Today’s New Normal
The Herald Times reports from Indiana. “In May 2006, a middle-aged couple decided to sell their Morgan County ranch home. So they contacted broker Sheila Scott in Martinsville, and told her they wanted to list the home at $209,000 — $10,000 more than its appraised value. ‘It was a beautiful home in wonderful condition,’ Scott said. ‘Three years ago it would have sold very quickly — and for full price.’”
“But no sooner had Scott listed the property than the air began seeping out of the housing-price bubble. An oversupply of homes in the area and a paucity of qualified buyers meant that…the house languished on the market. ‘The market just went dead,’ Scott said.”
“For 17 months, the couple paid a total of $2,400 each month to cover two mortgage payments. The same month they had put their house on the market, they also had moved into a $347,000 home in northern Morgan County.”
“They finally sold their first home last October for $171,500, 14 percent lower than its appraised value. To add insult to injury, the buyers required the couple to forfeit their refrigerator, putty all the nail holes on the home’s exterior, and give it a fresh coat of paint.”
“‘What happened to them broke my heart,’ Scott said. ‘But the buyers got a fantastic deal.’”
“Ken Blackwell, owner of Blackwell Construction in Bloomington, blames the slowdown on the national credit crunch coupled with a glut of single-family homes on the market.”
“‘When things are going well, everyone becomes a developer and builder, flooding the market with too much inventory,’ he said. ‘Today, you can drive around Bloomington and see subdivisions no one has even heard of.’”
“Steve Martin, chairman of the Real Estate Certification Program, said central Indiana is in a catch-up cycle. ‘For seven years we were in a free-fall spending cycle, with people taking mortgages they could not afford,’ he said. ‘Now we’re catching our breath and being more realistic about our spending.’”
The Record Eagle from Michigan. “Jacki and Ben Newhouse can’t find a buyer for their two-bedroom home that’s listed for $8,000 less than its appraised value. Yet Acme Township’s assessor said the property’s value increased $6,400 last year.”
“‘We haven’t seen a big decrease like downstate, but it is a leveling off,’ said Laurie Spencer, equalization director for Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. ‘Some are going up, some are slightly decreasing, but a lot of them aren’t going to change much at all.’”
“That doesn’t make much sense to Jackie Newhouse, who hasn’t had an offer on her renovated house in two months. ‘I don’t understand it. Everything you see tells you the market is terrible,’ Newhouse said. ‘Our house has gone through a complete renovation, but I’m not trying to recoup any of our improvements. I’m just hoping to get a little bit of our equity out of it.’”
“‘We’ve lost 20 percent of market value in the last two and a half years,’ said real estate agent Carol Franklin of Traverse City. ‘Without a doubt, the local market is declining and it’s still declining.’”
“Real estate broker Cindy Anderson said she has clients listing homes near downtown Traverse City for $30,000 less than the appraised value. ‘I have a sinking feeling assessors don’t realize that some homeowners are having to sometimes sell for $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 less than what they bought for a few years ago,’ she said.”
“In Traverse City, city assessor Debra Chavez said the city witnessed the largest hike because it doesn’t have new subdivisions and builders trying to unload their inventory. But not everyone in the city will see an increase. Many homes priced around $150,000 or less dropped 10 percent or more, Chavez said.”
“‘They were being kept artificially high by the market and have dropped back down to where they should be,’ Chavez said.”
“Franklin and Anderson said foreclosures started affecting the market last fall, and now account for about 10 percent of sales.”
“‘Banks are sitting on a huge inventory right now and they are putting liquidation prices on the houses to try and unload them,’ Franklin said. ‘So sellers have to compete with the banks prices.’”
“Foreclosures in Grand Traverse County jumped 63 percent in 2007, peaking at 291. Grand Traverse Register of Deeds Peggy Haines said indications are 2008 will be just as bad or worse. Already, 68 homes are in foreclosure, just two months into the new year.”
“‘There’s assessed value, taxable value … and market value and I’ve learned they have nothing to do with each other,’ said Kalkaska area real estate broker Sue Vowels. ‘They are not from the same country, they’re not even from the same planet.’”
The Livingston Community News from Michigan. “Mike and Amanda Prince have a plan. They think it’s a good one. Despite a housing market with a larger-than-ever inventory and stagnant or slipping sale prices, the South Lyon couple hopes to sell their condo, rent an apartment for a year while they save money, and then get a better-than-average deal on a new house.”
“The couple, both in their mid-20s, got married last fall and now have Sam, an Australian shepherd, and ’some more space would be nice,’ Mike Prince said. He was renting a condo with a roommate in South Lyon in 2005 when the property went up for sale.”
