Fresher than Fresh, sounds great doesn't it? Well, it is great and here's the story. I sold lumber and building materials for 32 years. I would often go the local library in the town near the lumber yard where I worked so I could do blueprint takeoffs for the house lumber package I was selling. It was quiet, no interruptions from the lumber yard guys, had a bathroom and pay phone, (there were no cell phones yet), and a big giant table I could spread out my blueprints. It was perfect. One day as I was wrapping up the takeoff, I saw a Consumer's Union magazine on the table next to mine. One of the stories was about ranking store salsa in a jar. I loved salsa, as it was becoming a really great alternative to ketchup. I grabbed the magazine, read the story about the different salsas, and de... 07/16/2021

Move right into this fantastic end unit condo in Naperville’s Bridgewater subdivision! Featuring 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, this second floor ranch style condo unit includes a 2-car attached garage. The condo combines style and convenience. An impressive two-story entry invites you into an open concept design.  From its beautiful exterior front, you will be welcomed by an equally gorgeous and well-lit foyer going to the second floor unit. The elegant lighting and stairs complement the cathedral ceilings that lead to the living room.  This Naperville condo for sale utilizes natural light that gives life to its 16x14 carpeted living room with a vaulted ceiling. Neutrally painted walls and carpet, and a gas fireplace in between two large windows all contribute to giving the living room a ... 07/14/2021

Aurora, IL has 43 new home listings as we approach the half-way mark for July 2021.  With these new homes there are currently still only 118 single family detached homes available in Illinois' 2nd city.   Even with the 23 "new" listings in the attached single family home category which brings that total to 73 we still only have 191 homes in the single home category! Looking at the "under contract/contingent" status we have 306 in the single family detached category and 155 in the attached single  family group.  Over 2 times the amount of homes are under contract than available for sale currently in Aurora.  As fast as they come on line buyers are quickly putting them under contract.   We may have a slowing down in some parts of town but those sellers that have a "move in" ready homes in... 07/12/2021

What Sold In Your North Shore Village in June 2021 Record sales and closes in all North Shore villages in June. June saw a total of 151 units sold in all of Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe, and Northfield. The median price was $1,125,000. The previous June (2020) had 88 total sales and the median price was $968,000. Although the comparison is a bit unfair since 2020 through June had several months of extremely low sales.The majority of homes have sold in under a month, with many in under a week. There are a few homes with long market times but those were overpriced to start and slow to reduce.  The links in blue (below) under the town's name show sales by address in each villages. WINNETKA Click to see all Winnetka Home Sales in June 2021 Current Winnetka Real Estate MarketSold ... 07/05/2021

An incredible 19 houses closed in June. To explain the imbalance of homes, only 1 new home was listed in Hubbard Woods during the whole month (and it had been previously listed in 2016.)Of particular note, 1159 Chatfield just closed for $1,765,000 (see below.) It was previously listed in 2016 for 527 days with the last list price being $1,549,000! Aren't they glad they couldn't sell then. SOLD HUBBARD WOODS LISTINGS IN JUNE 2020 972 Tower List price: 525,000Sold price: $530,000Days on market: 17 1290 ScottList price: $525,000Sold price: $500,000Days on market: 41 1367 EdgewoodList price: $689,000Sold price: $689,000Days on market: 4 1124 GageList price: $819,000Sold price: $795,000Days on marke: 85 1117 MerrillList price: $699,999Sold price: $850,000Days on market: 4 1443 EdgewoodList p... 07/04/2021

Oswego, IL is considered by many a small semi-rural village in the Chicagoland area.  Approximately 48.3 miles or an hour give or take a few minutes, from Chicago, IL,  its ranked 46th in IL , with a population of 38,390.With the Fox River running through town there are bike/running trails, a small but popular downtown and a variety of homes and subdivisions to suit most buyers taste.May 2021 shows that there was an increase of 34.6% in home sales from May 2020's 52 to 70 closed sales.  The average  market time though dropped 76.4% to a mere 13 days.  With the median sale price increasing 18.7% to $359,000 from 2020's May price of $302,450, sellers are reaping the rewards of low inventory and continual buyer interest in what used to be a sleepy little village outside of Aurora.If you ar... 06/21/2021

Naperville, IL housing inventory for single detached homes is currently at 251 homes.  With Naperville being the 3rd largest city in Illinois, with aproximately 149,657 this level is still pretty low and based on the multi-offer situations going on buyers are still making Naperville a favorite place to call home. The current breakdown on available listings is:New - 47Reactivated - 5Price Change 11Active - 188Total - 251An interesting fact is that 21% of the homes or 53 are Million and up with the highest currently listed at $10,500M.There are currently 368 listings under  contract and 34 in pending* status.The latest May statistics for May 2021 vs May 2020 show that 230 homes closed in May which was a whopping 56.5% increase from 2020's 147.  Considering the circumstances and the fact t... 06/21/2021

