About Champaign County, IL

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending half an hour with a reporter from our local ABC news station answering loads of questions about our Champaign real estate market. Then last night, I got to be on the news again with my Homeplace Advisors sign and all :-)

I was pleased to see that the story focuses on the positive trends that we're seeing right now, as that is what's "new" and, quite frankly, "news-worthy"! Also interesting is the reporter's interview of the home buyer at the beginning of the video. Click the image below to watch the full report, which is just over a minute long...and enjoy!

P.S. Even though I talked with the reporter at length, our discussion is condensed to about 30 seconds of information in the video. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me in the comments below. Thanks for watching!

Note: The news station only keeps these videos posted for a month or so. Eventually this link will take you to a completely different and random video. Sorry if you missed it!

Ever heard of The I.D.E.A. Store? It's a local re-use shop that takes donations of gently used or partially used items and sells them for a deeply discounted price. Examples of items you might find at The I.D.E.A. Store would include: fabric, glass jars, pens, markers, ribbon, pieces of wood, frames, coloring books, notepads, egg cartons, sheet music, wrapping paper, buttons, boxes, and oh-so-much more!!!

Here's what I bought yesterday for a grand total of...... $2.51 (Yes, two dollars and fifty-one cents. This is not a typo.)

The purpose of my visit was to purchase a few things for an upcoming baby shower and I found LOTS to work with...5 rolls of ribbons, streamers galore, crayons, perfectly good wrapping paper...all of these things easily may have ended up in a trash can if it weren't for The I.D.E.A. Store. Instead, I purchased them for a bargain price and am happy to put them to use! Anything I don't end up using will be donated back to the store and used again by the next lucky customer :-)

And the best part is, the store benefits our local Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation. If you haven't checked this place out, I really do encourage you to stop by! You will be amazed at all the useful little gems you'll find!!!

***P.S. Be sure to check their website for their hours. As of right now, they are closed on Sundays and Mondays, open 2-7pm on Tues. - Fri. and open Sat. 10am-3pm.

Homeplace Advisors is pleased to announce that this beautiful Ashland Park home is now SOLD! It was previously on the market with no bites. The seller then contacted Homeplace Advisors and we're grateful to her for putting her trust in us. After hard work and team effort, this home is now officially OFF the market and the seller is able to move on, without attachments! Congrats to both our wonderful seller and the new homeowner!

You're too late for this one, but don't worry! There are currently other homes on the market in Ashland Park!

Search Homes for Sale in Ashland Park

Recently we published our January 2012 Market Report for Champaign County IL. Here's the update specifically for the Village of Savoy:

Like the city of Champaign, Savoy experienced a drop in total listings and total home sales for 2011 compared to 2010 but saw a substantial increase in average sale price. Also impressive is the steady sale-to-list price ratio for Savoy (this number for both Urbana and Champaign has dropped to around 95%).

But by far the most fun statistic to report (yes, I'm a dork) has been the increase in pending sales. A pending sale is when a seller has agreed on a contract with a buyer, meaning a sale is in process and it will close usually within 30-45 days. In other words, the vast majority of pending sales will become closed sales in about a month. For two months in a row now, Savoy has seen a notable increase in pending sales. The hope, of course, is that this trend will continue throughout 2012.

For more local real estate information, check out our city of Champaign housing update and our city of Urbana housing update.

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate. Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®

For a local real estate report covering a broader area, check out our January 2012 Market Report for Champaign County IL. Here's the update specifically for and concerning only the City of Urbana:

Compared to 2010, there were more listings and fewer home sales in Urbana in 2011. With tougher competition, it's easy to understand why the average sale price dropped a little, as well. Interestingly, the neighboring city of Champaign saw fewer listings in 2011 (as well as fewer sales). Champaign also experienced an increase in sales in the highest price range while Urbana saw a decrease, though Urbana also doesn't have nearly as many "luxury homes," in general.

One statistic which can be used to foresee future sales is a measure of the pending sales, meaning homes that are under contract with a buyer. For January 2012, Urbana has fewer pending sales than a year ago. However, look at the numbers for February! Pending sales almost doubled for February 2012 compared to a year ago!

Now, I tend to see numbers that look good and not believe them, so I worried that perhaps foreclosures were up significantly for the month. But after investigating, I discovered that only 3 of these 33 pending sales are foreclosures and in looking at last year's numbers, 2 - 3 foreclosure sales each month in Urbana is typical. It appears as though the substantial increase is pending sales is actually worthy of excitement ;-)

Here's our City of Champaign Market Update which covers the same time period as our Urbana update. Stick around and we'll have the market update for Savoy posted soon!

*Information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed to be accurate. Statistics in this report were obtained through the Champaign County Association of Realtors®