The Hottest Suburban Real Estate Markets in First Half of 2017

Homewood IL real estate

The Chicago suburban real estate market may still be slow overall but four suburban towns had the fastest-moving real estate markets in the first half of the year.

Using home sales data from the Chicago Association of Realtors through June of this year, Crain’s Chicago Business has just named the four hottest suburban markets in the first half of 2017.

Fastest-moving Chicago area suburban real estate markets – First half of 2017

Beach Park
Flossmoor
Homewood
Winthrop Harbor

Their survey covered all towns in Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will counties. Crain’s used three major indicators to determine these real estate leaders: the number of sales, the median home sale price and the time a listed home spends on the market.

Cities with less than 25 home sales in both the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2016 were not included.

Suburban Northeast Lake County

The median price of a home in Winthrop Harbor rose by more than 17 percent in the first half of the year, to $158,250. In Beach Park, it’s up 14.5 percent, to $170,000. In Lake County overall, prices were up by 9.1%, so these towns are ahead of increases from neighboring communities.

Sales volume in Winthrop Harbor and Beach Park are also outpacing the rest of the county. In Lake County overall, the sales volume increase n the first half of 2017 was up 4.2%, whereas in Winthrop Harbor sales were up 20%, and in Beach Park, they were up 32%.

In Beach Park, the average market time for sale on the market in the first half of the year was 70 days, down from 156 last year. In Winthrop Harbor, it was down to 120 from 166 last year.

South Suburban Cook County

The median price of a home in Flossmoor is $205,000, up 18.3% from 2016. In Homewood, the median home price rose to $148,000, which was up more than 24%. In south Cook County overall, prices are up 11.2 percent for the year.

For south Cook County, the overall sales volume increase compared to 2016 is up is 3.2%. In Flossmore the number of sales is up 25% compared to the first six months of 2016, and in Homewood, sales are up 13%.

In south Cook County, the average home time on the market dropped from 112 days last year to 103 this year. The time a house spends on the market in Flossmoor dropped from 162 days to 133. In Homewood, it declined only from 107 to 103 days.

The southern Cook County towns are finally experiencing a delayed recovery from the post real estate crash in the housing market. This area had not recovered as quickly as other areas have.

Chicago Suburban Area Overall

In the nine-county suburban area, growth in sales was slim and the growth in prices was the smallest seen since March 2016.

Some suburban Chicago towns saw their sales volume rise sharply in the first half of the year, but at the same time saw prices decline. These included Winnetka, Glencoe, Elmhurst, and Lisle.

“The inventory problem remains an important issue,” says Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois.

“Hopefully, now that the state has a budget, a recovering state economy will encourage more investment in housing – both new construction and investment by first-time buyers.”

Many homeowners, prospective buyers and people in the real estate and construction industries will be hoping for the same thing.

We hope to see a strong second half of 2016.

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The Law Offices of Lora Fausett P.C. provides real estate law services including loan modifications, buying and selling legal assistance, short sales and deeds in lieu, mortgage foreclosure defense, and more.

Located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and serving clients in DuPage, Cook, Kane, Will, and Kendall Counties.

For Information Call 630-858-0090

For Sale Sign image by Mark Moz – Flossmoor image by Zol87

Zestimate Lawsuit – Zillow Class Action Lawsuit Over Online Appraisals

Real Estate Home Buying Myths

Northwest suburban Chicago home builders in Schaumburg have filed a class action lawsuit against the real estate marketing company Zillow.

According to the suit filed on behalf of CastleBldrs.com in Schaumburg, the Zillow.com online estimate tool “Zestimate” provides home estimates that are misleading, and falsely pose as home appraisals in violation of the legal description of an appraisal in Illinois.

The attorney representing Castle Builders is Barbara Andersen, who had also filed an earlier suit against Zillow on her own behalf. Her suit had claimed that a Zestimate of her townhouse value was unrealistically low and had created a “roadblock” to selling her home.

Anderson has since filed a motion to dismiss her suit in order to represent the Castle Builders case.

Class action lawsuit against Zillow

How accurate is your zestimate? The new class action suit is on behalf of all of the millions of homeowners in Illinois. It claims homeowners should be asked their permission to publicly post financial data about their homes.

“Zillow has said they use the Zestimate to draw people into their website,” Andersen told Crain’s Chicago Business. “But from a legal perspective, they shouldn’t be making these estimates at all.”

The Zestimate lawsuit argues that by posting its estimates, Zillow has intentionally violated the “seclusion” of every homeowner in Illinois, without giving them a means to opt out.

