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End-of-year housing-market data conveyed the impression that–with housing starts, sales, and homebuilder surveys no longer sinking after 12 to 18 months of steady declines–housing was stabilizing.
Feelings that “the worst is over” may be premature. First off, this year’s unseasonably warm weather may well be distorting the housing statistics. “Seasonal adjustment factors,” which adjust actual data for monthly variations (for example, more homes are generally started in June than in January) probably didn’t anticipate the Northeast’s unusually clement weather this December.
Even though homebuilding stocks have been performing better over the last six months, builders  are not noticeably optimistic.
Anyone who thinks that “housing has bottomed should talk to Lennar,'’ says Paul Kasriel, chief economist for Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago.
A few days ago Lennar Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest homebuilder, announced its first loss in at least ten years in the quarter ended Nov. 30, after writing off the value of land it no longer plans to purchase. According to CEO Stuart Miller, market conditions steadily deteriorated over this period, with “no tangible visible evidence of a market recovery.”
Lennar and many other big builders will report their official fourth-quarter earnings in mid-to-late January.
While developers have been slashing prices and offering a variety of incentives to attract more buyers, it hasn’t solved the problem of excess inventory, according to Kasriel.
“Inventories of completed homes continue to increase, both in absolute terms and relative to their total inventories,'’ he said. “Historically, until the relative inventories of completed homes begin to decline, the starts of new homes continue to decline.'’
Because the Census Bureau, which maintains new home sales data, doesn’t capture project cancellations in the monthly statistics, sales are probably being overstated and inventories understated.

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With an slowing housing market, this year’s house improvements ring for focus, patience, and a bit of elbow grease.

Boosting the value of your house is never an easy task. It takes period, income, and — when your kitchen’s covered in plastic tarp-weeks of pizza delivery. And with house prices much sliding in diverse parts of the state, getting a kick back on your investment is at the moment tougher than ever. Luckily, there is a secret to smart remodeling in a buyer’s market: do as much as you can with as brief as likely.

Homeowners may have learned this lesson at the location year, when big spending on house improvement did not lead to big profits. According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2006 “Cost vs. Value” report, prices for most remodeling projects increased at the location year while their resale value decreased. Major, mid-range kitchen remodels, at an standard expenditure of $54,000, returned just 80.4% in 2006 vs. a 91% give back on $43,862 in 2005. Even the most profitable project in 2006 — upscale fiber-cement siding replacement-recouped just 88% of its total expenditure.

Americans spent $155 billion on house improvements and repairs in 2006, a 2.8% increase over 2005’s total, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The Center estimates that we will spend over $160 billion in 2007, on the contrary if resale prices continue to lag behind remodeling costs, the pricey projects won’t pay off.

Now all of this may seem daunting, but in order to maintain a competitive edge in an ever growing competitive real estate market, Chicago home owners must make it a daily goal in 2007, to upgrade their homes in affordable, but unique ways.

Worried about spending too much? It’s the little things that go with home maintenance that ensure your succuess.

Since it’s winter, my suggestion to many home owners, invest in winter weather preparation. The cold season is upon us and the weather outside can create havoc when it concerns your plumbing. Ensure that you have utilized every method to not only conserve heat, but also to properly insulate your home’s pipes. A water pipe can cause limitless damage to your home and quickly drop the market value.

Make sure if you have a garage you get it inspected and oiled before the snow sets in. This will make sure you have an immaculate presentation when the warmer weather finally sets back in.

Take care of any haphazard windows or faulty door hinges. You’d be suprised how many home buyers have complained about squeaky doors and the assumption that, squeaky doors either means poor maintenance or trapped moisture.

Seal your basement or have it inspected because once the snow and ice melt you’ll be in for a heap of trouble.

And most of all, secure all if you have a lawn, landscaping is one of the number one reasons home buyers purchase a home. Make sure to let the grass grow at least 4-6 inches long. It will ensure deep root growth and that you have a lawn to be proud of when the winter weather passes.

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Sales of single-family Chicago homes and condos plummeted in November compared to a year ago, but prices remained virtually unchanged.
The median price of homes sold last month was $245,000, compared with $243,862 in November of 2005, the Illinois Assn. of Realtors reported last week.
However, only 7,580 single-family Chicago homes and condos sold in the Chicago area in November, a drop of 21.9% from a year earlier.
The figures are for the Chicagoland Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, composed of Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties.
Illinois single-family home and condo sales fell 17.6% in November to 11,281 with a median price of $199,000, compared with last November’s median price of $200,000.
Overall sales in Illinois were down 16.3% to 156,992 through November of this year.
Robert Zoretich, president of the Illinois Assn. of Realtors, had this to say: “Sales figures in November reflect a return to more normal market conditions compared to the boom years as well as a seasonal slowdown as we begin the holiday months. What this market offers is an ideal opportunity for buyers to find the home they want and purchase it with a very affordable mortgage interest rate.”
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