Where do tree hugging, vegetarian liberals belong in north Chicago? (Evanston: mortgage, apartment)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Nysee53

... Now people are predicting that Evanston and Wilmette will experience a price hike and building boom, which Winnetka and Glencoe experienced in previous years.

If those "people" are in your head then I would remember that they stop talking when you take your meds...

Evanston is FAR larger in population that ANY OTHER community that has any Lake Michigan frontage except for Chicago itself. As a percentage of homes that are NEAR the Lake it nothing like any of the other of North Shore.

No lenders are in position to finance any kind of "boom" and when you do that simple math it becomes clear that there is no way for any uptick to really move Evanston, while the much smaller size means that other towns HAVE experienced dramatic run ups:
Evanston, Illinois (IL) (pop. 74,239)
Highland Park, Illinois (IL) (pop. 31,365)

Kenilworth, IL (pop. 2,494)
Glencoe, Illinois (IL) (pop. 8,762)
Lake Bluff (pop. 6,056)
Lake Forest, Illinois (IL) (pop. 20,059)
Wilmette (pop. 27,651)
Winnetka (pop. 12,419)

If have seen the REALLY IMPRESSIVE quality of finishes / features that have gone into tremendous numbers of the newer (and sensitively redone) residences it is not hard to see where the HUGE cost per sq ft comes from. I am pretty jaded old fart, but I know what it costs to get real craftsmen to install deluxe materials and there is NO REASON to believe people are going to give this stuff away.

Highland Park is a DISTANT second in population on the North Shore, but still is CONSIDERABLY larger than many other North Shore towns and, as such, means those other towns always have MUCH less inventory. It is flat out GOOFY to say that HP is likely to come down because of gas prices -- vast numbers of the home owners there have SHORT commutes to office in Lake County or other NEARBY suburbs, those going into Chicago mostly rely on Metra, which has had pretty stable prices and a rock solid reliability, the schedule does not slow down if gas goes up!

Wilmette is buoyed by the demand for New Trier, and there is no real pressure / opportunity for any kind of "boom" when there really are people that put up with pathetically small/outdated homes to send their kids to the school...

I do not pretend that I know every detail of finance for residents of every town, but in my 20+ years of dealing with some pretty wealthy individuals I have to say that I have come across far more people that understand the consequences of borrowing vs saving from the higher net worth crowd than folks just a few notches down. Very few individuals in the areas of the traditional North Shore have home equity loans, exotic mortgages, or anything that makes them need to liquidate their assets at a loss...

[cohdane]

Re-read my rant from last night and want to apologize to anyone who owns a great big new house with tons of gables and bathrooms. Everyone has their thing. It just set me off a bit to have something so unique destroyed to make room for something so ubiquitous.

No apologies to the Escalade folks, though.

[chet everett]

It is all about perspective -- a high end bathroom adds more cost per square foot than pretty much any other room. Got to keep those plumbers employed! A multi-gabled roof uses more material than a simpler roof and add to the "cost per sq ft" at a pretty quick clip. I don't think many designers / architects sit down at drafting table and say "Got to put 5 gables on the next one" but it certainly does seem that way. I suppose that there might be some benefit, as I suspect the move to utilitarian roofs in the '70s was a response to the maintenance concerns of more elaborate roofs of earlier times, so people are less afraid to have SOME detail on their homes...

I get a kick out the GM ads that pathetically / desperately state that "no SUV in the Escalade size class gets better fuel economy" and then has the asterick that other GM products are excluded and the "size class" is full size SUVs seating 8 that can tow 4 tons or horse trailer / boat. Yep, lot of need for THOSE...

[Calidreemer]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If those "people" are in your head then I would remember that they stop talking when you take your meds...

You guys are getting funnier and funnier!

[Anthera]

That was my favorite chet post so far. ROTFL

[Calidreemer]

Originally Posted by Anthera

That was my favorite chet post so far. ROTFL

Me too Chet's a smarty pants!

[Anthera]

Chet is too accurate!!

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Anthera

Jay, I don't remember if you had said anything earlier in this thread, but how long do you plan to stay in your new house? Will this be a permanent place or a 5-8 years sort of house?

The longest we have lived in any house has been 3 years, but now we have children so who knows.

[jaynetarzana]

So we had high hopes for our day in Lake Bluff, but alas, it is not the place for these liberal tree huggers. I have no doubt that we could have a very uncomplicated, safe life there and meet lots of friendly people who we don't have anything in common with other than the color of our skin. But that isn't what we are about. We need to get ourselves down to Evanston and make ourselves comfortable with the urban aspects of it. If we are going to live here, like all of you have said, Evanston is where we belong. All of you knew, it just took us a little longer to see for ourselves. So now we search for a short term rental in Evanston... Wish us luck!

[Anthera]

wishing you good luck and sending you good karma!