This Sunday is the Minooka Federated Woman's Club Garden Walk from 1 to 5 p.m. It's an opportunity for anyone to take a stroll through local gardens and see what kinds of flowers residents have combined, how they show them off and the ways they build flora into their landscapes.

For more information on the Minooka Garden Walk, check out this article in the Herald News.

This week, RealtyTrac released a report that foreclosure sales took up 31% of all home sales in the US through Q110. According to the report, there were 88,000 pre-foreclosure sales, often short sales, in Q110, for an average discount from retail home prices of 14.7%. By comparison, REO discounts in the US averaged 34%.

So that got me thinking about Minooka, IL short sales (and short sales in SW Chicagoland in general) and what kind of discount exists here. My observation as a Minooka real estate agent is that both short sales and REOs in Minooka run at about a 10% to 15% discount to fair market value.

I can tell you as a listing agent for short sales that the lenders on the properties in default are looking to get as close to fair market value as possible. And I could certainly relate to the quote from a Massachusetts broker who said:

“I can tell you with certainty that on all the short sales I am working on that [32% discount] is not the case,” Gassett said.

Well Mr. Gassett that is the reality perception we battle daily.

Median Price

The median prices are down significantly (double digits) for all three categories: For Sale, Under Contract, & Sold since last June.

• For Sale (active Minooka, IL homes for sale listings): Down 10% from June 2009; from $249,950 to $225,000 (this isn't necessarily bad as it may show a capitulation on the part of stubborn homesellers).
• Under Contract: Down a whopping 24.1% from last June; $197,450 to $149,900. This market is getting crushed as has been the trend since a spike in February.
• Sold: Also significantly down 16.3% from $212,000 last June to $177,500 this June. This is, though, a big improvement from last month that saw median sale price of $110,000! 

Supply & Demand

• Like other neighboring communities, the most significant highlight is that Average Days On Market (DOM) for active Minooka homes for sale listings has been dropping all year and found a new low at 161 days. What that is telling me is that homeowners are getting frustrated with the marketing process and are taking their homes off the market.

Months Supply of Inventory (MSI)
(The amount of months that it would take to sell every active listing at the current sales pace. Found by dividing active listings by sold listings)

• The current MSI is 9.8 months supply of homes.
• Good news!: 9.8 months is the lowest supply of homes in the last 12 months, but that is probably driven by all the Minooka homebuyers that wrote contracts in April (highest # of contracts in 12 months, 15) and had to close by June 30th to get the Homebuyer Tax Credit.

To view the entire report, click on the link below:

Minooka IL Real Estate Report JUNE 2010.pdf (636 KB)

For more information about Minooka, IL homes for sale and Minooka, IL real estate statistics, please give me, Tim Soper of Realty Executives Success, at (815) 439–5051 or fill out the contact form on the right.

"The Spy Who Sold My Condo" may be a plausible title for the next Bond flick. It turns out that two of the 11 people arrested in possible connection with a Russian espionage ring were ensconced in another high stakes world – real estate.

Anna Chapman, a svelte 28-year-old (pictured) who is quickly taking center stage in this international drama, is reportedly the CEO of domdot.ru, a real estate search engine for Russian-speaking house-hunters. The other woman, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, is an agent for Redfin.com, an online real estate brokerage.

I can picture it now: Well Mr. & Mrs. Homebuyer, I can take you out looking at homes in Minooka on Tuesday at 5pm but I have to be back in my lair to decode the latest message from the Motherland.

Well in the real, real estate business secret agent=no sales=no money so that is not a goal that I am pursuing. But if you ever see me talking into my shoe, well…