Anne West

Looking for some fun ways to celebrate fall? Check out these family-friendly activities happening around the North Shore in September:

Paint Evanston Purple Pep Rally

Thursday, September 8 at 6:00 pm
Independence Park, 2000 Central St., Evanston

The City of Evanston and Northwestern University band together for a pre-season Pep Rally! Presenting Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, Coach Pat Fitzgerald, President Schapiro, the Northwestern Football Team, Northwestern Cheerleaders and a live Marching Band performance! Wear your purple gear and enjoy the giveaways, business promotions, and much more.

Northwestern Football – Wildcats vs. Panthers

Saturday, September 10 at 2:30
Ryan Field, Evanston

Cheer on the Wildcats at their first home game of the season as Northwestern takes on Eastern Illinois. You can buy tickets here.

Picnic Supper, Barnyard Dance and Ice Cream Social

Saturday, September 10 4:00-8:00 pm
Wagner Farm, 1510 Wagner Rd., Glenview

Pack a picnic supper and bring the family to the farm! Wagon rides, live music, a square dance caller and all the fixins’ for ice cream sundaes. Live music begins at 5:00. Cost is $6 per person; children under 2 are free. 847-657-1506

Bike Winnetka

Saturday, September 17 at 1:55 pm
Skokie Playfield, 540 Hibbard Rd., Winnetka (ride will start and finish here)

This one hour ride through scenic Winnetka is sponsored by the Winnetka Park District. Registration is $5.00 if you register before Sept. 9 ($10 after Sept.9). Go here for more information and a route map. After the ride, enjoy Fallfest at Skokie Playfield, with food, entertainment and kids’ activities.

Read the rest of Family Fun on the North Shore: September 2011

Often when my clients are reading a listing sheet for a North Shore property they are interested in purchasing, they will see a comment on the agent remarks section that reads something like: “buyer pays transfer tax” and they ask me what that is. A transfer tax is basically another source of revenue for the town and you can’t close on a property without proof that it has been paid. Usually the tax is calculated as a dollar amount per thousand dollars of the sale price of the house. For example, Wilmette has a transfer tax of $3.00 per $1000. So a home that sells for $600,000 will have a transfer tax of $1,800. Usually you have to show proof that the water bill has been paid in order to get the transfer stamps.

Not all towns have a transfer tax. For those that do, sometimes it’s the buyer who pays and sometimes it’s the seller. Here’s a guide to transfer taxes for the North Shore, as well as nearby towns that have them. For more information call the town hall. The phone numbers are noted in the notes section of the chart.

North Shore Municipal Transfer Taxes

Originally posted at www.NorthShoreViews.com

My three labs are not real happy with me at the moment. They just found out that the 7th annual Pawgust is this weekend and we will not be here to participate.

What’s Pawgust, you ask? In a nutshell, it is heaven on earth for dogs. It’s the one day of the year when dogs can run free on 21 acres of open land, swim in the pond, dive for tennis balls or chase lures on a grassy lure course. It is hosted by Mitzi Heytow on her Libertyville estate. There will also be food and drink for both people and dogs.

Ms. Heytow hosts the event as a fundraiser to benefit LEARN, a Laborador Retriever rescue and adoption network. The organization has saved an estimated 1,600 labs to date. Although this is a fundraiser for labs, dogs of all breeds are welcome at the event (even mutts).

Event Details:

When: Saturday, August 13, from 10:00 to 4:00
Where: 25775 St. Mary’s Rd., Libertyville, IL (3rd driveway south of Rt. 60 on the east side of the road) – Look for the balloons marking the entrance.
Admission: $10/person or $15/family

Dogs must be socialized and current on vaccinations

Originally posted at North Shore Views.

North Shore Market Update
July 2011 vs. Year Ago

Source: MRED LLC data for single family homes - deemed reliable but not guaranteed

Home sales on Chicago’s North Shore were up 27% in July over last year. That’s good news, especially since, through June, sales were down 11%. There was a tax credit in place through June of last year, so it’s not at all surprising that this year would not compare favorably. Just nice to see that things are bouncing back. All nine North Shore communities we track showed positive trends in July, with the strongest performance from Kenilworth (up 100% off of a tiny base) and Lake Forest, which was up 59%. Highland Park, whose trends have been abysmal for some time, even showed a nice increase (+52%) over last year.

Read the rest of North Shore Market Update

Last September I wrote about the ten most expensive homes on the North Shore. Since almost a year has passed, I thought it was time to update the list and take a look at what's happening at the top end of the market.

None the ten properties at the top of the market a year ago has sold. Three of them have come off the market: 68 Locust Rd. in Winnetka, which had topped the list at $28,000,000 and was later reduced to $23,000,000; 609 Sheridan Rd. in Winnetka; and 925 Edgemere Ct. in Evanston . The rest are still for sale and all but one has taken at least one price reduction. As a result of these price reductions two of last year’s top ten don’t make the cut this year: 1345 Lake Rd. and 955 Lake Rd. in Lake Forest.

It’s not surprising that none of these homes have sold. It goes without saying that there are very few buyers in this price range, especially in this economy. In fact, there have only been seven sales over $5,000,000 in the last year on all of the North Shore. There are thirty five properties listed in this price range, making the odds of selling in a twelve month period about 20%. The average price of the top ten homes has decreased by over $1,000,000 in the last year, even after removing the $28,000,000 outlier that topped the list in 2010.

All of this year’s priciest properties are in either Lake Forest or Highland Park. Interesting that Highland Park, which has some of the most affordable homes of any of the lakefront communities, also has four of the most expensive.

Since I featured five of the current top ten last year, I’ll just feature the five that are new to the list:

Read the rest of North Shore's Priciest Homes here.