Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs

Lake Barrington Real Estate - Property Sales 2011

Lake Barrington Shores makes up a large amount of the housing in Lake Barrington, but there is more. Lake Barrington real estate includes about 900 single family homes most of which are located on 1 to 2 acre lots.

Before we look at sales of Lake Barrington real estate in 2011  it's interesting to look at new construction here. A few years ago two new larger subdivisions were created, Tallgrass and The Enclave of Heritage Estates. Another small one Walnut Grove also started.  All three came to a grinding halt when the market fell and have yet to show any signs of life.

New construction permits were in double digits until 2002, then they dropped to a slower rate of about 4 or 5 a year. 2008 and 2009 had one apiece and 2010 saw two new homes built. So while there is space in Lake Barrington real estate for new homes, it appears not to be on anyone's immediate agenda.

Now back to the activity in Lake Barrington real estate in 2011

Total sales of single family homes in 2011 amounted to 24 homes with sales prices from $304,000 to $875,000. Sales for Lake Barrington real estate were on average 93% of the asking price. That's good for sellers, but I have to say price reductions were still needed to get that sale. Sales price to the original list price was low at 84%. I hope this coming year will see a little more stability in Lake Barrington real estate, I too am a property owner here. I also hope sellers will list at the right price range for their home at the very start.

Lake Barrington real estate contracts for sale took on average 318 days in 2011.

Four bedroom homes were the most popular, followed by five bedroom homes, then 3 bedroom homes. Lake Barrington real estate has a lot of subdivisions that are under 20 years in age. So although new construction is not yet available, buyers can consider homes in Savannah, Heritage Estates, Kelsey Farms, Estates at Lake Barrington, Brookside and others to find homes in great condition with little need for upgrades.

Lake Barrington real estate offers many 21 single family homes and 56 town homes and condos for sale. View many at our property search.

A Review of Hawthorn Woods Real Estate Market in 2011

If I said that 103 homes sold in Hawthorn Woods in 2011 and that the volume of sales amounted to over $46 million would you consider that to be good, bad or indifferent? We can only look at the previous few years to use as a benchmark to judge whether Hawthorn Woods real estate transactions were better. Rather than produce a chart for Hawthorn Woods real estate sales last year I thought I would just post the numbers.

• 2011 - Homes sold 103...Average sale $453,509
• 2010 - Homes sold 66...Average sale $459,860
• 2009 - Homes sold 68...Average sale $502,746
• 2008 - Homes sold 83...Average sale $612,969

This shows that Hawthorn Woods real estate was declining in 2008, 2009, 2010 but then we knew that anyway. Everyone is looking for signs that their home values are going to rise. Sales of homes in 2011 showed a big jump over previous years. I don't know about you but that just feels good. The average sales price of homes in Hawthorn Woods us still declining but last year certainly showed a slow down.

Hawthorn Woods real estate average marketing times.

Here is one of my Hawthorn Woods real estate sales from 2011. This home was on the market for 348 days and that length of time can often put buyers off, thinking that it must have something wrong with it. The issue from the sellers perspective, because I represented the buyers, was that the pricing was wrong. The ratio of original asking and selling price was 75%.

Price is not always the issue, it can be location, proximity to busy roads, lack of maintenance, old kitchens, and a whole list of other reasons why marketing time become extended. Where are we today with those Hawthorn Woods real estate average marketing times. Lets do the same 4 year comparison.

• 2011 - 206 days
• 2010 - 232 days
• 2009 - 280 days
• 2008 - 196 days

I like the look of those numbers too, well more specifically that they are headed in the right direction....down. In fact they are very similar to the Barrington area. If you have a home on the market for an extended period of time it's time to do a few things. First get a new analysis of your price. If that's on target then something else is off target. Selling Hawthorn Woods real estate is not as easy as it used to be and it does take longer than in a sellers market but the principles of marketing are still the same. Presentation and exposure to the right buyers.

