Jim Gramata

Market Snapshot of Lakeview (Chicago) Condos for Fall Quarter, 2008 ChicagoHomeBuzz.com

The total number of Lakeview, Chicago condos sold for the third quarter, 2008 was 576 units compared with 700 units in 2007 down 18% from the previous year and and down 23% since 2003.

The median sales prices of Lakeview, Chicago condos for the same quarter was $339,500 compared with $331,065 in 2007 up 3% from the previous year and up 13% since 2003.

The average sales price of Lakeview, Chicago condos for the same quarter was $368,824 compared with $367,738 in 2007 down 1% from the previous year and up 15% since 2003.

The average market time of Lakeview, Chicago single-family homes for the same quarter was 98 days compared with 94 days in 2007 up 4% from the previous year and up 85% since 2003.

For a full neighborhood and city wide report visit www.ChicagoHomeBuzz.com

Market Snapshot of Lakeview (Chicago) Fall Quarter, 2008 ChicagoHomeBuzz.com

The total number of Lakeview, Chicago single-family homes sold for the third quarter, 2008 was 30 units compared with 42 units in 2007 down 29% from the previous year and and down 35% since 2003.

The median sales prices of Lakeview, Chicago single-family homes for the same quarter was $1,200,000 compared with $1,041,250 in 2007 up 15% from the previous year and up 64% since 2003.

The average sales price of Lakeview, Chicago single-family homes for the same quarter was $1.276,563 compared with $1.129,197 in 2007 up 13% from the previous year and up 51% since 2003.

The average market time of Lakeview, Chicago single-family homes for the same quarter was 169 days compared with 154 days in 2007 up 10% from the previous year and up 213% since 2003.

For a full neighborhood and city wide report visit www.ChicagoHomeBuzz.com

DogPads.net finds “pads” for dogs (and their owners)

New website provides information to dog owners searching for a Chicago area home.

Chicago, IL, Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2007-08 National Pet Owners Survey, 44.8 million U.S households own a dog which totals 74.8 million dogs owned in the United States. Dog owners who are looking for a new place to call home for their dog (and them) now have a place to go on the internet that provides a free service to help them find their next home. DogPads.net is a unique website designed for dog owners who are looking to buy a Chicago area condo or townhome that welcomes dogs. Real estate broker associate Jim Gramata of Keller Williams Lincoln Park Realty recently launched his dog-centric home buying website whose purpose is to provide a search service for buyers to help find all available active “pads” which meet their (pooch and buyer) search criteria. Currently designed sites focus on pet owners looking to rent homes, however, Gramata shifted this idea to provide a search site for dog-owners looking to buy a home in a pet-friendly building.

“The dogpads.net site was created out of lots of slobber and perspiration for the dog lovers out there looking for a home who would absolutely never consider living in a home without their pets. Dogs are a part of the family as much as any other member. They are part of the home buying decision-making process.” Gramata went on to say the mission of the site “is to supply a service to home buyers who are interested in filtering out the thousands and thousands of properties that do not welcome dogs saving them time and the frustration of learning this later. Why even look at a property if it would not allow your dog?”

Some of the current features of the site include a free report of available properties sent by email that meet the buyer’s search criteria including property pet restrictions, buyer’s neighborhoods of interest and price ranges. A second more advanced search method includes a secure dedicated website where buyers can login and receive and review daily online reports of active properties that meet the buyer’s search requirements. The buyer can make notes, get more detailed property information and can view interior pictures when available or request showing appointments.

Another feature coming soon will give buyers the ability to independently search for properties by stretching a box over an area of a neighborhood map and seeing real time what active properties fall within their search parameters which will greatly improve the delivery of information. “Buyers will have more interactive control of where they look since search criteria and interests can change daily. We want to put the search process in the buyers hands as much as possible.” Gramata said.

