Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs

We realize that relocating to Chicago is not easy. Why? Because we've "been there done that" on many occasions. As a child, as an adult, as a parent and as a pet owner, we've experienced everything you are about to embark on. Having lived in England, Singapore, Illinois and Florida, we have been exposed to different cultures and understand all your moving concerns. Hiring a self proclaimed expert is one thing, hiring the expert that has beaten the paths before you will be the best choice you could ever make. Read more about our relocating to Chicago experience.

 

The first thing we need to establish is are you relocating to Chicago Illinois or are you generalizing? You see Chicago is a big city and then there are the suburbs. All in all it's one pretty large place. Driving from the top to bottom of the suburbs is about 100 miles in a straight line.

 

Our specialty is the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. This is a large area where there are many well known companies situated along the I-90 and I-294 corridors. For example Motorola in Schaumburg, Zebra Technologies in Vernon Hills, Sears in Hoffman Estates. Each of our suburbs has it's own city name so you may not be relocating to Chicago, you might be relocating to the suburbs. We are here to help.

 

Relocating to Chicago - The Process

There’s a lot to do when moving, especially if you are unfamiliar with the area. The process of relocating to Chicago or the suburbs starts with home, your current home. Only when that is taken care of can you start thinking about the new home. We are here to ease the transition.

The internet makes looking for new homes so much simpler, so you can start from the comfort of your home on your time, but know we are here to answer all your questions. When you arrive in town we'll meet you at the airport, or come and chat with you in your hotel with a coffee, it's important you feel comfortable working with us, so let's get to know each other first. Then we can move forward with finding you a new home.

Once we have found your new home, we'll be there from start to finish and beyond. Remember relocating to Chicago is more than just buying a home, it's a process and there are more things to be done. So whatever we can do to help, we will. Taking the dog for a walk, entertaining the kids, unpacking to find some forks, or fetching lunch on move in day, we'll be there.

Relocating to Chicago - Start With Online Property Searching

If you have the time our web site has every property available. You can save favorites and come back at any time. Or if time is a premium and relocating to Chicago needs to be placed firmly in our hands, let us search for you. We'll send you daily updates and can switch and change as you refine your needs.

Relocating to Chicago or the Suburbs  - Your journey has begun.

Start searching. Call us: Corinne. 847-363-3686. Email Corinne Let us do your relocating to Chicago home search  

Inverness Illinois Property - My Final Market Report for 2011

We are three weeks into 2012 and my Inverness Illinois Property report is my last to wrap up the year for 2011. As I have compiled the data it has shown some interesting facts. If you have the time and desire to read all my reports they can all be found in my market report category. Now back to Inverness Illinois property data.

Inverness has both single family homes and attached homes so I'll break the report down so we can get a true feeling for what's going on. I'll lump the zip codes together though. Inverness Illinois property shares zip codes with Barrington and Palatine.

Inverness Illinois Property-Single Family Homes

Simply this shows me we have too much inventory and therefore sellers are having to take a lower percentage of their list price. Many other areas in Barrington are inching back up towards the expected 95%, Inverness not so hot.

We've got a lot of inventory and sales certainly slowed down in the second half of the year. Market times are long for the active listings, although those that sold faired pretty well at under 6 months.

Inverness Illinois Property - Townhomes

Attached homes are selling at a marginally better percentage than single family homes but the market times not so good. Some of our attached homes in Inverness have been listed for a long time.

I think it's fair to tell you that Inverness town homes have not been singled out, town homes in most of the Barrington areas are taking longer to sell than single family homes.

Things to watch for in2012 are Inverness Illinois property selling faster and at a higher percentage of asking. That will be the sign of better things to come. If you are considering selling in 2012, you've got to be aggressive with your presentation and that is a multi faceted task. I would love to discuss it with you, call anytime: Corinne 847-363-3686

Deer Park IL Homes - Choose From Single Family or Town Homes.

