Lincoln Square, Ravenswood pending contracts...Bueller? Bueller?

Please note that I combine the community area of Lincoln Square with the sub-neighborhood of Ravenswood together in my sales analysis. Ravenswood officially overlaps into the Uptown community area east of North Ravenswood Avenue (1800 N ). However, for practical purposes I group everything west of North Ashland Avenue (a busy four lane artery street) and North of Montrose Avenue with the Lincoln Square community area.

With the passing of the original deadline for the first-time buyer's credit behind us, I thought I'd take a look at the current number of pending and contingent (under contract) condo units and single family homes in greater Lincoln Square and Ravenswood. We saw a large increase in closed unit sales for October and November compared to the same months of 2008 due to several factors I've discussed on these pages. Of course, fall 2008 had that little banking crash too. Regardless of the current pending contracts (most of which will close next year) we will have seen a better than average activity in the fourth quarter 2009 at years end.

Currently, there are 30 condos and or town home units under contract in the greater Lincoln Square community area with a median asking price of $249,000 (this includes the Ravenswood neighborhood bordering North Ashland and portions of Bud Long Woods neighborhood to the northwest). The median price is deceiving as it reflects a very diverse stock of homes within the large community.

The highest priced attached unit is 2326 W Giddings #305, a two bedrooms, two bathrooms new construction condo under contract for (gulp!) $509,900 plus parking. There is a home sale contingency on the deal... so they are waiting patiently to close that. It's probably the southeast top floor unit (I should check on that, eh?). [This just in from Fountain View's developer on 1/4/09, the #305 unit under contract is a third floor middle unit and #205 is recently under contract for $499,000]. The unit is in the Fountain View development in the heart of Lincoln Square retail and entertainment.

On the flip side, the bottom four condos under contract are all distressed one bedroom units in the 2400-2405 block of W Balmoral (three i the same condo building)in northwest Lincoln Square for under $50,000. Yep. A tale of two cities for sure.

Only ten single family homes are under contract in the Lincoln Square community area (including the Ravenswood neighborhood from North Ashland going west). Most interesting is the fact that four of those homes are under contract for over one million ($1,195,000 to $1,375,000) and spread out from north to south across Ravenswood and Lincoln Square proper. One of the homes is a short sale at $1,359,000.

The bottom five out of six home sales in price are either bank owned, forced sale or short sales ranging from $234,900 to $650,000. Absent is any home under contract between the price of $650,000 to $1,195,000.

So, if you have an $800,000 home, maybe you should get it on the market.

Data aquired and analyzed from Midwest Real Estate Data LLC in which I am a paying member of (our local MLS).