There is a “Your Dogs” page dedicated to posting pictures of the visitors dogs, as well as a Chicago ‘Dog Blog’ page and a page called Dog Spots which highlights local businesses that are dog-friendly. “We want the site to contain useful information from local businesses and organizations that share the same philosophy that dogs (and all animals) are an important part of the family and deserve a home in this great city of ours.” When asked if this meant the site would eventually be dominated by corporate sponsors, Gramata replied, “We do not want to create a site whose sole purpose is to sell advertising space for companies. Our mission is genuinely to distribute valuable information to our site visitors while improving their (and their pets) experience of finding a home in Chicago.”

The ‘beta’ version of the site is live now at www.dogpads.net and Gramata reports there are currently visitors who are using the site and are actively searching for properties in the area. ”We are happy to report that so far the DogPads.net site has been very well received. We are diligently creating daily search reports for each of our current home buyers who are trying to help them find their dog (and them) their next home.” The site is a refreshing innovative service long overlooked for home buyers and their dogs and if the site continues in the direction it has started it will continue to enhance the pet-friendly home-buying experience for dogs (and their owners) for years to come.

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Jim Gramata is a licensed real estate broker in the State of Illinois and is currently with Keller Williams Lincoln Park located at 2106 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL 60614. He has been working in the real estate industry for over seventeen years which he began after he received his Masters of Architecture degree from The University of Illinois-Chicago. In 1991, he founded the Gramata Development Corporation where he designed and built single-family homes throughout Chicago area. His company mission and vision expanded in 2006 when he began his real estate sales and marketing team with the Gramata Realty Group. His dogs names are Norman (black lab, 14) and Gracie (terrier mix, 6). Jim can be reached at 773-315-6103 or at rememberjim@kw.com .

Beware of summaries. They are for losers. Beware of the pessimist or the optimist. Look for the micro-economist in your neighborhood.

This is an historic time in our national economy and it really is incredible to watch since it is directly affecting each and every one of us. General summaries and market data are for losers and we frown on them. Why? Real estate operates in a local economy. Block by block, street by street, subdivision by subdivision. One street could be booming and the next street busting. Beware the pessimists or the optimists. Look for the micro-economist in your neighborhood.

Look at our median sales summary in our Chicago Home Buzz report: Median prices up almost 25%! Wow! This economy is doing great! Read on…summary points of view are worthless such as our summary used as an example of skewed data. The media in their infinitely diluted viewpoint continues to under report (or over sensationalize) the actual state of the real estate market. To their defense, it is impossible to write detailed reporting on the market because the real estate market operates on both a macro and micro level. Even when you get down to what you think is a micro-level, Gold Coast goes and screws everything up!

The real estate macro-economic condition is obviously just as important to each of us as what is happening in our back yards as evident by the turmoil in the markets. I’ll refrain from getting into details about why we are where we are but needless to say “A” grade securities which included junk, sub-prime mortgages (mortgages given to people who had no right getting a loan) were traded on Wall Street and across the global market at a hugely profitable speed and no regulator or moderator or Hedge Fund manager wanted that gravy train to stop. Trillions were made just as trillions were just lost in these past few weeks.

That said, let’s focus on what the crux of this Chicago Market report is about. Our LOCAL MICRO-ECONOMY. Chicago as compared to national indexes is doing well in many areas, and not so well in others. Our report focuses on the north side of Chicago with a focus on SINGLE FAMILY homes in the Fall Quarter, 2008 compared with Fall Quarter, 2007.

Median Price Activity for the Third Quarter, 2008 in Chicago:

Taking the Gold Coast/Loop out of the equation, median sales prices for the quarter dropped almost 14% to $412,444 down from $470,141 in 2007. If you add that area back in there is actually a 24.4% increase in median price, but that is because the single-family home median sales price had a few large transactions pushing the median price for the entire North Section up. All other areas showed a decline of median prices compared with last year with the WEST area leading the decline with an average 85% price drop on sales from $228,867 down to only $123,481. This is in large part due to the number of foreclosures leading the sales in this area. West Garfield Park led the decline in a staggering display of depreciation for the area with 5 units sold (up from only 3 in 2007) but a drop in median price from $189,000 down to a paltry $12,500, a 93% decline in median price. North Lawndale (down 78%), East Garfield Park (down 73%) and Humbolt Park (down 53%) were among the area leaders of decline in value. On the positive side, once again one of my HEAVY BULLISH neighborhoods (for condos, multi-unit or single-family investments) continues to be Lakeview in the LAKESHORE area. Median Prices saw a whopping 15% INCREASE from $1,041,250 up to $1,200,000 (average prices too saw an increase up 13%). Rogers Park too saw an unexpected increase in median price single-family homes up 11% from the previous quarter with a median sales price of $456,000. The bad news there was it took an increased market time average of 279 days UP 862% from 2007’s short 29 day market average. The leading declining area for the quarter was Uptown, West Ridge and Lincoln Square (down 21%, 18% and 17% ) for the area. Overall however, the Lakeshore section was down 5% for the quarter. Very little good news for the NORTHWEST section with the area prices down 18% from a median sale price of $387,450 to $329,357. The good news was the area saw good sales volume in units (there are deals to be had). The NORTH CENTRAL section saw Avondale and Albany Park leading area decliners down 30% and 23% but West Town (Wicker Park/Ukranian Village) saw a 5% increase in median price up to $727,000 for a median price home up from $690,000 last year. Bucktown/Logan Square too saw a slight uptick in median prices to $693,000 from $670,000 last year (average prices jumped 15% to $804,804 from $702,666 last year).

Unit Activity: Total units sold is down only 70 units across the North Section (-8.5%) compared with 3Q 2007.

The NORTHWEST section of the city is only showing 3% less units sold down from 296 to 286. In that same section, Norwood Park saw a 15% jump in sales from 54 units up to 62 and Dunning saw a significant uptick from 56 units sold in 2007 to 70 this quarter, 2008. However, some losers on units sold were Edison Park with a whopping 48% decline in units sold down to 14 units from 27 in 2007 and Jefferson Park down almost 30% from 45 units to only 32 this past quarter. Moving to the CENTRAL area, Avondale saw a whopping 183% increase in units sold up from 6 in 2007 to 17 in 2008 but the area saw an overall decline of 5% for the quarter. The WEST section saw an overall drop of 12% but areas like Belmont Cragin and Humbolt Park where single-family homes abound saw significant drops in unit volume down 30% and 13% respectively. The NORTH section dropped from 179 units to 170 however, the big news there is Avondale (while median prices are down 30%) saw a 183% increase in units sold from 6 to 17 with people most likely taking advantage of the buyers market and finding those deals which are out there.

Summaries are for losers. We already know there are pockets (and even pockets within the pockets we are reporting) where there are signs of growth in this dismal market. Overall for the City on the North section market times were longer (up 27.46%) to 185 days with no one area really better than the other. Uptown was the only neighborhood that saw an average market time below 100 at 93 days (down 36% from 2007). However, taking the skewed Gold Coast out of the microscope we can get a better glimpse of the actual numbers for the quarter. Total units sold were down 7.7% from 870 to 808. The median sales price dropped almost 14% with a few exceptions such as Uptown, Bucktown/Logan Square and West Town/Wicker Park which all showed a positive gain in median sales price compared to 3rd quarter 2007. If we do add the Gold Coast back in to the report we are really looking at a very positive gain in median prices for the quarter up 24.39%.

Beware of summaries. They are for losers. Beware of the pessimists or the optimists. Look for the micro-economist in your neighborhood.


For a download of this report so you can become educated about the local micro-economist please visit www.ChicagoHomeBuzz.com or email us and we will send you a pdf of the report (rememberjim@kw.com).

Are you ready to deal? How about a 600 Lake Shore Drive condo new construction condo one block off beaches and Lake Shore Drive for a bargain? I just sold another condo here and I want to get one myself. This sounds like cheese but there are deals to be had!

Go and make a deal or let me make one for you!