Illinois law states “It is unlawful for a person to (i) act, offer services, or advertise services as a State certified general real estate appraiser, State certified residential real estate appraiser, or associate real estate trainee appraiser, (ii) develop a real estate appraisal, (iii) practice as a real estate appraiser, or (iv) advertise or hold himself or herself out to be a real estate appraiser without a license issued under this Act.”

“Even if Zillow’s numbers were perfect, dead-on accurate, they’re still opining on the value of homes, and they don’t have the license to opine,” attorney Andersen said.

Zillow denies Zestimates are appraisals

mortgage rates going up after presidential election Zillow maintains that its approximations are not actual appraisals, nor do they claim to be.

They say Zestimates are based on public records and other data using “a proprietary formula.” Zillow also provides a disclaimer about the accuracy of its approximations.

A Zillow spokesperson told MarketWatch “We believe the claims in this case are without merit. We always say that the Zestimate is a starting point to determine a home’s value, and isn’t an official appraisal. It’s a computer-automated estimate of your home’s value.”

Many people in the real estate industry will be watching for the outcome of this case.

Zillow Zestimate Class Action Lawsuit Update

Story updated – August 2017 – The Zillow class action lawsuit has been dismissed by a federal judge in Chicago. Read the story here: Zestimate lawsuit dismissed

Class-action suit aims to halt Zestimates in Illinois – Chicago Business

Do Zillow ‘Zestimates’ mislead home buyers? Lawsuit claims yes – MarketWatch

Zillow’s ‘Zestimate’ facing class-action lawsuit, reports say – Chicago Agent Magazine

Glenview homeowner sues Zillow over ‘sloppy’ estimate – Crain’s Chicago Business

Chicago Area Home Sellers File Lawsuit Against Zillow’s Zestimate – Chicago Now

The Law Offices of Lora Fausett P.C. provides real estate law services including buying and selling legal assistance, short sales and deeds in lieu, mortgage foreclosure defense and more.

Located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois and serving clients in DuPage, Cook, Kane, Will, and Kendall Counties.

For Information Call 630-858-0090

Mold Disclosure Illinois – Not Required for Realtors

Did you know that mold disclosure forms are not required by Illinois law in real estate transactions?

Many buyers are surprised to hear this, but there are no specific statutory requirements for sellers to provide regarding disclosure of mold.

There is no state or federal requirement to do so.

Illinois mold disclosure

For many years, Illinois REALTORS® did offer their own mold disclosure forms despite the fact that there is no law.

During the past year though, Illinois REALTORS® have stopped offering the form on their website. According to Illinois REALTORS® Legal Hotline Attorney Betsy Urbance, the form was been dropped from their website after a legal review.

“… Mold disclosure or notice introduces ambiguity into the transaction while also taking the focus off what are truly the important issues to the parties.”

Illinois REALTORS® does not support these forms any longer and requests you remove them from your individual forms folder and discontinue use of them.

Three main reasons were given for the removal of mold disclosure forms:

There are no state or federal statutory requirements that sellers provide mold disclosure forms.
There is no set scientific standard for what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable levels of mold in a structure.
There are existing disclosure rules which require homeowners to disclose underlying physical defects in a property.

Landlord Liability for Mold

Just as there are no current Illinois laws for disclosure of mold for sellers, there is currently no law covering a landlord’s responsibilities in regards to mold.

Illinois does not have any laws that specifically address a landlord’s duties or liability when it comes to mold prevention and remediation.

Even though there is no law for landlords regarding mold disclosure, if tenants believe their health has been damaged by mold present in their rental property, they can sue for damages in court.

If a judge or jury believes that a landlord has been negligent in regards to a mold issue or did not take action to address a known mold issue, they could be held liable for damages.

Residential Real Property Disclosure Act

In the case of mold, there is no legislation specific disclosure law.

There is, however, the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, which requires a seller to disclose any known physical defects, including issues involving moisture, which would lead to issues with mold.

It can be argued that the presence of mold could constitute a known defect in the walls, foundation, etc. If a seller is aware of mold, the seller should disclose it.

If you are uncertain of your legal obligations, you should consult an attorney specializing in real estate law.

Lead Paint and Radon Disclosure

Disclosure of lead paint is required by federal law since 1992. Radon disclosure is required by the Illinois Radon Awareness Act.

The Law Offices of Lora Fausett P.C. provides real estate law services including buying and selling transactions, short sales, mortgage foreclosure defense and more.

For Information Call 630-858-0090

Image credit: Wikipedia Commons

Credit Score Changes Help Consumers and Worry Lenders

An upcoming change to the way credit scores are calculated will likely benefit millions of consumers but also has others who depend on scores to calculate risk worried.