When I lived in Deer Park between 1997 and 2003 there were only single family Deer Park IL homes for sale. That's now changed as there are two small subdivisions of town homes, both close to the Deer Park shopping mall. Because they are two different types of housing the answer to the question, how long will it take to sell my house, can only be answered by seperating the two types and looking at market data for each.

Single Family Deer Park IL Homes - 2011 Market Data

In 2011 there were 18 homes sold in Deer Park. That does not seem to be very many. Of course there may well have been some sales in Deer Park not accounted for in the report because some Realtor's seem to think putting the address down as Barrington is better. I disagree and not just because it will skew my report. Many buyers want Deer Park because it is such a nice place to live. Of course I would say that, I loved living in Deer Park. We moved to Florida in 2003, came back in 2004 and could not find a suitable home to buy from all the Deer Park IL homes for sale.

Back to the market report. In 2011 the average  market time for single family homes was 224 days. The list to sales price ratio was 93% average. Average list price was $564,308 and average sales price $523,190.

Deer Park Town Homes - Market Data 2011

There were 7 sales of town homes last year. The average marketing time was 144 days. The average list price was $420,400 and sales price $392,143 representing a list to sales price ratio of  93%.

Interesting to see that all Deer Park IL Homes sold at 93% of asking price. Town homes sold in less than six months which is certainly good news for sellers. Single family homes are taking longer and I expect that tend to continue for a while. Be prepared to wait 6 to 9 months to sell your Deer Park home in 2012.

There are currently 21 Deer Park IL Homes for sale, although I bet some have Barrington as the address and are not showing up.

I look forward to selling more Deer Park IL Homes this coming year. I certainly showed plenty to my buyers last year and even sold a short sale there in early spring. You can view current Deer Park IL Homes and Town Homes listed.  

Graphs Showing Sales of Tower Lakes Homes in 2011

Sales of homes in Tower Lakes do not account for many in the 60010 zip code so an intense comparison would not be very useful. So I thought we would simply look at the average sales prices over the last three years and specifically by bedroom count to make it a fair comparison.

They say pictures are often much easier to understand and I think the following graph which shows Tower Lakes homes sold and the percentage in price drop tells everything we really need to know. So compare color by color for a year comparison.

The first chart shows we never have many 2 bedroom Tower Lakes homes sell, there aren't very many in the village. 3 bedroom and 4 bedroom are the bulk of the real estate.

Clearly there was a pretty steep drop in prices between 2009 and 2010 but 2010 to 2011 is not nearly so bad.

Tower Lakes Homes -Average Marketing Times

The average marketing time for Tower Lakes homes now is 244 days. That's based on sales over the last 12 months. Three bedroom homes took longer with an average of 307 days, compared to 196 for four bedroom homes.

Tower Lakes homes fall in the Barrington School district 220 and offer a lifestyle type of community, with it's lake front properties. Prices start at $200,00 and go up to $1 Million. Start your search for Tower Lakes real estate listings.

Kildeer Real Estate - It's All Single Family Homes

The Kildeer real estate market is not a big one, so producing an array of charts and graphs every month would have zero meaning. Much better for me to write about the Kildeer real estate market for the whole year in 2011 and focusing on what sellers really want to know. Here are some facts on the market for the entire year of 2011.

• There where 42 home sales in 2011.
• Average list price was $611,950
• Average sales price was $568,948 which represents 93% of asking price.
• Most activity was in the 4 bedroom home sales which accounted for 30 of the 42 sales.
• Average marketing time was 339 days.

Kildeer is a small town in Lake County, occupying less than 4 square miles, with just over 4000 residents and just about 1100 homes. It's known as a luxury home market but as you can see from these numbers the majority of sales are of 4 bedroom homes around the $600,000 mark.

Kildeer real estate search
 

Lake Zurich Real Estate - Sales of Single Family Homes

A review of the Lake Zurich real estate market for 2011 reveals some leveling off. When I said flat lining I did not mean dying, I was refering to the ups and downs of sales over the last 5 years and where Lake Zurich real estate was in 2011.