“‘It seemed like a good idea at the time to buy it,’ he said. ‘Given what’s happened in the market, I would have waited.’”
“Prince bought his condo in 2005 for $119,900 and it is listed now for $115,000 - so he gained no equity. But they still want to move.”
“So on the advice of Karen Jolley of Buckley Jolley Real Estate Team in Brighton, the couple decided to sell the condo and wait to buy a house. Prince said he is hopeful they will still get a good deal on a house in the $300,000 range when the time is right.”
“‘It’s tough. We have it listed at a slightly lower than purchased price,’ he said. ‘You take the sting now. The nice thing is there’s no sense of urgency. It allows us to take our time and not fight the market,’ he added.”
“‘I wouldn’t say the market has turned around, but there are buyers out there,’ said Michelle Brant, executive VP for the Livingston County Association of Realtors.”
“The average sale price in Livingston dropped 10 percent from 2006 to 2007 from $242,043 to $219,566 - but is still higher than nearby Oakland and Wayne counties, where average sale prices have dropped to $210,149 and $105,635 respectively, according to information from Brant.”
“Jane Pendleton, president of the LCAR, said it has taken a few years for homeowners to understand the market adjustments and to accept listing prices that will sell.”
“But, she said, they now have. ‘The biggest change,’ she said. ‘Is that sellers are on board. What we need to do is remind people that there are still good deals out there, and to regain confidence in the market.’”
“Todd Buckley of the Buckley Jolley Real Estate Team in Brighton, who has been in the business 11 years, said property owners are coming to terms with what the market will bear. ‘This is today’s new normal,’ he added. ‘Unfortunately, we can’t look at the values three years ago - in moving forward, we have to think differently.’”
The Daily Northwestern from Illinois. “The number of Evanston homeowners unable to pay their mortgages tripled in the past year, leaving more than 300 homes in a state of mortgage crisis.”
“About 220 homes in Evanston are in a pre-foreclosure state, meaning owners are three or more months behind on mortgage payments, according to RealtyTrac. About 65 properties are bank-owned, and about 35 are being sold in auction, often at below-market prices.”
“In Evanston, the crisis will likely lower property values and hurt the city’s income from taxes, said John Lee Bingham, a realtor with Baird and Warner who submitted a report to Mayor Lorraine Morton about the problem.”
“The problem of foreclosures has grown worse in the past year due to skyrocketing mortgage rates and, sometimes, irresponsible financial decisions, Bingham said.”
“‘Once in a while you’d even see what I think is the most foolish thing of all, and that would be people living way beyond their means,’ he said. ‘We joke about it, but I’ve seen people living in Wilmette in a big house and they have no furniture. I’d say most people are one health problem away from bankruptcy.’”
“Property values are based on supply and demand, Bingham said, which makes foreclosures a problem for the entire neighborhood. When homeowners are unable to pay their mortgage, their home can be seized by the mortgage company and sold for a lower price than the market value.”
“This drives down prices in the surrounding area, making neighbors sell their homes for less than they paid originally.”
“Bingham said the housing market could be helped by real estate agents and homeowners looking to other strategies to sell their properties instead of lowering prices, which in turn lowers prices in the whole area.”
“‘People depend so heavily on price to sell their condos and their houses, when you can benefit everyone in the building and keep the price respectable,’ he said.”
“Although Evanston’s housing market is better than in many cities, Bingham said he has seen many property owners lose their homes to high mortgage prices.”
“‘It’s devastating for so many people that this has happened,’ Bingham said. ‘I was watching people buy homes that had dreamed of owning homes all their life. They’re losing those homes now.’”
The Watertown Daily Times from Wisconsin. “With the mortgage rate freeze and the housing industry in a slump the number of foreclosures in Dodge and Jefferson counties is on the rise.”
“Twenty-nine Dodge County residents have lost their homes in foreclosures already this year with another 100 more properties ready to be sold, according to Dodge County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Blaine Lauersdorf.”
“‘And we are only in February which leads me to be believe we will be going over the 160 mark by the end of the year,’ he added.”
“One-hundred sixty is the number of home foreclosures in the county in 2004, the largest total in many years. The numbers are up significantly from the beginning of the decade, when 82 auctions were held in 2002 and 75 reported in 2003.”
“‘We are seeing them happen more frequently these days,’ he said. ‘My belief is the interest rates and the balloons (payments) that have come due are causing people to struggle to find ways to pay for those mortgages,’ Lauersdorf said. ‘A couple of years ago the money was easy to get for mortgages and now people are struggling to pay for the homes they purchased.’”
