About Me
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Gerard Scheffler- Default and Distressed Property Sales Expert (773) 909-3346
www.chicagolandhomegallery.com - Park Ridge, Illinois, United States
- Gerard Scheffler has been very actively involved in the real estate profession for over seven years. In 2005, immediately after receiving his Broker’s License, he established his first Chicago based brokerage company. The company turned out to be very successful with hundreds of satisfied customers and millions of dollars in closed real estate transactions. Over the years, Gerard has developed a network of returning customers who always refer his services to their family and friends. He is presently a managing broker at Home Gallery Realty brokerage firm specializing in default and distressed property sales. Regardless of his professional development and success, Gerard is constantly looking for ways to improve his skills as well as build his company image and reputation. He is very hardworking and aggressive when it comes to representing his customers ‘ real estate needs and doing his job right. He will work with you to ensure that your property is sold for the highest price possible in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of inconvenience to you. Area of service includes Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Mchenry County in the State of Illinois.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
The Finances of Renting vs. Buying
Trulia reported this week that homeownership is 45% cheaper than renting in the United States. Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist explained: “Homeownership is cheaper than renting in all of the 100 largest metros, by a wide margin. Despite the recent
via kcmblog.com
FHA temporarily eases guidance on condo approvals
The Federal Housing Administration eased some requirements for financing the purchase of condominium units through August 2014, according to a letter sent to lenders Thursday.
The new guidance is effective for all project approvals or reconsiderations submitted for review going forward.
To protect the dwindling emergency insurance fund, the FHA put stricter rules in place.
According to the changes made Thursday, no more than 15% of the total units can be delinquent by 60 days or more on their condo association fees. This was eased from a 30-day delinquency threshold. No exceptions to the new rule will be granted, the FHA said.
The agency still requires at least half of the units to be owner-occupied for projects completed more than one year ago. But the FHA released more specific guidance on how much investors can own on properties under construction or conversion. Investors can own up to 30% of the units on some of the projects in order to qualify for FHA financing.
Other guidance was given on insurance coverage, commercial space limitations and other details.
The Community Associations Institute, a trade group of community associations, pushed the FHA to revise the rules.
"It was determined that certain policy adjustments were needed to address current housing market conditions," the FHA said in the letter.
CAI Chief Executive Officer Thomas Skiba said the revisions were needed sooner but is still "excellent news."
"FHA has responded to the critical issues we've raised. By doing so, more Americans can obtain FHA-insured mortgages to purchase condominiums," Skiba said. "This will spark home sales and help tens of thousands of condominium communities begin to recover from the housing slump, and that can only help the national economy."
Chicago area home sales rise nearly 27% in August
Chicago area home sales rise nearly 27% in August
Home sales in the Chicago area sped up last month with 9,145 units sold, up nearly 27% from year ago levels, RE/MAX said Wednesday.
For the second month in a row, foreclosures and short-sales represented a larger share of all Chicago homes sales. Distressed sales in August accounted for 37.5% of all transactions, up from 36.4% a year ago and 36.1% in July, RE/MAX said.
The pace of sales in Chicago's seven-county region ticked up with properties spending only 139 days on the market, compared to 165 days in August of 2011. This is the fastest sales pace since December 2007.
"It indicates that the market is being brought back into balance,” said Laura Ortoleva, a spokesperson for the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network.
Homes sold in the metro-Chicago area in August had a median price of $170,000, down 4.4% from a year earlier.
Posted by kpanchuk on 9/14/12 at 3:38pm Source: housingwire.com
ForeclosureRadar: Foreclosure Starts Down Dramatically in August
ForeclosureRadar released its Foreclosure Report for August on Monday, revealing that foreclosure starts fell dramatically during the month.
The company’s coverage area includes counties in California, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. In all states except Washington, foreclosure starts either fell drastically or stayed fairly flat month-over-month, with Oregon seeing an 80.6 percent drop in starts. In Washington, starts were up 34.9 percent.
ForeclosureRadar said the monthly decline in starts is even more significant when taken with the fact that August had more business days (23 days) than July (21 days).
While foreclosure sales increased 23.7 percent month-over-month in California, the increased number of business days helped flatten the daily average increase to 2.2 percent over July.
Sales in most other states either dropped or increased marginally, with Nevada posting the largest decrease (18.1 percent). Washington led in sales, reporting a 36.5 percent increase.
Time to foreclose changed little in all states, with Nevada showing the largest increase (up 8.9 percent increase to 512 days) and Arizona posting the only decrease (down 3.7 percent to 131 days). While Washington reported huge leaps in foreclosure starts and sales, the state remained completely flat in time to foreclose at 102 days.