For this report I am not comparing to previous years, after all we all know the markets have been depressed, so why rub salt in an open wound. Instead I wanted to look at sales over a 12 month, 6 month and 3 month period to see if it was getting bettor or worse. This chart reveals what to me appears a stabilizing market.

Take a look at the following chart and especially:

• Average homes sold per month.
• Monthly Supply of Lake Zurich Real Estate.
• Average Market Days
• Average list prices and sales prices.

Every marker shows stability. The average amount of Lake Zurich homes sold across the year is pretty much 15 a month. We have give or take 8 months supply of homes. The average list to sales price ratio is very close to exactly 95% all the time.

Lake Zurich Real Estate Market Times

Throughout the year our average marketing time has fallen. Although home sellers might not be happy at the flat line of average sales in Lake Zurich, the mere fact that homes are selling in less time can point to the expectations of an increase in prices over time. Don't get too excited though. I may be saying Lake Zurich real estate prices might increase, but to expect an instant change in the market is too optimistic. As I have said in many of my year end reports, positive gains will start at some time, but they will be slow, very slow and steady.

If selling your Lake Zurich real estate is on the calendar for 2012, continue to consider pricing, presentation and your new goals. Call me and we can start working on achieving those goals: 847-363-3686

Hot on the heels of my Palatine Town Homes Market report, I am back again with one for Arlington Heights. I think it's a fair assumption to assume that marketing times and average sales prices are going to be very similar to Palatine. Lets take a quick peak at that for the current year before I move on.

• Palatine: Average Market Time 2011 was 178 Days
• Arlington Heights: Average Market Time 2011 is 150 days.

That's about 1 month less, a bigger difference than I expected.

What about average sales price?

• Palatine: over the last 12 months was $176,546
• Arlington Heights: over the last 12 months was $232,942 Now that's a considerable difference. 

Arlington Heights town homes are on average sold at a 32% higher price than Palatine.

I took a look at single family homes, the average price there is also higher in Arlington Heights but not by as much. $297k v $275k, only an 8% increase.

So let's get to sales prices and price cuts because that's where I really wanted to go with this. A recent publication states that 3 of 4 homeowners still believe their home to be worth more than it is. On the other hand buyers or at least 53% of them still consider homes are priced too high. How does this translate into sales of town homes in 60004 and 60005?

Regardless of what percentage homes sell for in relation to the asking price, it's really important to see how they got  to the sale. Did they sell at the original asking price or not?  The answer is not, however I have to say the differences here are nominal. On average a price was reduced by less than 3%. The sale achieved was 97% of the final asking price or 93% of the original asking price.

Pricing is critical in a buyers market, and it appears Arlington Heights town home owners are reviewing the data they are given to establsih a list price, and being rewarded with less time on the market that their counterparts in Palatine.

Go Arlington Heights Sellers & Realtors...Job Well Done!

I wanted to look at the sales of Palatine Town Homes to see if sales activity is better this year than in 2010. Condos and town homes always suffer more in a buyers market, well at least they seem to, but let's look at some numbers, it should help verify my thoughts and maybe help Palatine town homeowners decide whether they want to sell or not. Lets take a look at the things sellers are most interested in:

1. How long will it take to sell my Palatine Town Home?
2. Are prices going down or up?

This first graph shows that since 2007 the average marketing time to sell Palatine town homes has increased year on year. Although 2011 is not yet finished I went back 12 months from today to make it a 12 month cycle. I doubt it will change much in the last 3 weeks of the year. Naturally this is only an average and there are so many things a seller can do to get under that number. But in general it appears we have increased from 4 to 6 months.

Did you know that according to stats released today, 3 of 4 home owners still think their home is worth more than it is.

Now lets look at average sales amounts.

This graph is showing the average sales price of Palatine town homes from 2007 through to 2011. The graph tells it all right? Prices going downhill. We've heard on the media that there have been some nominal increases in price over the last couple of months. I think the jury should stay out for a while in relation to townhomes in Palatine. I certainly would want a period of six months to really see if they are climbing.

As for whether you should sell, well the numbers might help, it depends on why you need to sell. Call us if we can help.