November is here and so is the official slump in the Real Estate market activity (as if we had a very busy season before :-). With holidays slowly approaching, potential home buyers start having other things on their minds which makes home sellers even more upset. Well, it is not always that bad. Believe it or not, November and December can be really great months for real estate! Especially if you already have spent few months and still could not find (or could not afford) your dream home. The bad news is that not much was left of all those great homes so proudly listed in the summer months. Many of them got sold or withdrawn because sellers did not want to sell them for less than their wish price. The homes that are still for sale are now facing another 3-6 months of slow market which makes their owners ready to think twice before turning down even a very, very low offer. So, if you are in the mood to move now, don't be shy - make an offer on this house you have always wanted. Now you can actually get it for much less than you thought. Welcome to the buyer's market.
On October 13th Town & Country GMAC hosted our Annual Pumpkin Festival. Free pumpkins for everyone, raffle prizes, face painting and goody bags for kids made this beautiful fall morning a great family time for everyone. You can see a short movie made on the scene at our Chicago Northwest Suburbs Homes for sale website. Please come and join us next year!
So, it happened again! The Fed (Federal Reserve Bank) has lowered it's discount rate by another .25%. Other banks should follow the suite so if you have a home equity loan of credit or other loan tight to the "prime rate", expect your monthly payments to inch down few bucks. Enjoy the rate cut since another one may not come for another few months or maybe even years. Some economists say the Fed may be more inclined to raise the rate back up if the economy shows enough signs of improvement next year.
Finally, Illinois Board of Education released their school report cards for 2007. You can see the sample reports on Northbrook, Illinois School Score Cards website. More school reports coming soon, stay tuned...
With so many people wondering how fast (or rather - how slow) homes sell in today's market conditions, I created a couple of sample real estate reports of the recent home sales in the following areas:
