CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE STATS PACK - March 2, 2008
Good Morning, Everyone!
Many homeowners seeking to re-fi their old home loans to take advantage of today's attractive interest rates are often being stymied by the holders of their second mortgage loan.
As recently as a few years ago, borrowers with less than 20% down on their new houses pulled an immediate second mortgage loan to bring their LTV to the acceptable 80% threshold necessary to avoid costly Private Mortgage Insurance. Today, some lenders on these smaller second liens are hesitant to subordinate their loans when the borrowers refinance. This could delay or halt the refinance, and force many borrowers to swallow the hefty adjustable rate resets.
It's all a bit complicated, but nonetheless a stumbling block for many home borrowers seeking to better their financial position with their home loans. See our posting today on BlogChicagoHomes.com, with links to Kenneth R. Harney's piece in the Sunday, March 2nd edition of The Chicago Tribune.
Here's our updated Chicago IL Real Estate Stats Pack for Monday Morning, March 3rd.
Communities and clients we serve reside, or plan to reside, in the Chicago Neighborhoods of The Chicago Loop, The Gold Coast, River North, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Uptown, Edgewater, North Center, Lincoln Square, Albany Park, Ravenswood, Wicker Park, and Bucktown.
Also, these Great Chicago Neighborhoods: Logan Square, Rogers Park , West Ridge, Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Norwood Park, Sauganash, Edgebrook, and Edison Park. Plus All Chicago Suburbs.
SINGLE FAMILY, CONDOS, AND SMALL MULTI-UNIT PROPERTIES - NORTH SIDE OF CHICAGO, NORTH OF ADDISON STREET, WEST OF ASHLAND AVENUE
ACTV LISTINGS JUST SOLD CLOSED EXPIRED
w/e March 2nd 4,425 55 75 64
w/e February 24th 4,404 58 43 41
% CHANGE +0.5% -5.2% +74.4% +56.1%
CLOSED PROPERTIES DATA
AVG SALE PRICE AVG DAYS ON MKT TOTAL VOLUME
w/e March 2nd $284,185 144 DAYS $21,313,924
w/e February 24th $333,106 159 DAYS $14,323,570
% CHANGE -14.7% -9.4% +48.8%
THEORETICAL TIME TO CLEAR EXISTING INVENTORY (ABSORPTION RATE) -
w/e March 2nd - LAST 12 MOS - 12.98 LAST 6 MOS - 24.24 LAST 3 MOS - 45.38
w/e February 24th - LAST 12 MOS - 12.83 LAST 6 MOS - 22.79 LAST 3 MOS - 48.14
PERCENT OF HOMES SELLING IN 180 DAYS -
w/e March 2nd - 21.57% (UNSOLD - 78.43%)
w/e February 24th - 22.02% (UNSOLD - 77.98%)
SOURCE: MLSNI, AREA MARKET SURVEY DATA
OBSERVATIONS
I'm very encouraged by the improvement in the Sold Units and Sales Volume Numbers this week. These figures indicate transactions under contract earlier this year are going to closing in high numbers. The Total Active Listings figure still very much concerns us - inventory is still very high in the North Side of Chicago Neighborhoods we serve most frequently. Ideally, I would love to see this figure either remain stable or drop short term, with continued jumps in Properties Pending Sale, Sold Units, and Sales Volume. However, Pending Properties figures are still weak, despite high levels of inventory.
Average Sales Price dropped considerably this week, washing last week's rise, but perhaps indicating that many sellers are finally beginning to price their properties for sale more realistically. Average Market Time still at too high a level, but it's good to see a drop here nonetheless.
Absorption Rate and Percentage of Sale Within Six Month (180 Days) remain high once again, although there was an encouraging 5.7% drop in the three-month Absorption Rate versus last week. It would be interesting to follow this figure in the Spring Chicago Market, and also to see if the President's Economic Stimulus Package and further interest rate cuts by the FED have any impact.
The chances of selling a home within a normal six-month marketing time frame dropped to 21.57%. Again, the stubbornly high Average Market Time could have predicted this.
RATE AND MARKET CHECK
Average 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates increased by 0.20% last week, to a weekly nationwide average of 6.24%. These rates are higher than in recent weeks, but still historically very low. This week in 2007, average 30-year fixed mortgage rates were 6.18%. This is the first week in several months that today's average rates actually exceed averages of last year.
"Long-term fixed mortgage rates trended up for a third week, bringing rates on 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages back to their levels of last November," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Refinancing activities, which had surged to a 12-month high in January, according to Freddie Mac's monthly refi share report, are likely to ebb following this recent rise in rates."
For daily news, hot information, and trends, view our Real Estate Update newsletter, via our Web Center - dean-team.com.
Call us for specific Real Estate Data and Trends for your neighborhood!
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
