Lincolnshire sell off? What's the story? (Highland Park, Wilmette: new home, buyers, school)

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by brenty

I am not a realtor. I am a real estate investor, salesman, and former salesman for Toll Brothers in California.

Brent

Thank you for sharing. Do you care to respond to the original question about your earlier statement which I copied below:

Originally Posted by brenty

People who reside in Lincolnshire are more likely to be affected by Mortgage Fraud, Sub-Prime Loans and Hybrid Mortgages. It is mostly middle and upper-middle class and that group is the more likely to be affected than the people in the lakefront suburbs.

[brenty]

That is true. With home prices skyrocketing. Middle and Upper-Middle Class people are greatly affected by the mortgage crisis. People with these incomes often stretch their incomes. They are often more competitive. They buy more material items than Upper Class and Lower Class people do. These people are more likely to have credit problems making ARMs their only option for the American Dream.

[reppin_the_847]

brenty, you included Mettawa & Skokie in your list of more "stable" suburbs. Mettawa is further north of Lincolnshire (a good chunk of it is in the Libertyville township, the rest of it feeds into Stevenson). We all know that Skokie's school districts don't perform nearly as well as Stevenson, as close as Skompton (aka the immigrant mecca of the North Shore) is to my heart.

Oh, and west Northbrook & west Glenview are pretty new money looking these days when it comes down to it. Look at all the newer money immigrant families dotting the streets of those two towns near their west sides. And, there are corporate parks just about everywhere in Chicagoland now for people to work, from North Chicago to west Lake Forest to Vernon Hills to Lincolnshire to Buffalo Grove & Deerfield/Northbrook (Lake-Cook Corridor)......and for elsewhere in the region, you have Schaumburg, Oak Brook, Rosemont corridor, etc. You don't have the same commuting patterns today that you had a couple decades ago.

While I'll give the east sides of the North Shore towns their credit, I don't think that Lincolnshire & Long Grove are much worse off than western Glenview or western Northbrook.

That being said, yeah, who wouldn't want to live in a lakeshore estate in Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, etc. Or perhaps a gigantic mansion off of Woodley towards the western edge of Winnetka. Pretty quick commute to the city, access to New Trier high school, and the mature trees all over the place. The drawback is that very few can afford this type of house or the associated lifestyle.

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by brenty

That is true. With home prices skyrocketing. Middle and Upper-Middle Class people are greatly affected by the mortgage crisis. People with these incomes often stretch their incomes. They are often more competitive. They buy more material items than Upper Class and Lower Class people do. These people are more likely to have credit problems making ARMs their only option for the American Dream.

Sorry you feel this way. I think you might be quite surprised how many people are stretched to the max to buy a $1MM dump, fixer-upper with an ARM in some of the tonier North Shore suburbs and how many of them struggle to pay the associated property tax.

The North Shore has been hit quite hard by the downturn in the housing market and the tightening of credit. Long time home owners will be just fine there, as almost everywhere. And those with just 3-4 years of paper equity are being challenged to sell at a profit, like most places.

Based upon some of your previous posts, you are a West Coast transplant who enjoys Sunday drives in the greater Chicagoland area and then forms impressions of places based upon those drive-bye's. Given your fondness of equating income levels with worthiness, a more scientific way of determining the income of an area's population is to use the data supplied in the Illinois School Report Cards, specifically the percentage of students who are low income. Here is a snapshot that challenges some of your perceptions:

Evanston- 34%
Maine East-31%
Palatine - 27%
Rolling Meadows - 20%
Niles North - 18%
Niles West -17%
Glenbrrok South- 13%
Highland Park- 13%
Oak Park/River Forest-12%
Buffalo Grove - 12%
Barrington -11%
Hersey- 8%
Fremd- 5%
Maine South-3%
Libertyville-3%
Hinsdale- 2%
NT Township-2%
Glenbrook North-2%
Stevenseon -2%
NT Northfield-1%

I am not equating income with school performance and certainly not with individual student performance. Mileage varies.

[sammy22]

Right on, middle-aged mom! Evanston is no doubt a nice town but to say that one is "guaranteed" to make money (even in this market) and, as Brenty put in another post, make a "boat load" of money in Evanston and that a lower income buyer "should not be picky" screams of someone with a vested interest in a certain area of Chicagoland. I find this especially ironic in that she once worked for Toll Brothers - a well known maker of overpriced s**t boxes that have certainly not brought guaranteed returns lately.

And the "Upper Class" / "Middle Class" comments about competitiveness and buying of material things is another completely unfounded statement that reeks of elitism.

That being said, Lincolnshire is a wealthy town (yes, not middle class - check the median family income - higher than Wilmette, Deerfield, Highland Park, Northbrook, Glenview and certainly Skokie and Evanston - and very close to even Lake Forest) with what many would consider to be the top public high school in the state - while Stevenson won't guarantee your returns, it certainly won't hurt!

My concern with Lincolnshire is the Des Plaines river and all of the flood zones. I grew up about 20 minutes from Lincolnshire and remember seeing the entire Marriott Lincolnshire golf course under water one year - I am assuming that points closer to Riverwoods road are a little bit safer than those further west on 22. As I am doing myself in my current home search right now, I would advise those looking at Lincolnshire to carefully read the flood maps. At this point, we are not finding what we want in Lincolnshire and will probably end up in Lake Forest.

[brenty]

I just bought my Evanston home in November for $498,000 and it is now worth $569,000. It is very small and it is in a neighborhood with lots of new construction. My fiance and I are deciding wether to stay in Evanston or to move to New Trier. I personally love Evanston. Watch YoChicago's or YoNorthShore video interviews with Wilmette/Kenilworth/Winnetka videos regarding the North Shore real estate market. The North Shore has never had any crash. Glenview and Northbrook have many old money neighborhoods. Just because much of a town is new does not mean it is new money. Most of the homes in Glencoe are new but it is still old money.

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by brenty

I just bought my Evanston home in November for $498,000 and it is now worth $569,000.

Congratulations are in order. This may be the one and only home anywhere in the greater Chicagoland area that has appreicated 14% in 2006 and somehow this home managed to do so in just 3 months...... Do you have a buyer willing and able to pay $560K?

[brenty]

Yes we do we have one offer for $565,000. My house does show well. It was renovated in June 2007 and it has been staged by Chicago Home Staging. It is also in a developing area of Evanston.

[reppin_the_847]

That still doesn't counter the fact that there is a lot of new Asian & Indian money floating around the west sides of Glenview & Northbrook.

Originally Posted by brenty

I just bought my Evanston home in November for $498,000 and it is now worth $569,000. It is very small and it is in a neighborhood with lots of new construction. My fiance and I are deciding wether to stay in Evanston or to move to New Trier. I personally love Evanston. Watch YoChicago's or YoNorthShore video interviews with Wilmette/Kenilworth/Winnetka videos regarding the North Shore real estate market. The North Shore has never had any crash. Glenview and Northbrook have many old money neighborhoods. Just because much of a town is new does not mean it is new money. Most of the homes in Glencoe are new but it is still old money.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by brenty

I just bought my Evanston home in November for $498,000 and it is now worth $569,000. It is very small and it is in a neighborhood with lots of new construction. .

This isn't "Zillow Money" is it? Forgive me for being a little cynical but I find it very tough to believe that you gained 71k in equity in 8 weeks in this market. If so, congrats, but how did you figure out your gain?