Starting July 1, 2017, the three primary credit bureaus will be implementing a new change in the type of information they collect to determine credit scores.

According to the Consumer Data Industry Association, (the industry group representing credit reporting bureaus), they plan to stop collecting and reporting most tax liens and civil judgments from people’s credit scores by roughly July 1.

This type of information has negative impacts on credit scores and previously remained in credit files for extended periods.

Tax liens are levied against properties when an owner is delinquent on payment of property taxes. Civil judgments are orders by courts in legal disputes, such as a creditor taking a borrower to court over an unpaid debt.

How does this impact consumers?

mortgage rates going up after presidential election The plan to stop collecting and reporting civil judgments and tax lien information currently on public records will affect millions of consumers.

VantageScore Solutions, the credit scoring developer created by the three credit bureaus, estimated that 8 percent of consumers would see an average score increase of 10 points if all civil judgments and tax liens were removed from credit reports.

Ten points may seem small but in the mortgage industry that could affect a significant number of applicants.

This could result in as many as 12 million Americans appearing to be more creditworthy after the changes occur.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the largest single source of all overdue debt on credit reports is from unpaid medical expenses. Much of this debt is eventually paid late by insurance companies. The delays caused administrative and billing processes on the part of insurance companies often end up negatively impacting consumer credit scores.

Because of this change, consumers may save money in lower interest rates caused by insurance companies paying bills late.

How does this impact lenders?

It is feared by many within the industry that these changes may make risky buyers appear more creditworthy than they actually are.

The president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association David H. Stevens has said that with tax lien and civil judgment information removed from credit reports, “it’s unclear whether creditors will be able to make informed decisions” about loan applicants.

According to Tim Coyle of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, an internal study by his firm showed that borrowers with a civil judgment or a tax lien are 5.5 times more likely to end up in serious default or foreclosure.

How these changes affect you depends on whether you work in the mortgage industry or on the content of your individual credit report. We will have to wait and see how lenders will adapt to the elimination of this information from the scores they use.

Related Information:

New credit policy: Good for consumers, worrisome for lenders – Chicago Tribune

3 Big Changes To Credit Scores That Will Impact Your Wallet – Forbes

CFPB Spotlights Concerns with Medical Debt Collection and Reporting – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

This Regulatory Change Means a Credit Score Boost for 12 Million Americans – The Motley Fool

The Law Offices of Lora Fausett P.C. provides real estate law attorney services including buying & selling assistance, mortgage foreclosure defense, and short sales.

For Information Call 630-858-0090

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IRS Issues Urgent Alert for W-2 Phishing Scam

Scam Alert In recent years there has been a growing trend of W-2 “phishing scams” in February and March, during the lead up to income tax filing deadline.

This phishing scam is combined with “spoof emails” where the scammer sends an email to a company employee (often in Human Resources) which spoofs the email address of a high-level manager or CEO.

The targeted employee thinks they are receiving an email from their boss saying that they urgently require W-2 forms of all employees in advance of an important meeting.

The unsuspecting HR employee or accountant will send the scammer the W-2s, and inadvertently cause a data security breach.

Once they have received the W-2 information, the phishers will often follow up with a second “executive” email to payroll requesting that a wire transfer is made in a certain account. This allows them not only to steal identities of employees but also money from the organization.

IRS Issues Alert

In 2017 the problem has become so bad that the IRS has issued an “urgent alert” that scammers are targeting chain restaurants, temporary staffing agencies, school districts, tribal organizations, nonprofits and varied organizations.

“This is one of the most dangerous email phishing scams we’ve seen in a long time,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “It can result in the large-scale theft of sensitive data that criminals can use to commit various crimes, including filing fraudulent tax returns.’’

What to do

The FBI urges businesses to adopt an authentication system for email, and to establish other confirmation methods, such as telephone calls, to verify significant banking transactions and employee data information.

The IRS is telling businesses and organizations that receive a W-2 scam email to forward it to phishing@irs.gov with “W-2 Scam” in the subject line.

Organizations that fall victim to the scam should file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3,) operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Related Information

Official IRS Phishing Alert – IRS.gov

Internet Crime Complaint Center – IC3.gov

Report Identity Theft – identitytheft.gov

Identity Theft Affidavit (PDF) – irs.gov

IRS: Scam Blends CEO Fraud, W-2 Phishing – Krebson Security

‘Tis The Season…For Dangerous W-2 Phishing Scams – The National Law Review

IRS Issues Urgent Alert As W-2 Phishing Scam Spreads During Tax Season – Forbes

Scotty’s Brewhouse founder “sickened” by breach affecting W2s of all 4,000 employees