Low inventory levels is a phrase that is consistently in the news when the subject is real estate - the housing market, etc .   So how low is low? As of today, in Aurora, IL, there are only 108 detached homes for sale.  Considering that the city has close to 200K people (final numbers not ready for 2020 census)  that is pretty low.   So here is the breakdown by type of listings:Detached Single Family Homes - Aurora, IL# 2 City in ILTotal Active 108 - Population - 194,873 (2021)New - 44  Reactivated - 11  Price Change - 8  Active - 45 There are currently only 2 homes under $100K.  Only 1 home is over a Million ($1,195K) Let's look at a couple of other towns that are similiar -  Joliet, IL & Elgin, IL Detached Single Family Homes - Joliet, ILJoliet, IL - Total Active 103  Population - 146... 06/20/2021

How often do we take our lighting for granted? This could be indoor lighting or out door lighting. I am writing this article for Tom Bye.  Tom Bye is an indoor and out door lighting specialist and consultant. He is a professional lighting consultant with MEBULBS and he can be contacted at: TBye@mebulbs.biz or you can call him at: 1-847-894-0092 You can call or text him at this phone number if you need help with indoor or out door lighting.  Tom has really helped me and so I wanted to write an introduction for him to assist others with an introduction about Tom Bye and what he offers. When you are ready to say good bye to darkness and say bye bye to the dark or you need better lighting, contact Tom Bye. Say Bye, Bye to the darkness and say hello to better lighting. MeBulbs is a lighting ... 06/09/2021

 If you haven't gotten enough real estate data, I'm here to help. I'm fascinated by charts and graphs - nothing shows more clearly the state of something than they do. All data is for the past 12 months and includes Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe, and Northfield unless otherwise noted.    Median Market Time has dropped significantly   Median % of Original Price is much higher - excellent   Months Supply of Homes - leaves us with low inventory  Homes for Sale - going down, down   Median Market Time for Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe individually  Number of showings per property - the lower the number, the faster it sold (not historically true, but specific for this market.)  This final chart shows the entire Northern Illinois area that is encompassed within our Multiple... 06/08/2021

Who ever thought that we could transition so quickly from high inventory to low inventory? It became clearer as 2020 drew to a close but then the spring market delivered a whole new crop of homes. Which are now long gone.  Of course, there are still houses for sale. For instance, Winnetka currently has 40 listed homes, some of which have not sold after a month or two on the market. Exactly half of the those homes are priced over $2 million which necessarily means that they will take longer to sell. Of the twenty homes under $2 million, some are overpriced. Even in this hot market buyers will push back when they sense price exceeds value. In Wilmette where there are 66 homes for sale, 38 have been on the market for over 30 days. Price seems to be the issue for many of those, or location ... 06/07/2021

HUBBARD WOODS MAY 2021 With only 9 homes for sale and 27 under contract, Hubbard Woods is being squeezed for inventory. You can see below the quick sales times on almost all the closed sales in May. I've been asked how long this market will last. The pundits say that nationally, at least another year. I would agree that it would probably be the same here. Although it's only June, I'm seeing fewer homes come on the market. Buyers, however, are still searching and jumping on homes right as they're listed. Particularly in the under $1 million range, but higher-end homes as well. Too many buyers have been frustrated in the search and are still out there hoping they'll score a new home. So, yes, it's still an excellent time to sell your home. Just remember that if you need to buy something e... 06/07/2021

What Sold in Your Village in May 2021? A more apt title would be, “What Hasn’t Sold in Your Village”!Inventory is still a rock bottom and almost all new homes that are listed are sold immediately.  Under contract homes in Winnetka are almost 3 times the number for active listings (the highest of the five villages.) Here’s what closed in the North Shore in May 2021.WINNETKA  Current Winnetka Real Estate Market:Sold homes in May: 30Homes for sale: 45Price range: $560,000 to $6,250,000 Private Network Homes for Sale: 25Under contract/pending: 83Current months supply of inventory: 2.9Winnetka Homes for SaleWILMETTE  Current Wilmette Real Estate Market:Sold homes in May: 44Homes for sale: 4568 Price range: $325,000 to $2,500,000Private Network Homes for Sale: 22Under contract/pending: 79Curr... 06/06/2021

What might have been different about this picture...     This will always be a very emotional picture for me and all of my family. It was taken on Christmas Day in 2012. That means it was exactly 13 days after I came home from the hospital after a heart attack. On December 10, 2012, at 1:30 in the moring, I woke up to intense pain and crushing pressure in my chest. I was covered in sweat and immediately knew I was having a heart attack. I woke my wife, told her to call 9-1-1. I put some jeans on and went downstairs. The Bourbonnais Fire Dept ambulance arrived within 3 minutes and before I knew it, I was in the Riverside Medical Center emergency room getting hooked up to several monitors. Exactly 15 minutes after calling the ambulance, my heart went into ventricular tachycardia, or V-tac... 05/30/2021