“Occasionally, a lot of people attend a sale, but ‘about 90 percent of the sales go back to the plaintiff representative or the bank or the lender,’ he said. ‘Many times no one attends and the property goes back to the lender.”
“Sgt. Jerry Haferman of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department…said the foreclosure trend is something his department is, of course, very aware of as being on the increase, but he said other sheriff’s departments throughout the state are also being forced to dedicate increased amounts of time and manpower to the process.”
“‘We are noticing a lot, but this is something that is happening throughout the state,’ he said.”
“‘I attended a civil process meeting in Oneida County recently, and 10 other counties’ representatives were there and every county is seeing a drastic increase in foreclosures. We dedicate several days a month to conducting these sales and other counties do the same, and some sheriff’s departments are still having to increase the numbers of sales they have to hold,’ Haferman said.”
It is amazing that the greed continues after the bubble made the front page. Sold my own place in Calif. last spring in a week as I listed it about $7K below the comps. I knew the pop was imminent (thanks to this blog) and that there was no time to waste…the buyers wanted my fridge too, told them no problem….
You should drive by one day to see if the fridge and copper wiring have been stripped yet. Go in the day time though. That way you dont have to encounter any vagrants, prostitutes and ravers that may have stumbled in.
RE: “Jacki and Ben Newhouse can’t find a buyer for their two-bedroom home that’s listed for $8,000 less than its appraised value. Yet Acme Township’s assessor said the property’s value increased $6,400 last year
You know people are strapped when they start bitchin’ about valuation differentials that amount to the cost of a Viking SS
refrigerator.
Who the hell takes their fridge with them?
The issue is whether it is stainless. Accorging to HGTV experts a $1k stainless steel fridge is worth $10k in sales price. Now if you can take the fridge after you sell, the leverage possibilities in connection with future transactions are insane.
It’s a fuckin’ fridge. You can go down to ::insert big-box store here:: and get a new one. Hell, they’ll deliver.
How can a $1K fridge be worth $10K? Wow, this country is filled with morons.
Effing fridge? I wasn’t aware that refrigerators were used for such activities.
The fridge is also a BBQ, and a Playstation, sillly rabbit.
Of course, silly me, the original silly rabbit. Where can I buy seven?
Also don’t bogart whatever you are smoking. TIA
I saw a TV show a few weeks ago called ” How It’s Made”. One of the items being made was… Sub-Zero stainless steel fridges. The whole thing is made out of sheet plastic, thin stainless steel and basically filled with polyester insulating foam- the yellow stuff you buy in cans at Home Depot. The foam is what gives it rigidity. The rest is made out of what looks like general refrigeration components. So it would appear that you’re basically paying for 4 sheets of stainless steel. I think the crappy generic white GE model at Lowes will work just as well.
i find it amazing how some people justify spending ungodly amounts of $$$ on a property because of a ss fridge or granite countertops
btw i have those 2 things in my rental apt
I saw pictures of a used mobile home once with a ss kitchen and granite countertops. The word “luxurious” was plastered all over the ad. I found it amusing.
Almost got a job at the SZ factory in Phoenix as a production engineer in 2000.
The biggest difference in SZ fridges vs. others is the quality of the compressor and condenser, and the amount of time spent putting it together so that everything lines up nicely and the door opens smoothly, etc.
Truth is a well maintained SZ (yes, this means a service call about every 10 years) will actually last forever, but it is really part of the house, not a “take it with you” appliance. And no SZ belongs in any house worth less than a half-mil.
I had a Sub Zero for 6 years and liked it a lot, except for the fact that the freezer sometimes sealed up so tightly that you couldn’t open it. Also, the ice maker broke more or less immediately. Otherwise, a nice appliance. Though not sure it is worth the high price, when you can get a very nice KitchenAid for thousands less.
My last fridge-related Consumer Reports didn’t like them for some reason. I think their repair records are bad?
No different than local car egg-spurts in some neighborhoods who will tell you that an additional $250 in gold painted plastic exterior parts on a five year old Chrysler 300 increases it’s value by about $2,500.
‘Who the hell takes their fridge with them? ‘
I did! I keep it in the garage of my SFH rental. Can buy things in bulk or out of town and store them out there. Less trips to the store. Great for family get togethers.
Who takes their fridge?
It depends on the part of the country. I was surprised to learn that the refrigerator is considered a treasured family pet in Texas.
Marked prices double in 5 years and now 20 % off is a good deal.
Many many homes built in that time period as well. So catching a knife now makes sense because?
