The Case Shiller home price index came out this morning and it shows renewed price declines for the Chicago area. The home price index fell 1% in October.

We are back to May 2003 levels, which represent a 10.1% year over year decline in Chicago area home prices. This also equates to a 22.4% decline in prices since the bubble peak in September 2006. What that means, BTW, is that anyone who put less than 22.4% down in the last 3 years has had their down payment wiped out.

Most importantly, take note of where we are relative to the trend line above. The fact that we remain below trend definitely suggests that prices should move up from here.

Well, I guess this is sort of turning into a hobby.  Some more to brighten your day. Lets have some fun and try multiple choice on this one.  Would love to hear your ideas too!

In the photo below:

1.  The real estate agent shot the photo with his eyes closed
2.  The rest of the bathroom is so bad, we can only see one section of tile
3.  The agent works part time at the local flooring store and is secretly selling ceramic tile
4.  The real estate agent had to use the bathroom and figured he could kill two birds with one stone

In the next photo, the agent:

1. Is advertising that window is close enough to the ground to serve as a pet door
2. Was laying on the ground napping (on the lavish carpet) taking the photo, again two birds with one stone
3. Is showing that despite barren land around the property, this property has great soil and thus green plants
4. Dropped the camera and decided the photo was “good enough”

Now, on to my favorite.  In the next photo,  the agent is trying to demonstrate that:

1. Even though the carpet is puke green the tiny narrow closet has hardwood floors
2. He knows where the floor is located

Geez, I cant even say anymore about the ridiculousness of this one! 

Happy Holidays!

No, that is not a typo. The Illinois Association Of Realtors released November sales data today and home sales in the greater Chicago area were up 71.6% over last November!

The graph above shows the trend over the last 4 years and what has happened in the last couple of months is incredibly dramatic. Not only did November surpass 2008 but it also surpassed 2007 – by a lot.

No doubt this is the result of the home buyer tax credit, which is certainly pulling demand forward. Remember that the original credit was to expire at the end of November, so everyone who wanted to get in on it had to close by the end of November. Those wheels were already in motion when the government decided to extend the credit. However, the demand has already been pulled forward by several months and there should be a demand vacuum for the next several months – offset partially by the new demand that is being pulled forward by the extension of the tax credit. But sooner or later the music is going to stop and it could be cash for clunkers all over again – i.e. volume will crater. Nevertheless, there are several positive signs in the Chicago housing market, including an 8% improvement in home prices since the trough.

As always, you can find this and other key Chicago area housing statistics on our Web site.

The State of Illinois has instituted a change to all property owners claiming Property Tax on their 2009 Illinois Tax Return. In order for your return to be accepted by the State of Illinois, those who are claiming a property tax credit must provide, on their return, their Property Index Number (PIN), sometimes called “parcel number”.

This number can be found on the taxpayer’s property tax bill or tax assessment notice. Taxpayers who pay their property taxes through a mortgage may need to contact their lender for a copy of their bill, or obtain the number from their county assessor’s office. If you have trouble locating your PIN, feel free to contact Lucid Realty and we would be glad to help you determine the correct number.

…will definitely hurt them.

I was poking around this morning doing some research on enhancing real estate searches for our Web site. We’re about to introduce building specific searches. While testing the listings for 340 On The Park I discovered that we are only allowed to show 9 listings, while there are actually 15 units for sale in the building. Why can’t we show those other 6 listings? Well, we could if we required you to register but we don’t want to do that because registration is a pain in the ass. Furthermore, it’s a real turn off for real estate buyers who are afraid that some pushy real estate agent is going to start harassing them – not to mention that many home buyers provide bogus registration information when faced with that requirement.

But why do we have to get you to register to see these other 6 listings? Because the real estate brokers that are listing those units do not participate in an arcane and convoluted program called broker reciprocity. As explained in that prior post real estate listings from brokers that participate in the program get put in the IDX feed, which is broadly available on all realtor Web sites without registration. If a broker does not participate, their real estate listings are only available in the VOW feed that requires registration to access on a realtor’s Web site.

What is surprising about the 340 On The Park situation is that 6 out of 15 listings are not in the IDX feed. That’s a huge number. Just the other day I did a quick estimate and determined that in the city of Chicago only about 2 – 3% of the real estate listings are missing from the IDX feed, which is consistent with what the MLS folks tell me. That’s the reason that we decided to not require registration on our site.

So why is 340 On The Park so different? It all comes down to the dominant broker in the building who has all 6 of those listings. Apparently, this broker does not participate in the reciprocity program. This is especially peculiar in light of the fact that a real estate broker has to actually go through the trouble of opting out of the broker reciprocity program. In addition, opting out of the program only prevents the listings from showing up on other realtors’ Web sites. The listing brokerage still has the ability to advertise the listing on any Web site they choose – e.g. Realtor.com, where these “missing” listings do appear and without registration. So the listing brokerage selectively withholds access from the Web sites of brokers like us who refuse to require registration for accessing MLS listings (we still have access to the properties through the MLS system but we can’t put them on our Web site without requiring registration).

All of these shenanigans highlight yet another problem you can run into using the top producer. So, if your home is currently listed and you want to find out if your realtor is holding out on you just check for your home on our site. If it doesn’t show up then it’s not getting the broadest distribution possible.

As I asked before, why would any broker not want their listings to receive the broadest exposure possible? Could it be that they are trying to restrict access to their listings so as to increase  the likelihood of their getting both sides of the transaction? Nahhhh. A real estate broker would never put their own self-interest above that of their client.