Chicago Real Estate

Archive for the ‘Wicker Park & Bucktown’ Category

Ouch. No Morgan El Stop. Bad Feds.

Posted by Phil Buoscio On September - 2 - 2010

You bought ‘cuz you loved the scene….
The busy Randolph and Fulton market area.. which is lovely for it’s dichotomy of grungy fish smelling trucks backing up and blocking streets against hi-end galleries or shops… love it.. essential Chicago fix is gotten on a mid-day bike ride through here(highly recommended).
Here was this wonderful loft with ceilings you could bounced ideas around and enjoy the west setting son after work with a chardonnay chilled in your hand on your deck… but you didn’t plan on the long walk to the el… or to be clad to the bus for that long.. cuz you were banking on all the Realtors’ chatting up the probability of the el stop going in.
So if you bought a condo.. like a few I know counting on that Morgan street el stop of the green line materializing.. you bet wrong. But don’t worry you’ll meet more people walking and stay in shape walking to the further el stop east. The Morgan station (at 1000 west) was to be the first of a few stations between Clinton and Ashland.. to cover the rich creamy filling of the n’hood between.
Danny Davis says the station will be built… but don’t take that to the bank. Official said it would be open in 2012.. but now bets are off for it to be soon with the funding crisis in all directions.

Do you want to buy a condo. Do you want someone who is born and raised here and personally closed 90 million and has a opinion and will lay it out for you and not be a pushover?

Send me an e-mail at myrealtorphil@gmail.com. I will contact you for a free consultation. When we talk, I will explain how the buying and/or selling process works in detail and answer any questions you may have. Or, if you prefer, you can call me at (312) 953-6725.

If your a short seller or know anyone in that position.. please hook us up.. I’m good at that too. Discover how other sellers successfully completed a short sale and request a free consultation by clicking here.
Click here to request a copy.

Thanks for reading this, I love what I do and hope to serve you too… Phil Buoscio.

Phil is a Real Estate Agent at Better Living Realty – Buoscio Brokerage, Inc..

Phone: (312) 953-6725. myrealtorphil@gmail.com.

West Loop, West Town, Wicker Park & Bucktown

Pilsen. West Town. Logan Square. Bridgeport. Man Jettisons $300k debt. Real Story.

Posted by Phil Buoscio On August - 20 - 2010

Chicago IL – I know a guy that wiped out 300k in mortgage debt. I’ll call him Tom. The name and some of the details have been changed to protect his privacy. Tom owed a lot of money on his house. He owed 600k on a first mortgage and then another 300k on a second mortgage.

<a href=”http://stopchicagoforeclosure.info/Short_Sale.html”>Discover how other sellers successfully did a short sale and request a free consultation by clicking here.</a>

Tom’s income dropped dramatically. He almost lost his home. He finally got a new job and was able to pay the first mortgage payment. Because they were closer to foreclosing, he found a way to pay them. But, he didn’t have enough money to pay the second mortgage.

So Tom didn’t pay the second mortgage. He was doing everything he could to save his home. The second mortgage called Tom a lot. “If you don’t pay us, then we will file for foreclosure”, they would say. Twelve months went by and no one filed for foreclosure.

Tom was quite surprised. “I had no idea when the sheriff was going to come out and kick us out”, Tom told me. We told him that most second mortgages never file for foreclosure. (Here is why they hardly ever do. In a foreclosure, the first mortgage gets paid off before the second mortgage gets a dime.)

In Tom’s case, his home’s value had dropped below the 600k he owed to his first mortgage. This meant that if the second mortgage did foreclose, then they would only lose more money. That is not a winning business proposition.

We also told Tom that he could probably settle with his second mortgage for five to ten cents on the dollar. That means he can eventually settle for $10,000 to $20,000. We first talked to him over a year ago.

Today, Tom still hasn’t made a single payment on his second mortgage. He has caught up all the payments on his first mortgage. In addition, he has been able to get back on his feet financially. He expects that he will settle with the second mortgage in a year or two. The first priority is getting all his other finances completely in order.