1997 prices. Period. Timeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee is on my side………yes it is.
Patient renter.
“Steve Martin, chairman of the Real Estate Certification Program, said central Indiana is in a catch-up cycle. ‘For seven years we were in a free-fall spending cycle, with people taking mortgages they could not afford,’ he said. ‘Now we’re catching our breath and being more realistic about our spending.’”
Well excuuusssseee meee!
Translation: We are no longer wild and crazy guys since the credit well dried up.
The Foxes now want you to have 20% down!
“Steve Martin, chairman of the Real Estate Certification Program, said central Indiana is in a catch-up cycle. ‘For seven years we were in a free-fall spending cycle, with people taking mortgages they could not afford,’
SNL skit w/ Steve Martin: Don’t buy stuff you can’t afford!
It’s because he hates cans!!!
And one more thing; Don’t trust Whitey
I should be able to send a little extra money home next week…
Why do I picture this guy this with an arrow through his head?
Wild and crazy guy,
Crazy American guy!
All of these knuckleheads keep saying that homes are selling “below market value.”
That’s not true.
What a home sells for establishes its “market value.”
The entire market is over valued. As soon as the prices are stable, or rising less than 1% per year, when adjusted for inflation, will we know the true “market value” for houses in any given area.
I always pwn realtors with that, “A general sale is not below market value, you are just setting the current market value.” But I can see where there are situations where you might get something below market value, for instance a foreclosure, distressed sale, or someone who doesn’t care and will sell it for whatever. My friend bought a house from a Church, someone left the church the house and the church didn’t want it and was happy with whatever. So he got the house for 1/2 or 1/3rd of what the houses in the (Bad) neighborhood were selling for.
“‘What happened to them broke my heart,’ Scott said. ‘But the buyers got a fantastic deal.’”
A) What heart?
B) I am confident that this was not a fantastic deal for the buyers.
Scott must not leave the house much, and must not have any friends or relatives if seeing some dumb ppl buy a house during a bubble while they still have a mortgage on another house breaks Scott’s heart. I know ppl with real problems which they did not themselves create. Have some freaking perspective.
“oh, if you are so heartbroken for us, why don’t you give back some of your commish”
“oh, ah, well, I really feel bad for you, but this is business, please make out the check to Warren with two Rs. What a shame, poor people…..”
What’s stupid about the whole thing is that they bought another house before the old one sold. I hope that with new regulations requiring home buyers to be educated about loan products, a snippet pertaining to selling the old house first BEFORE buying a new one is mentioned along with the rest.
What ever happened to contingency sales, anyway? That was a big thing back in the 80s - can’t buy yours until I sell mine. Did the bubble just wipe that out of the memory banks?
I never needed it when I bought my places so didn’t ask.
Broken heart. Oh brother. If this is the worst thing that is ever going to happen to them, they should consider themselves VERY lucky and blessed.
I remember Bridge loans…very short term 3-6 months, so you had to sell your 1st home real quick,there was no renewal clause.
A bank made it hard for you to carry 2 mortgages.
No, it’s still there. My aunt just sold hers on contingency, and lost a couple of buyers that way when they couldn’t sell.
Greedy sellers just threw contingent offers away during the bubble. I doubt they do that much anymore.
My mom got stuck paying 6 months on 2 mortgages (yes I warned her but her friend was a realtor professional, so she ignored her economist/lawyer son and relied on the uneducated realtor’s advice). The builder said we can offer you a huge discount if you go under contract today, and it cant be contingent. That was in 2005.
” I hope that with new regulations requiring home buyers to be educated about loan products, a snippet pertaining to selling the old house first BEFORE buying a new one is mentioned along with the rest. “
Now, now…we can’t have any more gov’t intervention! Too much gov’t is ALWAYS a bad thing, unless you have lost money and are needing a bailout…
So this moron gets his heart broken because of the “insult to injury” to his clients for having to spackle a few holes, paint, and leave their fridge. PULEEZE. Cry me a friggin river.
Tx, this would be a GREAT time to break out the largest, smelliest trout you’ve got. Don’t stop with one slap either.
The agent is just, as my wife calls it, being a Drama Mama.
“To add insult to injury, the buyers required the couple to forfeit their refrigerator, putty all the nail holes on the home’s exterior, and give it a fresh coat of paint.” Insult? B.S. That’s just a normal part of requests and concessions that go into most any used-house sale. They’re darned lucky they sold it at all, given their minor price concessions in today’s market.
It is amazing to me that people have followed the market down for 17 months now. If I was this agent Sheila Scott, I would NOT want my name used, showing the efficacy of my “professional” advice in public like this.