If considering selling your piece of Hawthorn Woods real estate this coming year, I am here to help. Contact me today.

South Barrington Real Estate - 2011 Year End Review

January 18th 2012 already! This month is flying by so I must get the remaining market reports done for 2012. Today we'll review South Barrington real estate sales during the last year. In case you are a first time reader or not a local, South Barrington real estate is known for it's luxury homes in the zip code 60010. South Barrington real estate has suffered alongside the rest of the zip code. Values have fallen, sales have slowed and while not a majority of the market, we have not been immune to short sales and foreclosures.

South Barrington Real Estate Market Report-Absorption Rate

This chart has a few tales to tell. The difference in South Barrington real estate sales between the two halves of the year is astounding. In the first 6 months there were only 9 sales. The second half had 37. Thankfully the last 6 months had a more balanced sales activity. In 2012 we have 10 South Barrington homes under contract so sales in the first half of this year should be better.

Our absorption rate shows we are still in a buyers market with about 9 months of supply. A small increase in list to sales ratio was seen but we really need to pull this up a little to 95%. If listing your South Barrington home in 2012, your average days on market hovers around 200 days. Ask me to make suggestions on how to beat that number. Corinne: 847-363-3686

In the last three months I have noticed an upswing in traffic to my web site for searches that had Wynstone real estate in them. We all know that most buyers will start their home buying process with online research and can often be months away from making a purchase. Wynstone real estate in North Barrington had a quiet year in 2010 so let's take a look and see what the first quarter of 2011 tells us.

First I was surprised at how many searches were made on my site for Wynstone real estate. Over the first three months of this year I had 330 searches for people looking for real estate in Wynstone. For a subdivision in North Barrington that has approximately 400 homes, that's quite a lot. Of course some were visitors that came back to look more than once. Who knows by the end of the year many of these buyers may have moved into Wynstone and their new luxury home.

So now for the sales statistics:

• Homes currently available for sale 45.
  • Price range $499,900 to $3,800,000
    • Listings under $1 Million 25
    • Listings over $1 Million 20
• Homes currently under contract 1.
• Homes sold and close from January 1st 2011 to March 31st 2011. 7.
  • Sales prices $410,900 to $980,000
    • Short sale closings 2
    • Foreclosure closings 2
    • Re-sale closings 3

Wynstone Real Estate North Barrington is therefore still struggling. Had I seen a few more under contract it might have given me some good signs for the next 6 months of selling here in Wynstone's Gated Golf Course Community. However there is hope for all the sellers especially those with homes priced under $1 Million. In 2010 there were only 7 closings in Wynstone in the entire year! So we are ahead of the game in 2011.

As Wynstone is a gated community sellers do not benefit from Sunday drivers looking for homes but don't worry, if they sit in front of their computer they'll surely find your home for sale right here on Real Estate in Barrington. We hold on to the top spot in Google for Wynstone Real Estate. Try it for yourself, I hope we are still there when you do.

You can also call or email me about buying or selling in Wynstone, I am happy to feature your home right here on the number one web site for Wynstone real estate and for buyers, ask for your custom list of homes for sale.

Contact:

Corinne Guest

Real Estate in Barrington

Royal Advocate Realty

Info@CorinneGuest.com

(847) 363-3686

Copyright 2011 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved -  Originally posted at Real Estate in Barrington - Blog

South Barrington is a Great Place For Doctors To Live.

Well actually South Barrington is a great place for anyone to live. So why Doctors? Simply because South Barrington is located very close to I-90. It does not matter which subdivision in South Barrington you live in, it’ll likely only take you at most 5 minutes to get to I-90.

What’s so exciting about I-90? Not much, let’s face it, 6 lanes of traffic, cars, trucks, semi’s and toll booths is not a place we want to spend much time, but it does have advantages. You can get from A to B pretty darn quick, as long as you don’t want to head downtown to Chicago!