This story illustrates that you are not doomed. Many people owe more than their home is worth. They are able to short sale and get rid of the debt. Or, they can use creative strategies to reduce the level of debt. You can get your finances back in order with a little work and time.

Do you want to short sale your property and never pay the bank another penny? I can help you do that. Call me at (312) 953-6725 for a free consultation. When you call, I will explain how the process works in detail and answer any questions you may have. Or, if you prefer, you can e-mail me at <a href=”mailto:myrealtorphil@gmail.com”>myrealtorphil@gmail.com</a>.

Discover how other sellers successfully completed a short sale and request a free consultation by <a href=”http://stopchicagoforeclosure.info/Short_Sale.html”>clicking here</a>.

Thinking about a loan modification? Our Chicago Loan Modification Kit has the instructions you will need to get a loan modification approved with your lender. <a href=”http://stopchicagoforeclosure.info/Loan_Modification_Secrets.html”>Click here to request a copy.</a>

Thanks for reading this, Phil Buoscio.

Phil is a Real Estate Agent at Better Living Realty – Buoscio Brokerage, Inc..

Phone: (312) 953-6725. <a href=”mailto:myrealtorphil@gmail.com”>myrealtorphil@gmail.com</a>.

View My homes for sale at <a href=”http://”></a>.

Phil Buoscio specializes in short sales in Chicago Illinois. Chicago Loan Modification Help can be referred to you. Chicago Short Sales. Chicago Short Sale Realtor. Chicagoland Short Sale Realtor. Chicago IL Short Sales. Chicago Realtor. Pilsen. McKinley Park. Bridgeport. Wicker Park. West Town. Ukranian Village. Lincoln Park. Logan Square.

All Articles, Bridgeport, Bronzeville, Chinatown, Lincoln Square/Roscoe/North Center, Lincoln Square/Rosoce Village/North Ctr, Market Conditions, McKinley Park, Pilsen, Short Selling/Buying, South Loop, West Loop, West Town, Wicker Park & Bucktown

Our New Short Sale Blog Is Up!

Posted by Phil Buoscio On July - 26 - 2010

We just launched a blog strictly dedicated anything short sale related www.chicago-shortsaleblog.com The site will offer loads of knowledge and details about the whole short sale process. There will be personal stories regarding short sales our office handles, articles explaining the basic principles behind short sales and even stories from other brokerages and agent across the Country. Given current economic conditions, we feel that shorts sales are already a major force in the real estate market. Now you have a Team you can trust that works on short sales daily and knows how to get your deals closed. So if you or anyone you know are having trouble hanging onto a property, give us a call or at least visit our new blog www.chicago-shortsaleblog.com and get educated on short sales. Considering distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales) are probably going to make up the majority of what closes in the next 2 years, you need to be in the know, whether buyer or selling. So visit www.chicago-shortsaleblog.com often, as we will be making new postings every day.

All Articles, Bridgeport, Bronzeville, Chinatown, Financing, Lincoln Square/Roscoe/North Center, Lincoln Square/Rosoce Village/North Ctr, Market Conditions, McKinley Park, Neighborhoods, Other Real Estate, Pilsen, Short Selling/Buying, South Loop, West Loop, West Town, Wicker Park & Bucktown

West Town Market Update – July 2010

Posted by Phil Buoscio On July - 21 - 2010

The entire area of West Town has seen price appreciation over the last year! Real estate markets are local and continued news about properties losing value on a national level are completely meaningless for the most part. Real estate is local and that’s where you should be getting your data. Let’s face it, values in Vegas or L.A. don’t mean squat here. If you want to know how the values of your property have held up over the last 2 years, give me a call at 312-953-6725 for a free CMA on your property.

The chart below shows the number of properties for sale, under contract and sold for the last 2 years in the entire neighborhood of West Town (MLS area 8024). As you can see over a 2 year period there has been a 6% decrease in the value of sold condos and single family homes. Compared to other neighborhoods across the city, that decline is actually very stable in today’s market.