The Bloomington builder Ken Blackwell blames the slowdown on the credit crunch and the large inventory of SFH. He correctly points out that when things are going well, everyone becomes a builder. In the specific case of Bloomington, the role of the speculators is absolutely clear. It was all those parents of Indiana U students, who said to themselves, rents in Bloomington are kind of high, let’s buy a house for junior to live in for his 4 yrs at IU, and we’ll make enough on the appreciation to pay for the 4 yrs tuition. Ponzi scheme over, many parental bagholders.
Its more than just parents. I know a lot of grad students at the University that were buying housing instead of renting. Yet, they have no income, only student loans that pay their expenses. Prices in Bloomington just went through the roof over the last few years, yet the area had almost no job growth or income growth. The market is now starting to fall on its face and I am sure this has been repeated in most college towns in America.
The “Buy the Kid a House” craze was very much the thing here in Tucson. However, here are some not-so-fun facts:
1. Despite what the local and national REIC-ers say, selling a house is a lot tougher than when the well-meaning parents bought houses for their college kids.
2. In general, students don’t treat house (or apartments) kindly. Which means that when it comes time to sell, the parents are going to have to write some big checks to repair the damage so that the property will be attractive to buyers. And those checks will eat into the profit margin that the parents were hoping to earn.
So, to the parents who bought houses for their kiddies who are now graduating, I say, “Rotsa ruck!”
Well, it all made sense in a world where “house prices only go up”.
Those grad students are going to find themselves SOL soon. Diminished job prospects, debt overhang, and a depreciating asset. They’re already used to Ramen; they’ll be eating it for a while.
One of my paralegals did that with two of her kids at two different universities and it worked out OK for her. Of course, this was during ever increasing market prices. Those that did it recently are screwed like everyone else with a small footnote. University towns typically have more money (less dependent on business cycles) and a more stable renter population (at least until people figure out the next credit / bubble disaster. Educational loans to people that can’t get a job when they get out. Only at the end will they realize that a B.A. or even a B.S. is not worth a damned thing unless they are going further.
The very fact that paralegals (how much do they make? 60K? 70K?) were doing this is proof positive that this is retarded.
In all likelyhood our economy will stabilize at a lower output level. This means that for the kids graduating in the next few years, there will be diminished opportunities to make decent money. Many will regret taking on even the educational loans. If some are foolish to get into realestate too, they’ll have sleepless nights.
I seem to recall experiencing something similar back in the early 1980s. Being a college-educated dishwasher wasn’t exactly fun. Nor was the next job — as a cashier.
Our lab group had one “condo” member back in the early 1980’s. I rented a room from an octogenarian, the other guy was ROTC in military housing. We built our airplane wings for wind tunnel testing in the condo, which was very convenient.
I went to grad school in Bloomington in the ’90s, then worked for the University for a while. The amount of development there since I left (about a decade) is outrageous. It’s crazy.
I can’t even fathom buying a place on a grad school budget, either. It’d be interesting to know how many of the student buyers were future MBAs who “knew what they were doing.”
“appraised value” if for suckerrrsss. the only value that counts is the offer made by a bonafide buyer. The buyer determines the value and the buyer is always right
Little off topic, but I find this amazing. All though I don’t claim to understand the workings of Wall Street.
Factory order fall
Private Sector jobs -23,000
US productivity cost revised higher
Oil back over $100
So which of these items would make Wall Street party this morning?
after several down days we are due for a pop
and then tomorrow it wil revert to going south
we have had a succession of suckers rallies over the last few weeks
I think it is because they revised some numbers that made old ones seem to suck less.
Grand Traverse County medium income $43169.00 medium homes should be in the 90K to 107K rather then $150K.
This is in the middle of no where. Single industry: tourism. Lots of second homes in the area which might skew the figures. I sold a nice home that I owned on Grand Traverse Bay a while back. I made out well because it was pre-crash, but at least 50% of buyers are second home purchasers. I found someone that wanted to retire there, but let’s just say that even then, the turnover wasn’t that rapid.
I grew up in Traverse City, I’ll 2nd the 2nd house notion. The land is too ‘valuable’ to farm. But too far from everything to sustain any real industry. I’d love to live there again, but the tourism is largely people from southern michigan and i’m sure between gas and their economy it isn’t going well.
They finally sold their first home last October for $171,500, 14 percent lower than its appraised value. To add insult to injury, the buyers required the couple to forfeit their refrigerator, putty all the nail holes on the home’s exterior, and give it a fresh coat of paint.”
“‘What happened to them broke my heart,’ Scott said. ‘But the buyers got a fantastic deal.’”
