Foreclosures In Evanston

A friend forwarded this article from the local Pioneer Press, The Evanston Review – No slowdown in 2010 Evanston foreclosures. It highlights the continued surge in foreclosure filings in Evanston; the number of filings has tripled since 2006: 121 filings to 399 in 2010. This is a sad but pervasive problem we are going to deal with well into the future.  One interesting note was that 2/3′s of the mortgages in default were conventional fixed rate mortgages. For a long time everyone was focused on the ARMs and the re-sets at higher rates causing higher rates of default.

Today in this very low interest rate environment, the problem is elsewhere. Unfortunately, and a sharp reminder of how intertwined our fiscal lives are, the unemployment rate is to blame here. More people are unemployed or under-employed and must make difficult choices with their dwindling cash reserves. Usually, the mortgage is a casualty in this decision.

This chart puts the increase in graphic detail.

This is a short, good read.

DS

The Year In Review

2010 is behind us.  A year full of confusing economic data, a terrible jobs market and more horrible news about short sales and foreclosures. Evanston and other neighborhoods on the North Shore seemed to have survived the year. While home prices fluctuated dramatically Evanston was (is!) still a good place to buy a home.

We saw a lot of sales volume pulled into the Spring by the federal tax credits. The result was a lower number of new transactions during the Summer and Fall. That was to be expected. Average Sold Prices fell in the 4th quarter but it did so on a lower number of transactions.

What we need to watch will be the lending environment, interest rates and distressed properties (foreclosures, short sales and bank-owned properties) competing with traditional sales. Too many distressed properties will pull prices down.

This link will open the full report on 2010. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call or email. The Evanston Report

DS

Evanston Sales Recap for October

Is now posted under “Data and Analyses” and “Monthly Updates“. Bottomline is that Evanston appears to have reached a level where we still see swings in price but not as aggressively as we saw two years ago. We also see a steady level of transactions (completed deals!).

Pricing is still so important – if a seller over prices, buyers simply walk away and wait for the reductions. I’ve discussed this pricing tactic in earlier posts – take another look because the penalty on the sale price is huge.

Check back for the November update soon.

DS

This Is So Cool

The City of Evanston sponsored a contest among District 65 schools to decorate snow plow blades. I drove by the City building this morning and saw all these wonderfully painted snow plows on the front lawn bordering Ridge.

If you have the chance, drive by and enjoy the sight.  For information on this contest and to cast your vote, visit this link:

City of Evanston Paints Its Snow Plows

ENJOY.

DS

Preliminary Sales Data for October

October was a good month overall in Evanston real estate.  While sales were down, the average list price of sold homes and the absolute sold prices were up. It is somewhat disconcerting that there were fewer sales, a lower Sold Price to List Price ratio. I’ll take a closer look this week. Here are the numbers:

Also note: distressed sales were down and prices up. I’m not sure those data are a clear reflection of what happened in the distressed sales market last month. Check back, I’m taking a look at that.

DS

The Impact of Distressed Sales on Real Estate Prices

Last week  I posted some information about the effect of distressed property sales (short sales, bank owned sale  and court ordered sales) had on home prices in Wilmette. It was a sobering look. This evening, Yahoo Finance posted an article that stated “Millions of foreclosures are expected to pour onto the market [and are] likely to force prices down” even further. That’s a sobering statement. (Here’s a link to the Yahoo Finance article on foreclosures.)

So I ran a few numbers and here’s what I found:These numbers are pretty scary – there’s a 13% or $79,000 difference between the “inclusive number”, the one with all types of sales, and the average of homes sold that are not in a distressed situation.

I’m concerned that we’re seeing a lower average list price for Pending sales; fortunately non-distressed sales still make up the vast majority of sales about to close in Evanston. The article above also talks about a “shadow inventory” – properties owned by a bank but not yet released for sale. This will be something for us to watch and beware of.

Still, the real estate market in Evanston is better than at the same time last year. Check back, I’ll post more data about how sales are progressing in Evanston.

DS

Financial Distressed Sales versus Conventional Sales
Evanston 2010 Year-To-Date Results
Since Jan 1 2010	Total	w/o Distress	DistressedOnly	Price Difference
Closed Sales	313	249	64	-
Avg List $	$        520,258	$   599,406	$  212,321	$ (387,085)
Avg Sold $	$        490,182	$   563,321	$  205,626	$ (357,695)
Pending Sales	20	18	2	-
Pending List $	$        395,044	$   426,472	$  112,200	$               -
Source: MRED LLC 2010 Data