the wasserblawg

CRAINS CHICAGO BUSINESS : County to lower home assessments By: Lorene Yue May 11, 2009 (Crain’s) — Residents in some suburban Cook County townships will see a reduction in the assessed value of their homes as the tax system catches up with the real estate downturn. But because tax bills are paid in arrears, it won’t be known if homeowners will see any benefit until next year. Homes in 30 suburban townships will have their assessed values lowered by 4% to 15%, Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan announced Monday. The reduction is being made to accommodate market changes at a time when suburban areas are not up for reassessment, which happens every three years. “After careful analysis of market sales and foreclosure data, we determined those townships should not have to wait until their next reassessment for the impact to be reflected,” Mr. Houlihan said in a statement. River Forest Township will receive a 5% reduction, while C...

PART 1: QUALIFY THE BUYER BEFORE ACCEPTING THE OFFER Current market conditions present two unfortunate realities for prospective home sellers: prices are declining. Market times are not. As a result, the general perception in the marketplace is that Buyers now have the upper hand over Sellers. To the extent that there are so many more Sellers than Buyers in the active market this may be so. This makes many Sellers uneasy and quite understandably so. Once they get past the lowest low-ball offers, many Sellers are quick to accept the first "decent" price offered and then hope for the best. Reality is showing us however that merely accepting an offer does not assure an actual closing. There are still many perils and pitfalls that are keeping a high number of contracts from closing. Sellers MUST plan carefully to better the likelihood that the contract will close. This post and others that will follow in this series will offers specific suggestions to help sellers write better be...