Is it just me or does no one (inlcuding the writer) in this situation have any perspective whatsoever?
It “broke his heart?” that something sold at below a wishing prices but it sold anyway??? No one died, was forced out of their homes, etc.
“To add insult to injury” = the sellers (OMG) had to do minor repair work and leave behind 1 appliance. (I’m sure it had high sentimental value..)
Geesh, louise. No wonder 1/2 of America is therapy - some people obviously wouldn’t know a real problem from a minor issue if it they had neon labels and were color coded.
Ahhh, the HBB. Home to great comments like this one:
“Geesh, louise. No wonder 1/2 of America is therapy - some people obviously wouldn’t know a real problem from a minor issue if it they had neon labels and were color coded.”
Thanks for the mid-morning laugh, Vermontergal!
You should check out My First Place on the ol’ HGTV. Twenty somethings are really distressed and/or hurt because either
a)the deal on the first place they tried to buy fell through
b)they’ll have to spend a while looking for a place or
c)the deal might not go through on the current house they’re trying to buy
Real insult to injury would have been if the buyers asked the sellers to come back and feed the squirrels.
“Bingham said the housing market could be helped by real estate agents and homeowners looking to other strategies to sell their properties instead of lowering prices, which in turn lowers prices in the whole area.”
“‘People depend so heavily on price to sell their condos and their houses, when you can benefit everyone in the building and keep the price respectable,’ he said.”
Is he suggesting price collusion?
I think he is suggesting price collusion. Good luck with that. Even if it were legal, without real consequences for breaking the collusion, no one would hold the price line anyway.
Loss of RE equity is a particularly sore spot in the Chicagoland pysche/history. Evanston is a suburb with two different sides - so it makes much sense that this concern is particularly acute there. Lots of multifamily that quite frankly, isn’t that special, and probably won’t soldier the coming downturn very well.
“Bingham said the housing market could be helped by real estate agents and homeowners looking to other strategies to sell their properties instead of lowering prices, which in turn lowers prices in the whole area.”
i agree. i’m a sucker for good chocolate chip cookies
I stopped going to Open Houses to eat the cc cookies. Gas is so expensive that it doesn’t pay anymore.
Hmmm, it may be time for another one of those Arizona Slim Real Estate Bicycle Rides. I lo-o-o-o-ove chocolate chip cookies!
You guys are funny.
I haven’t seen food at open houses ever.
I know when RE agents do their caravan, there might be some, but, gosh, you guys are funny.
Yeah - they don’t feed people out here - the attitude is still you’re lucky they’re even showing you the house. There needs to be a serious attitude adjustment out in the desert. Maybe the closing of Jamba Juice and new Mexican restaurant in PS and the Macaroni Grill in PD will help. For those places to be going out of business at the height of season is really telling of the future out here.
Macaroni Grill closed? Oh well, I thought it was too pricey anyway. Wish they’d bring back Hamburger Hamlet - more my speed.
Macaroni Grill: How expensive can a place be where the help writes their names upside down with crayons on the paper table cloth? (Actually, I’m a big fan. Unfortunately, my wife thinks that Italian food is “too spicy”.)
My husband and I live just below the Evanston Township line. Hubby works for Northwestern University. Since NU owns about 51% of the land in Evanston (and is exempt from paying prop. taxes), the rest of the property owners get to pay amounts that are higher than a grad student smoking a three-foot Graphix bong. It’s ridiculous. Add to that the transfer taxes a buyer must pay (which just went up in Cook County) and it’s a recipe for disaster. Everyday I receive emails from a realty site and EVERYDAY some poor soul is dropping the price on their Evanston property, which was overpriced from the get-go.
It’s insane, I tell ya. INSANE! But, of course, there’s that evil little side of me, snickering, every month when I write my fabulously LOW rent check.
Greed and stupidity is such a dreadful combination.
NWU grad students smoke bongs THAT big? And here I thought that my alma mater, the University of Michigan, was the Big Ten leader in bong size.
C’mon, pass it on. Don’t bogart it.
In my day we called them Berkeley Bugles.
Nah - it’s U of I. Gotta have something to do in the cornfields.
It is. NWU grads only think their’s is bigger.
Universities nationwide make WAY too much money. It’s obscene.
Funny how many are staffed by liberals and socialists who blather on about how corporate America screws the little guy. They should look in a mirror. They are no better than those they whine about.
There ought to be a law that prevents universities from charging students so much in tuition and fees - at the same time - one that requires universities to pay property taxes.
Let the professors pay for their own tickets to fly around the world to pontificate with their elistist academic fellows.