Click to view larger image of graph

Although a 6% decrease in values over 2 years is by no means good news to anyone who owns a home or condo in the area, there is good news in the last 12 months of data. The median sales price in West Town for a single family home and condo rose 5.4% from 7-12 months prior! To see the chart showing the values click here.

For more information on the market around your home, give me a call for a free market analysis: 312-953-6725

All Articles, Market Conditions, West Town, Wicker Park & Bucktown

Wicker Park and Bucktown

Posted by Phil Buoscio On November - 23 - 2009

Interested in discovering everything that Wicker Park and Bucktown are famous for? Click on the link below and find out great restuarants, cool stores, and other fabulous places to go in this great area!

Wicker Park and Bucktown

-Phil Buoscio

Neighborhoods, Wicker Park & Bucktown

16.3 % Drop? Value is two things: price & how it shows.

Posted by Phil Buoscio On November - 10 - 2009

Ok – so if you were selling a property one year ago… it’s official according to the median and the stats…. . You will have to (on average) lower your price 16.3 % to be in sync with the market.

Right?

Well… not so fast. Real estate is HYPER local. So don’t read too deeply into this–know that the 16.3% drop was there… but then go deeper. There are short sales and foreclosures taking up 30 or 40% of those sales pulling down the averages … and thus there are 30 % above those averages– some well above. But one thing is true. You have to price well–and be the BEST value out there to get that buyer.

Value is two things. One is price. The other is how it shows. How it shows means many things–staging, condition… etc.

Finding that balance of where to price right to get highest interest and drive value up is a per-property dynamic.

N’hood by N’hood housing and Housing Type by Housing Type. Things don’t compare and hold true the same in Wicker Park as they would in Pilsen or Bridgeport.

Obviously Wicker Park is not Pilsen. But Pilsen is way down off it’s old 2006 median further than Wicker Park is down it’s 2006 median. So as you go looking for a deal don’t try to buy what everyone else is buying. Find the nitch that is slow/not selling.

Multi units south are dead. Dead and dropping wildly still.. The financing on multi’s has dried up and so seller’s who need to sell are cutting real deals… beneath what a single family home would have dropped off in the mid range market (400 to 800k).

Fact: Condo’s in Wicker Park are down much more than Single Family homes in Wicker.

Fact: In Pilsen Single family homes that are turn key haven’t dropped off the median as much as a home that needs a 203k /rehab loan.

Let’s get specific to you property and your n’hood. -Phil Buoscio

In the Chicagoland Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA), home sales (including single-family and condominiums) totaled 21,298, up 2.4 percent from 20,802 home sales in the third quarter of 2008. The Chicagoland PMSA third quarter median home sale price was $205,000, down 16.3 percent from $244,900 in the third quarter of 2008. – IAR STATS Report Nov 10, 2009.

Market Conditions, Pilsen, Wicker Park & Bucktown

Wicker Park Bucktown Explanation

Posted by Phil Buoscio On October - 9 - 2009

For a good write up on the n’hoods of Wicker Park and Bucktown check out this link. Our association produced this 4 page pamphlet on the n’hoods.

http://www.chicagorealtor.com/associations/6001/files/BUCKTOWN-WP.pdf

Wicker Park & Bucktown

Bucktown’s Pulaski School Tries To Change

Posted by Phil Buoscio On October - 6 - 2009

After hearing the heated discussion of the Friday meeting Sept 21st on NPR/WBEZ I tuned into the Pulaski school conversation. Pulaski school… being just blocks away from the wonderful pool at Holstein Park sits in the Northwestern pocket of Bucktown just east of Western. The el is walkable from here. There are a dozen or so single family homes in the +1 Mil range at the market at any time… and plentiful options of two flats and single families in the $400 to $800k range. So for a family who wants to stay close to the loop, and the el… and have a park nearby and the retail of Damen ave and all the Wicker Park energy nearby this is a good option. Checking out the Pulaski school could be the beginning of that commitment to a n’hood. The International Bach. program (IB) is a great curriculum that is recognized internationally. This effort to change over to IB- if it gets going-could create a new school with energy and challenge.