ForeclosureRadar CEO Sean O’Toole said the drop in starts should put to rest any reports about another wave of foreclosure sales in the near future.
“We continue to see reports that there will be a wave of foreclosure sales after the election or at the start of the year,” O’Toole said. “The lack of foreclosure starts this month puts a nail in the coffin of this theory. There will be no wave of foreclosures for at least five months.”
“The good news for investors and first-time buyers is that foreclosure sales have at least remained flat, continuing to provide some opportunities in the meantime,” he continued.
Source DsNews by : Tory Barringer
Illinois Takes Lead for Foreclosure Rate, REOs Continue to Fall
A new state took the spotlight in RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure Market Report for August.
For the first time since January 2005, which is when RealtyTrac began the report, Illinois ranked number one for its foreclosure rate. In August, one in every 298 Illinois housing units had a foreclosure filing.
The state also saw foreclosure activity hike 29 percent from July, and on a yearly basis, foreclosure starts were up 18 percent, scheduled foreclosure auctions shot up 116 percent, and bank repossessions increased by 41 percent.
Florida ranked second, where one in every 328 housing units had a foreclosure filing, followed by California, Arizona, and Nevada.
“The increases in Florida and Illinois pushed foreclosure rates in those states to the two highest in the country – supplanting the non-judicial states of Arizona, California, Georgia and Nevada. Previous to August, the nation’s top two state foreclosure rates have been from those four non-judicial states every month since December 2010,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.
RealtyTrac also found that after three straight months of yearly increases, foreclosure starts fell in August by 13 percent after a 17-month high in August 2011.
However, 18 states saw year-over-year increases in foreclosure starts. The states with significant yearly increases were Washington (143 percent), Pennsylvania (129 percent), Alabama (102 percent), New Jersey (101 percent), and New York (63 percent).
Bank repossessed fewer properties in August, with REO activity declining 2 percent month-over-month and 19 percent year-over-year, marking the 22 month in a row of yearly declines.
Seven California metros ranked highest for their foreclosure rates. Modesto, where one in every 172 housing units received a foreclosure filing, led took the first spot. Merced was second, followed by Bakersfield, Fresno, Stockton, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, and Chico.
Source DsNews by: Esther Cho
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Foreclosure-Related Sales Price Up as Inventory Shrinks: RealtyTrac
Prices went up for foreclosure-related sales on a quarterly and yearly basis, with the annual increase marking the first rise in two years, according to RealtyTrac’s Q2 foreclosure sales report.
The average price for foreclosure-related sales stood at $170,040, a 6 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 7 percent hike from the second quarter of 2011. The annual increase is the first since the second quarter of 2010 and the biggest yearly increase since the fourth quarter of 2006.
“The second quarter sales numbers provide solid statistical evidence of what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from real estate agents, buyers and investors over the past few months: there is a limited supply of available foreclosure inventory to choose from in many markets,” said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac Vice President. “Given this shortage of supply and the seasonally strong buyer demand in the second quarter, it’s no surprise that the average foreclosure-related sales price increased both on a quarterly and annual basis.”
Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of all home sales in the second quarter were either bank-owned properties or in some stage of foreclosure, compared to 22 percent in the previous quarter and 19 percent a year ago in the second quarter.
However, the actual number of foreclosure-related sales decreased 12 percent to 224,429 from the previous quarter and fell 22 percent from a year ago. The annual decrease is the first after five quarters of increases.
Homes in foreclosure and REOs sold at an average discount of 32 percent below non-foreclosures, up from 30 percent in the previous quarter and second quarter of 2011.
Pre-foreclosure sales, which are generally short sales, are starting to catch up to REO sales, with bank-owned sales outnumbering short sales by 9,833, the smallest difference since the third quarter of 2007.
Third parties bought 107,298 homes in pre-foreclosure in Q2, a decrease of 10 percent from Q1 and a 9 percent decrease from a year ago.
Out of all sales in the second quarter, 11 percent were counted as pre-foreclosures.
Pre-foreclosures sold for a price that averaged 26 percent below non-foreclosure homes. In the previous quarter, pre-foreclosure discounts averaged 24 percent and a year ago, the discounts averaged 18 percent.
Pre-foreclosure homes sat on the market longer and took an average of 319 days to sell after starting the foreclosure process compared to 306 days in the previous quarter and 245 days a year ago.
Third parties bought 117,131 REOs in the second quarter, a 13 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a 31 percent plunge from the second quarter of 2011.
REO sales made up 12 percent of all sales in the second quarter and had an average sales price of $155,892. The price is a quarterly and yearly increase of 6 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
REOs sold at a 37 percent discount compared to non-foreclosures, unchanged from the previous quarter but down from 38 percent a year ago.
Source DsNews By: Esther Cho
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