What a racket.
I couldn’t agree more! My husband is not a professor at NU. But, I know they make HUGE sums of moola. As a matter of fact, the President of NU not only makes this ungodly sum of money, BUT has a limo take him to and from work every morning and afternoon! Guffaw!!
Oh, and believe me, though Evanston appreciates the “contributions” NU makes to the community, a huge bone of contention is the fact NU doesn’t pay its share of taxes. It’s a “love/hate” situation they got goin’ up yonder.
“Let the professors pay for their own tickets to fly around the world to pontificate with their elistist academic fellows.”
That will never happen. I convinced my husband take me on a real vacation for my birthday (a large number with a zero at the end) a couple of years back. By a “real” vacation, I mean, a vacation that involved no conferences, meetings, lectures, or speeches. We spent a week at a resort on a sunny island. At the end of the trip, when the bill was presented, the blood literally drained from his face. It was the first time he had paid a hotel bill with his own money in something like 30 years. He was speechless.
Thank you for your comments here. Perhaps your mate has had some second thoughts about trips to wherever knowing someone else pays the bills he doesn’t pay?
How about it!
How much does Harvard have in its coffers? $14 billion last I heard. How many kids could they educate with that money? Probably most the kids in the Chicago school system. And that’s just one university. The cash reserves of all the ivy league schools probably outpace the GDP’s of several nations.
“‘It’s devastating for so many people that this has happened,’ Bingham said. ‘I was watching people buy homes that had dreamed of owning homes all their life. They’re losing those homes now.’”
….That’s because Realtwhores, like you, sold them into buying houses they couldn’t afford, because, you told them, in few years, when the mortage re-set, they could just do a cash-out refi on the increased “equity”.
You, Mr. Realtwhore, is why they are losing their homes.
IF you were a “professional”, you would have advised them against paying such exhorbitant prices and buying things they could truely not afford.
Can somebody splain to me why it’s a “tragedy” that some idiot seller didn’t get their asking price and it was not a “tragedy” that the market got completely out of reach for the average buyer?
And people think these monkeys are on their (buyer’s) side?
A sense of entitlement is why.
Chicago. Feedblitz.com
2300 S. Michigan Turmoil: Rokas Intl’s President Back in Lithuania?
The Sun-Times is reporting that Rokas International, Inc.’s president, Andrius Augunas, has left Chicago and may be in his native Lithuania.
Rokas was the developer at 2300 S. Michigan in Motor Row in the South Loop that has stopped construction and faces numerous contractor liens.
“He’s a very nice guy and doesn’t come off as a crook, but his situation got much worse,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, an architect who designed Augunas’ Motor Row Condominium project that was started at 2300 S. Michigan. “Desperate people do desperate things.”
Records show several mortgages and lines of credit are attached to Augunas’ home in Winnetka. Calls to his home weren’t answered, and Augunas has set his cell phone to block incoming calls.
Motor Row was a 91-unit mid-rise in the middle of the historic landmark district (not to be confused with Motor Row lofts across the street, which is a conversion of several car dealerships into lofts. That project is still selling and moving forward.)
A consultant Augunas hired for the project, Sedgwick Properties Development Corp., has sued him for allegedly failing to pay $340,000 in fees. Sources said several lenders, including primary mortgage lender Indymac Bank and Equibase Capital Group LLC, are owed substantial sums and that Equibase is looking for someone else to finish the project.
Equibase principals did not return calls Monday. The phone number for Rokas’ Motor Row sales center has been disconnected, as have other numbers for the company.
Augunas also planned a 205-unit complex at 2100 S. Indiana, a mix of lofts and a high-rise. But his lender in that deal, First DuPage Bank, has sued to foreclose on the site, accusing Augunas and his companies of owing more than $12.5 million.
This housing boom also allowed people with absolutely no history of high-rise construction to suddenly be “developers.”
Observers said that, like many developers when home sales were quick and credit was easy, he took on too much debt in the hope of converting it to enormous profit.
“He got shiftier and shiftier,” said one who’s done business with him. “He came in with a pretty light track record but he had big ideas. Eventually, it seemed like he was running around with his hair on fire.”
Augunas started doing business in Chicago around 2005. Sources said he spoke of having run a cigarette distributorship in Europe and of once being a ranked professional tennis player. The International Tennis Federation lists an Andrius Augunas, 37, of Lithuania as playing on its senior circuit.
There will be more to come on this, I’m sure.
Foreclosure and Short Sales in 1600 S. Indiana
The mid-tier bracket around $400,000 seems to be very a very hard sell right now. And every month there is new inventory coming on-line.