After spending some time with new Physician buyer clients this past weekend, I learned a little about how their working life is organized. They will see patients in their offices but if surgery is a skill set used in their practice they need to use a hospital. Each practice is affiliated with one or more hospitals.

Let’s say you are going to be affiliated with Sherman Hospital in Elgin, or Rush Children’s Hospital Specialists these are both very close to I-90. Alexian brothers in Hoffman Estates is just a minute south of I-90. Advocate Lutheran in Park Ridge can be reached from I-90 then north on I-294. Resurrection Hospital on the outskirts of Chicago is very close to I-90. Even Northwest Community Hospital can be reached from I-90 north on Route 53 and a few minutes west.

So if you are a Physician and need quick access to your hospitals, consider South Barrington and it’s close proximity to I-90. South Barrington has a great choice of luxury single family homes with prices from $600,000 up to about $8 million, it offers waterfront homes and large lots on average about1.5 acres. South Barrington homes are also close to The Arboretum Shopping Mall, The Tennis Club and Swimming Pools and theater too. Another option is Inverness, it’s very close to South Barrington with similar home prices.

Search South Barrington Listings.

Contact:

Corinne Guest

Royal Advocate Realty

Info@CorinneGuest.com

(847) 363-3686

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Copyright 2011 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved * South Barrington is a Great Place For Doctors To Live. *

Press Release March 4th 2011.

Barrington Homes Sold Data and Lifestyle Information Now Available From Local Realtor Corinne Guest Under Her Real Estate in Barrington Brand.

Barrington Homes Illinois  – Today’s real estate buyers and sellers are online seeking out as much information as they can about an area they want to live in or a Realtor they might use to sell their home. Corinne Guest is a local realtor that specializes in selling luxury homes in Barrington Illinois, and has built a web site for her current and future clients as a source of information.

There is no doubt there is an abundance of information available online but it is often difficult to locate just what you are looking for. The goal of the site Corinne has created and is still building is to provide one place to visit for all real estate related questions, homes, data, market reports even photographs and soon to come video; for anyone looking at Barrington homes.

Recently added to the site is a new interactive lifestyle and data map tool  that has fulfilled some of the questions she is often asked in an easy to use interactive format. Data is constantly added and updated by Spatial Match, the provider.

Buyers considering moving to Illinois can use the tool to locate schools, restaurants, hospitals and more on a map. Yet it doesn’t stop there. Categories of information available include shopping, dining, community, entertainment, personal services; health and medical, finance, transport, hotels, travel and you can even create your own. So no matter what you need the information including addresses and phone numbers is at your fingertips.

As an interactive tool for Barrington Homes you might think you’ll be limited to one area. Corinne is happy to report you can drag the map to any part of the country and find information there too. If you want to plan a vacation and need a travel agent in New York, just zoom out, move over to NY and zoom in. Then select travel as your category and the map will populate for you.

For current home owners interested to know what homes sold close-by and for how much, that information is available on the site with immediate free access. You are invited to try it out and for ease of use Corinne has already created a pull down menu for each Barrington village. View sold home data with property address, date of sale and amount of sale.

Corinne is extremely happy with the first stage of this addition to the site. Currently you can search all the Barrington homes for sale with her IDX tool. Stage two of this interactive experience is to add that same data to this interactive tool as well. It will include all real estate listed for sale in Northern Illinois. This will provide her web visitors with an even richer online experience. Updates will be posted on Real Estate in Barrington’s facebook business page at http://www.facebook.com/RealEstateInBarrington

Corinne Guest
Barrington Illinois Realtor
http://realestateinbarrington.com
“Real Estate in Barrington”
Royal Advocate Realty
509 Old Northwest Hwy. Suite 190
Barrington, Illinois, 60010
847-363-3686

Inverness Real Estate: Weekly Market Snapshot – February 21 2011

Inverness offers homes from $239,000 to $2,690,000 Search for your Inverness home today.

Contact:

Corinne Guest
Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686

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Copyright 2011 Corinne Guest All Rights Reserved * Inverness Real Estate: Weekly Market Snapshot – February 21 2011. *

Should I Buy This  Home if It's Not In The Best School District?

