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The Real Estate Market is Hopping With Home Buyers in Chicago’s Suburbs and Downtown Chicago This Spring – From Lake Zurich and Palatine, to the North Shore – to Downers Grove, Lombard and Naperville, to Bucktown and Wicker Park

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

The Real Estate Market is Hopping With Home Buyers in Chicago’s Suburbs and Downtown Chicago This Spring – From Lake Zurich and Palatine – to the North Shore, to Downers Grove, Lombard and Naperville, to Bucktown and Wicker Park

It is off-to-the- races for home buyers in the Chicagoland area!

Folks – the market has changed. It’s off-to-the-races for home buyers. I can’t tell you how many offers there are now on short sale, foreclosure, new construction and owner occupied homes this spring….. LOTS. In many cases, we are encountering multiple offer situations for homes that are priced right that have been well taken care of (and that are not too dated for the price) or for short sale properties.

We are swamped with new home buyer clients

We are swamped with home buyer clients wanting Chicagoland’s best real estate negotiator on their side! We’ll lead you along a safe path to closing – after negotiating a killer price.

Downtown Chicago

We have a client heading to closing on a Bucktown property, and 5 clients in the Downers Grove / Lombard / Naperville area, and a number of clients in the Northwest Suburbs (Palatine, Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills), and a North Shore client.

Rates are down, but with the economy improving they are expected to go up – so there are a lot of people flocking to buy low and lock in a low rate. By summer, and certainly by fall – we expect that interest rates will tick higher.

Home Sales are Up across the Chicagoland area. From Palatine, Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills, to the North Shore to Downers Grove, Lombard, Naperville to Bucktown, Wicker Park and Downtown Chicago

Today – it was revealed that pending sales of existing homes rose to their highest level in nearly two years in March, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest Pending Home Sales Index.

The index, which represents contracts signed but not yet closed, jumped a seasonally adjusted 4.1 percent from February to March, to 101.4. That’s the highest index level since April 2010, when the deadline for a federal homebuyer tax credit program loomed. The index was 111.3 then. Pending sales were up 10.8 percent from the same time a year ago on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.

An index score of 100 is equal to the average level of sales contract activity in 2001, a robust year for home sales and the first year examined. The index typically represents about 20 percent of all existing-home transactions. Contracts signed in March typically close one or two months later.

“First-quarter sales closings were the highest first-quarter sales in five years. The latest contract signing activity suggests the second quarter will be equally good,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a statement.

Home sales turned a corner

“The housing market has clearly turned the corner,” Yun said. “Rising sales are bringing down inventory and creating much more balanced conditions around the county, which means home prices will be rising in more areas as the year progresses.”

If you’d like to put Chicagoland’s best real estate negotiators on your side, and have an agent who is TOTALLY ON YOUR SIDE (versus half on your side as a so-called “buyer agent” can be – ie – they and their company list property for sale) then call 847-566-7558 to set up an initial consultation to see if you qualify. You can visit Buyer Broker Chicagoland for more information.

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Posted in Bucktown, Downers Grove, Downtown Chicago, Lake Zurich, Lombard, Naperville, North Shore, Palatine Ilinois, Vernon Hills, Wicker Park

Tagged Bucktown, Downers Grove, Lake Zurich, Lombard, Naperville, North Shore, Palatine, sales trends, The Real Estate Market is Hopping With Home Buyers in Chicago's Suburbs and Downtown Chicago This Real Estate market, Wicker Park

Short Sales Get Shorter As New Deadlines Go Into Effect

Posted on March 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Mortgage servicers will be kept to strict short sale timelines agreed to under the state Attorneys General foreclosure settlement this week.

As part of a settlement the five largest mortgage servicers are adopting new requirements for short sales, which is expected to speed-up what has been known as a lengthy process.

Here are some of the new requirements for servicers under the settlement:

Servicers must provide borrowers with a decision within 30 days after receiving a short sale package request.
Servicers will be required to notify a borrower, also within 30 days, if any necessary documents are missing to process the short sale request.
Servicers must notify a borrower immediately if a deficiency payment is needed to approve the short sale. They also must provide an estimated amount for the deficiency payment needed for the short sale.
Servicers are also required to form an internal group to review all short sale requests.
Banks will be considered in violation of the settlement requirements if they take longer than 30 days on more than 10 percent of the short sale requests. Violations can carry fines of up to $1 million and $5 million for repeat offenses.

“If a real estate broker can get a checklist from the bank detailing what documentation is needed, everything can be provided up front, and the bank will be required to give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down within 30 days,” short sale specialist Chris Hanson with the Hanson Law Firm told HousingWire. “That’s not a bad deal.”

Our Comment:

The only thing is that if a bank wants to jerk people around (many of them do), they can still take as long as they’d like. All they have to do is respond within 30 days that they need a bank statement. Then 30 later, say they need a new pay stub, then 30 days later, say they are missing form xyz. This is exactly what they are doing today, they just have to do it every 30 days now. They have no interest in rushing and this law does not change that.

What it should say is this:

--- Here is a list of every document that you must turn in to a lender (a checklist).

--- Homeowner has 30 days to send in docs.

--- Then the lender must respond within 30 days WHAT they have received.

--- Homeowner has 30 days to provide any missing docs. If not, deal is done.

--- Once all docs are received, bank has 30 days to make a decision.

--- The process can take no more than 90 days MAXIMUM.

Doesn’t seem too hard to me. Banks wouldn't like it, but too bad.

So for home buyers from Antioch and Gurnee to Arlington Heights and Lake Zurich to the North Shore (Highland Park, Deerfield etc.), to down to Downers Grove, Lombard and Naperville, and to downtown Chicago and nearby areas (Bucktown, Wicker Park etc.) - the short sale process will be the same old same old...