developer reduced the overall unit count on the project from 128 to 95 and then dropped the height to five and a half stories. The project will be anchored by an Aldi that currently occupies the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Leavitt. DNAinfo has more renderings of the project here ...
Fannie Mae is changing a regulation that could mean qualifying many people borrowers to become homeowners. The agency announced this week that they're overhauling their HomeReady program to allow underwriters to consider the income of a co-habitating, non-borrower when calculating the debt-to-income ratio, a key metric in qualifying a potential home-buyer for a mortgage...