There are a number of schools in Barrington, Inverness, Palatine, Kildeer and Long Grove that have very good report cards. With focus on the high schools the named schools that many buyers search for are Barrington High School, William Fremd in Palatine, Lake Zurich High School and Adlai Stevenson High School.

In each of the areas the school boundaries play a role in school of attendance and some Barrington children do not attend Barrington Schools. They might go to Algonquin, Wauconda or Lake Zurich. In Hawthorn Woods some children may attend Mundelein and Fremont schools and so on. Every property listed has details of the schools for that property but it is possible that information is not correct. Any buyer looking for a specific school should check with the district office to make sure the details are indeed correct.

Should you buy a home if it's not in the best school district? What is the definition of Best and in whose mind? In truth that is not a question that any Realtor should answer for you. Only you can make that decision. When asked this question recently, here is what I said.

Do your own due diligence about the schools for the property you want to buy. School report cards do not give you a total picture, they are just that, report cards. Schools are a very subjective issue as one parent will prefer one school over another for different reasons than either you or I. Just because a property is not in one of those so called better school districts does not mean you should not buy the property. If you are comfortable with the information you find out about the schools and the house is everything you want, why would you not buy it?

The answer to that might be that for re-sale it is the wrong thing to do. Well let's look at all the properties in the area that fall inside the same school boundaries. Have any sold in the last twelve months? Have any sold in the last six months? Have any sold or gone under contract in the last one to two months. Specifically look at comparable priced homes and in the same or nearby subdivisions to get a true view. If the answer is yes to any of these then clearly it means your house will be re-saleable when the timecomes.

If the school districts are considerably different in their make-up or funding, then just remember this is somewhat factored into the price of properties on each side of the boundary lines. So if you love the house, don't let what others say persuade you or dissuade you, it's your decision.

Contact: 

Corinne Guest
Real Estate in Barrington
Royal Advocate Realty 
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686

It's 2011 - When Should You List Your Home For Sale-January, February or March.

As is often the case at this time of the year sellers who did not sell last year or want to move this year want to know when is the best time to re-list their home. If you took your home off the market last November or early December, once the Holidays are done we still have a lot of winter to deal with.

On December 31st our temperatures were as high as 55F. All the snow melted and even my son said-hey spring has arrived. Well January saw our numbers tumble back to the teens but we know there is much more snow and cold to come. Spring does not really arrive until April and even then snow can still fall.

So are you going to wait it out a while until all the buyers come to the market in spring? Or would it help to get an insight into buyer activity right now? With a website targeted to attract buyers I want you to know that December was an active month for buyers looking at Barrington homes. The week following Christmas saw a surge in visitors especially from out of state buyers. Last Monday I had 53 brand new visitors to my Barrington website and between them they managed to look at 859 homes for sale. The 6 days after Christmas saw 280 visitors looking at 3298 homes for sale and Barrington information I publish on the site. December is always the quietest month for traffic and I expect it to increase over the next 3 months.

So were they able to look at your home or are you waiting?



You might also like to know I have buyers on my client list for 2011 that did not find the home they want. How quickly will these buyers get back to looking? January 2nd. I am scheduled to show homes tomorrow with a 2010 client. They are serious buyers and want to find a new home. With nothing to sell first they are ideal buyers.

Are they able to look at your home or are you waiting?

Relocating clients. It is not uncommon for families moving from out of state to put the wheels in motion in January. Over a third of the visitors to my site are not from Illinois.

Hopefully they'll be able to view your property.

Armed with this glass ball insight to buyers looking both online and in person, you might want to re-think the "wait until spring" strategy. To list your home now and get it not only listed but also featured in front of the many buyers that visit my site daily-call me: 847-363-3686

Contact:

Corinne Guest
Real Estate in Barrington
Royal Advocate Realty
Info@CorinneGuest.com
(847) 363-3686