I pulled this from a CPS blog… to forward the conversation.

Return To Main Blog Page
Monday, August 10, 2009
What’s Going On At Bucktown’s Pulaski Elementary?

There’s another gentrification battle brewing, this time over Bucktown’s Pulaski Elementary. I don’t know all the details, but it sounds like the long-discussed plans to bring in an IB program to replace the fine arts program — a change supported by the neighborhood association, the principal and the the LSC have suddenly morphed into something with a lot more sharp edges for the kids, teaachers, and administrators at the school.

Unlike many schools that falter once neighborhood demographics change and special funding is removed, Pulaski has maintained a strong enrollment (800+) and increased its academic achievement over the past few years. But it hasn’t attracted new families, who want something with more enrichment and rigor for their kids. Just 16 percent of Pulaski kids come from the neighborhood.

So bringing in a new program like IB makes sense, and phasing it in over time seems reasonable as well. Rename the school too if that helps — Bucktown Academy?

What doesn’t obviously make sense is making the new program separate from the old school, with its own budget and administration — essential two schools operating in the same building at the same time. That seems expensive and unnecessary, given that teachers and administrators can always change via hiring and LSC contract renewal. And it seems unfortunately simililar to what CPS does to low-performing schools, which Pulaski isn’t.

So too does not allowing younger siblings to go to the same schools if they want to during the transition. You can be sure that siblings will be strongly considered within the IB program, so why not between the new IB program and the old neighborhood program? Seems stingy to me.

I wish that the new parents and neighborhood folks had gotten themselves represented on the LSC and done this internally, working with Principal Karl or replacing her if they thought she was resistant to change. Maybe they tried — I don’t know. But here as in Ravenswood that always seems to be a problem — change-minded families try to do the work from outside the school, and end up with something more conflicted and controversial than necessary.

I haven’t seen anything on paper, or talked to the folks at CPS or the Bucktown Community Organization folks who are apparently pushing this proposal along. There was a community meeting last Tuesday, the 4th, and there’s apparently a hearing at the Board a week from Friday, the 21st. The principal and the LSC are opposed to having two schools at Pulaski, as is (I’m told) the AIO, Jim Cosme.

Most of the time, things like this are done deals. Pulaski has no connected parents or friends to reach out to, and its scores and enrollment may not be good enough for CPS to tell white-collar parents to suck it up and give the school a try. But once in a while, schools wriggle free from these kinds of things, and here at least there seems like there’s the possibility of preserving the strengths of the existing school community while bringing in new offerings and young families.

What do you think? What do you know? Write in and let us know.

Wicker Park & Bucktown

Dig Deep To Get Local News

Posted by Phil Buoscio On September - 30 - 2009

4 local Chicago news blogs to keep an eye on… Each have built their base largely on highlighting local news for Chicagoans. Whatever neighborhood your digging unto check em out.

Gapers Block,
Chicagoist,
the Beachwood Reporter,
the Windy Citizen,

Everyblock

ChicagoNow

Huffington Post Chicago

Bridgeport, Bronzeville, McKinley Park, Pilsen, South Loop, West Loop, West Town, Wicker Park & Bucktown

$8000 Tax Credit + $6000 More ! From Bob Adolfson

Posted by Phil Buoscio On September - 10 - 2009

ACT NOW TO GET YOUR CREDITS! If you haven’t started looking you want to get into serious search mode now. – Bob Adolfson

The end is nearing for the first-time homebuyer tax credit. In order to qualify, homebuyers must close on or before midnight on November 30 of this year to qualify for the tax credit.
The National Association of REALTORS® estimates close to two million first-time buyers will have taken advantage of the $8,000 tax credit this year, stimulating an additional 350,000 home sales.
Qualified Illinois first-time homebuyers have a double advantage utilizing the tax credit with the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s new Illinois Home Start Loan program.
The Home Start program offers a 30-year fixed rate amortized loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) along with a zero-interest, short-term advance loan of up to $6,000 to use towards a down payment on their home purchase and to be paid back when they earn their tax credit in 2010. – Bob Adofson