Take a photo tour of beautiful Downers Grove, my home town!https://interiorinsight.com/Downers-Grove You will want to live here! I can help with that! Call me at 630 258-7677 or visit my web site: www.MaryBraatz.com Top Ten Reasons to Live in Downers Grove, Illinois! Thinking of relocating to the Chicago Suburbs? Here are the reasons to make Downers Grove your home.       Affordability. The median sales price in Downers Grove for April of 2021 is: $359,900 according to Midwest Real Estate Data, Inc.      Low Taxes. Downers Grove has one of the lowest tax rates in DuPage County.      Variety of Housing Options. You can find, condos, townhouses, existing homes and new construction. Condo and townhouses priced from $90,000 to $899,000 and single family homes priced from $198,000 to 2 milli... 05/13/2021

10 Ways to Keep Mosquitos Away  I’ve been looking into ideas that will help get rid of those bloodthirsty pests this summer. We’re fortunate to live in an area that offers an active response to mosquitoes through North Shore Mosquito Abatement District which serves 11 North Shore villages. Their work goes a long way in ridding the population before they ever hatch and come out to torment us. Humans despise these little fiends and I know we’ve all tried various remedies to avoid getting the dreaded bite. Certain people are more likely to attract them - we all know people who claim they are mosquito magnets! Not only is the bite painful, but mosquitoes also carry diseases.So here are a few ideas I came across that I will definitely try out this summer:  DAB ON SOME ESSENTIAL OILSThis one ... 05/12/2021

 HUBBARD WOODS April 2021 One sign of a hot market: regardless of price range, all seven homes listed in Hubbard Woods in April are under contract. Plus ten homes sold although you’ll see some long market times for some of them. This is because they were listed pre-Covid at inflated prices. 7 NEW HUBBARD WOODS LISTINGS IN April 2021 1257 Scott  $799,000 (under contract)    1443 Edgewood   $949,000 (under contract)  1152 Scott  $949,000 (under contract)     1190 Oakley  $1,299,000 (under contract)    840 Lamson   $1,550,000  (under contract)    877 Tower  - $3,499,000 (new construction home under contract)  910 Private - $6,300,000 (under contract) New PRIVATE LISTING in April 2021 1507 Tower - $950,000     1275 Asbury - $1,018,000     669 Walden - $1,595,000    660 Rosewood - $4,100,000... 05/12/2021

The spring market continues to see huge sales despite a lack of inventory. Homes are selling off the Private Network before they ever hit the market. Otherwise, the stats are the same as the past several months: seller’s market and we need more homes to sell! Here’s what closed in the North Shore in April 2021.WINNETKA   Current Winnetka Real Estate Market:Sold homes in March: 31Homes for sale: 45Price range: $525,000 to $6,300,000 Under contract/pending: 78Current months supply of inventory: 3.4Winnetka Homes for SaleWILMETTECurrent Wilmette Real Estate Market:Sold homes in March: 54Homes for sale: 48 Price range: $314,000 to $2,200,000Under contract/pending: 82Current months supply of inventory: 3.2Wilmette Homes for SaleKENILWORTHCurrent Kenilworth Real Estate Market: Sold homes in M... 05/10/2021

One of the nation's most diverse cities (according to WalletHub survey released recently), Aurora, IL is Illinois' 2nd city stretched over four counties has only 73 single family homes available as of today - 5/10/21 in the public MLS for Nothern IL.  For a city of over 200K people and one of the most affordable in the western suburbs - less than 100 single, detached, family homes! Even as a long time real estate Agent/Broker, I am having a hard time wrapping my head  around that figure.  The sort of good news is that there are an additional 40 available ATTACHED single family homes which include townhomes, condos, & Duplexes.  A great way for 1st time home buyers to start on their home ownership journey. Investors and those that want to slowly start being landlords have even less choic... 05/10/2021

Listen in to this week's podcast as host Guinevere Moore discusses best practices for responding to Information Document Requests (IDRs) from the IRS, including how to balance meeting your clients’ needs with meeting ethical standards practitioners must follow under Circular 230, and how to set your client up for success in litigation through proper IDR practice if an agreement can’t be reached in exam or at appeals.Check out the episode here: https://taxrepllc.com/subscribe-tax-rep-network-podcast/  Want to contact Gwen? guinevere.moore@mooretaxlawgroup.com  Want to build your IRS Representation practice and add $100,000 to your bottom line this year? Join us inside Https://taxrepllc.com  How to get the software we use? Go to www.TaxHelpSoftware.com  and use code TAXREPTRIAL for a free... 05/02/2021