Real Estate in Barrington & The Northwest Suburbs: Illinois: Hawthorn Woods

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.

How's the real estate market in Hawthorn Woods? Is it a better year than 2010? How can we measure the questions and get a clear answer?

Well I guess it depends on what you really want to know. Do you want to know the average marketing time, or how many homes are selling, or do you want to know if prices are going up? All of these questions can be answered by looking at market data this year and comparing it to last year. So let's take a look at Hawthorn Woods average marketing times and sales volume first and then we'll get into the meat of the last question.

Hawthorn Woods Average Marketing Time

As this is a new report I have spent the time to go back to the beginning of 2010 to chart the whole of last year as well as this year. I have not included any of the town home sales in the Hawthorn Woods Country Club as there are so few and it would skew the results a little too much. So we are sticking with single family homes for today.

The above chart shows it's very up and down. Peaks and troughs but I think it would be fair to say that if you want to sell your Hawthorn Woods home you should expect about a 7 to 8 month time frame. To be more precise the average days for 2010 was 217 days and for 2011 so far we are looking at an average of 243 days.

Hawthorn Woods Sales Volume

My opinion is that year on year it does not show signs of improvement but I am very encouraged by the next data which is the volume of sales. Red is this year. As you can see we are doing much better than last. In the whole of 2010 we sold 63 Hawthorn Woods single family homes. So far this year we are at 65 and we still have Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec to go. I would like to see 80 for the year, that's only 3 or 4 a month which based on the year to date should not be too hard.

What can we learn from these graphs. Marketing times a little higher. Sales up a lot.  What that tells me and I hope you agree is that with sales up next years marketing times might come down a little. Great if we can inch it down to 6 months that would be accepted as a more balanced market.

So when are we going to see price increases?  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if you're holding on to that dream you'll likely be holding on for a while yet. We need a balanced market but we also need homes listed at the right price to begin with and sadly most homes are still having price cuts to get the sale.

I have refused several listings this year in our area because sellers wanted price X and I knew it would never sell. As I spend a day in my office checking up on sales I see price cut after price cut on those listings and I wonder why sellers just want to "try it and see." I still don't understand that, maybe I never will.

Please come back next month for an update or ask to see what homes sold for in Hawthorn Woods. Thinking of selling? We have relocation buyers looking in all areas, just let us know.