With all the new high-rises closing in the South Loop, there will be a glut of the small two/twos there.
****************Just a snapshot of stuff in midwest. Some are supposedly still selling, some sitting.
“He’s a very nice guy and doesn’t come off as a crook, but his situation got much worse,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, an architect who designed Augunas’ Motor Row Condominium project that was started at 2300 S. Michigan. “Desperate people do desperate things.”
He better flee. His Chicago architect moonlights as a federal prosecutor.
Oh the South Loop is going to be so interesting to watch. My girlfriend’s brother bought a unit closer to Roosevelt - the amount of building there has been incredible - but IMO that area has no soul, and FeedBlitz is chock full of stories about flippers there. The South Loop will be our little icy Miami Beach.
You’re grabbing my lines, edgewater john. Yes, they should move the phoney palm trees from Oak Street beach to the Loop and near South and we’d have our own Miami!
All the while our population is in decline. Chicago is toast for the next 3-5 years minimum.
I find it interesting that Evanston is now in trouble. I guess building all those multi-story in-town condo buildings is damaging area comps. I guess Evanston isn’t the destination town its leaders thought it was. Soon, Arlington Heights, Glenview, Northbrook, etc., etc., will learn the same.
Wanna be a destination town? Build housing affordable to household income.
You know, during the past 2-3 years, the Sun-Times has usurped the Tribune as being the better newspaper in town.
When articles on the housing market appear in the Times, they are much more in-depth and hard hitting.
The Trib is akin to used-up hookers offering $5 tricks to their own pimps.
Incidentally, I’m really tired of the rag’s 7-10 “Go Green” articles that appear every single dang day. (I wonder how many tens of thousands of the Trib’s free daily tabloid-ish rag end up in the trash each day. I throw out 15-20 copies left on the stoop every weekend).
I guess advertising dollars far outstrip going green yourself, eh Tribune? Don’t excuse your destruction of the environment by endlessly telling others to go green until their faces turn red.
There is a townhouse development on the south side of Elmhurst where nearly every unit is in foreclosure or has been foreclosed. According to foreclosure.com most of the units were bought by someone with a Lithuanian last name. I wonder what the fraud was there?
I had the urge to speculate in realestate investment in 2006. Luckily, I stumbled in this blog and opened up my eyes. I am glad I put my money in gold and oil. I love this website.
“‘What happened to them broke my heart,’ Scott said. ‘But the buyers got a fantastic deal.’”
Geez…it’s great to know there are “victims” in a sales transaction when the victims willingly entered into the process. I have a really well maintained car for sale that is worth $8,000 less than I paid for it but the buyer will get a really good deal because it has been so well maintained….am I a victim? No…asset value regardless of class is predicated on market conditions and the abundance of fools to pay the asking price. I know a car and house are different but they are both consumable assets….the only difference is the house has land underneath it…
“They finally sold their first home last October for $171,500, 14 percent lower than its appraised value. To add insult to injury, the buyers required the couple to forfeit their refrigerator, putty all the nail holes on the home’s exterior, and give it a fresh coat of paint.”
“‘What happened to them broke my heart,’ Scott said. ‘But the buyers got a fantastic deal.’”
Yeah, I felt that way when I sold my 1991 Explorer, too. I only wanted $8000 for it… I mean, WTF?
This weeks paper, shows 13 foreclosures pending in Vilas County. I’m glad to see Jefferson and Dodge Counties also have rising foreclosures. Those area rae commutes to milwaukee and madison. Onieda County is more like Vilas County…second homes. To bad so sad for the Ilinois people who bought second homes up here, without selling their primary homes. I expect that, by late 2008, we will see at least 25% off lake homes..sounds good to me1
They have no idea how desperate its getting in suburban michigan. I just got my fictitious assesment in warren down only 6.5% and my freind says he got his in sterling hts down 8.5%. Only the assesments are compiled up to sept 07. And let me tell ya, the market has declined dramatically since. Everyday, the local assessments online show home after home either being foreclosed or being sold from a bank at 30, 40, 50% less then assessed value. Warren has even sent out a flyer trying to explain property taxes in a falling market. Notably it says the assessment office disregards any transactions based on any duress. Nice. So they won’t even account the forclosure sales. Sure, maybe when theres a couple foreclosures in a year you can ignore them but when they account for the vast majority of transactions ?????? I foresee a tsunami of assessment reviews coming this spring from angry taxpayers.
All I can do it is grin and giggle.
Then I realize that these same morons are also responsible for electing our leaders and I get depressed again.