Real Estate - Kicking some ASS!

So many people ask me how the market is going so I decided to blog it out!  Last Spring and Summer were good.  We were relieved to feel the beginning of the end to the what was a pretty miserable market for 3 or 4 years.  But since this January, houses have been selling at record pace.  I'll show some houses and if my buyers can't decide quickly enough, they will wake up in the morning and they'll all be under contract.  I'd say the difference between now and 2005 is that although prices are up from the debacle of 2011 they are still "under control".  We have the urgency we had in 2005 but just not the price tags. And truth be told, that's a better scenario anyway!  

So I did some analysis.  I looked at specific towns and school districts to see the percentage of homes under contract!  You hear the phrase "low inventory" a lot (which is great for real estate because although frustrating to a buyer sometimes, it really does creates urgency which is always good for a market) so I set out to see if this low inventory was imaginary or real. Again  this urgency is a good thing for a real estate market.  As they say....supply and demand!  So below is a list of neighboring towns and school districts in the Northwest Suburbs with the percentage of SOLD (under contract homes).  For the purpose of this blog - which is just to relay the gist of our current market's ass kicking status, I am only choosing single family homes (condos/town-homes will have to be another day).  Again, this "study" is just to relay the general vibe!  

Example:
Happiness, Illinois - 59 homes listed/26 under contract - 44% under contract!

Mount Prospect - 216/123 - 57% under contract  

• District 57 - 96/62 - 65% under contract
• District 59 - 44/21 - 48% under contract
• District 26 - 50/26 - 52% under contract

Arlington Heights - 342/189 - 55% under contract 

• District 25 -247/146-  59% under contract
• District 59 - 28/13- 46% under contract
• District 21 -40/19 - 48% under contract

Park Ridge - 247/130 - 53% under contract 

Des Plaines -269/141 - 52% under contract

Palatine - 275/136- 49% under contract

Rolling Meadows - 83/49 - 59% under contract

Elk Grove Village - 125/63 - 50% under contract