1 bedroom: N/A

2 bedrooms: $392,873 (which is up 0.1% from last week)

 3 bedrooms: $817,294 (which is down 1.6% from last week)

 4 bedrooms: $1,033,189 (which is up 0.9% from last week)

The average listing price for all homes was: $1,262,558 (which is up 1.3% from last week)

There were 236 homes for sale and 80 recently sold, according to Trulia.

According to the report on the school plan in The Doings, the Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Teachers Association also must come up with a plan on how to extend the school day with the least impact on the  budget.

Last year, the state passed a mandate requiring schools to incorporate daily physical education into the curriculum by the 2009-2010 school year. However, that poses a problem in District 181 where, according to The Doings, daily foreign language classes in middle school are a high priority for district parents, making the addition of PE a tight squeeze.
The school district serves Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills, as well as parts of Burr Ridge, Oak Brook and Willowbrook.

2 bedrooms: $408,724 (which is up 0.7% from last week)

 3 bedrooms: $834,656 (which is down 2.5% from last week)

 4 bedrooms: $991,503 (which is down 0.8% from last week)

The average listing price for all homes was: $1,241,803 (which is down 1.9% from last week)

There were 264 homes for sale and 79 recently sold, according to Trulia.

2 bedrooms: $403,139 (which is down 1.0% from last week)

 3 bedrooms: $806,316 (which is up 4.1% from last week)

 4 bedrooms: $1,008,635 (which is up 1.1% from last week)

The average listing price for all homes was: $1,267,932 (which is up 1.4% from last week)

There were 277 homes for sale and 79 recently sold, according to Trulia.

The  survey of home buyers and sellers is the latest in a series of large national NAR polls evaluating demographics, marketing, preferences and experiences of home buyers and sellers.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a higher share of first-time buyers makes perfect sense, and it’s a trend he expects to grow. “First-time buyers are much more flexible in entering the market because they aren’t concerned about selling an existing home,” he said. “Given low home prices, plentiful supply and affordable interest rates, it’s been an optimal time for entry-level buyers with a long-term view.

“Considering the temporary first-time buyer tax credit and improvements to the FHA loan program, we expect stronger entry-level activity as the flow of credit improves – that, in turn, should free more existing owners to make a trade in 2009.”

The number of first-time buyers rose to 41 percent from 39 percent of transactions in last year’s survey and 36 percent in 2006. “Although modest, this is a meaningful gain for the 12-month period ending at the close of June, and more recent independent data show a stronger uptrend in first-time buyers who are helping to reduce excess inventory,” Yun said.

A separate report by HouseHunt, Inc., based on a survey of 2,000 real estate agents, shows 50 percent of homes purchased in the third quarter of 2008 were by first-time buyers.

According to the NAR study, the median age of first-time buyers was 30, down from 31 in 2007, and the median income was $60,600. The typical first-time buyer purchased a home costing $165,000 and plans to stay in that home for 10 years, up from seven years in 2007.

The median downpayment by first-time buyers was 4 percent, up from 2 percent in 2007; the number purchasing with no money down fell from 45 percent in 2007 to 34 percent in the current survey. “The study covers transactions through the middle of 2008, so we can assume the downpayment numbers have shifted recently because credit tightened and no-downpayment loans all but disappeared around the close of the survey,” Yun explained.

Of first-time buyers who made a downpayment, 69 percent used savings and 26 percent received a gift from a friend or relative, typically from their parents. Another 7 percent received a loan from a relative or friend, while 16 percent tapped into a 401(k) fund, stocks or bonds. Ninety-two percent chose a fixed-rate mortgage.

The percentage of buyers who purchased a home in foreclosure jumped to 6 percent of transactions in the 2008 survey from 1 percent in 2007. Another 38 percent of buyers considered purchasing of a home in foreclosure but did not, primarily because they could not find the right home.Commuting costs factored greatly in neighborhood selection, with 41 percent of buyers saying they were very important and another 39 percent saying transportation costs were somewhat important.

Environmentally friendly features also were important, cited by 90 percent of buyers. Heating and cooling costs were of primary importance, followed by energy efficient appliances and energy efficient lighting.

Buyers searched a median of 10 weeks and viewed 10 homes.  Nearly nine out of 10 consider their home a good investment, and almost half see it as a better investment than stocks. Fifteen percent of buyers own two or more homes.

The typical repeat buyer was 47 years old, earned $88,200, purchased a home costing $236,000 and plans to stay in that home for 10 years. Repeat buyers made a median downpayment of 15 percent, but 10 percent paid cash for their property.

The median age of home sellers was 47; income was $91,000. Three-quarters were married couples, had been in their home for six years and moved a median distance of 19 miles. Their home was on the market for eight weeks; 5 percent of sellers who also purchased a home reported selling their home in a short sale.

Forty-two percent of sellers offered incentives to attract buyers, such as assistance with closing costs or home warranty policies. The typical home sold for 96 percent of the listing price, and 86 percent of sellers were satisfied with the selling process. Fifty-two percent of sellers were trading up to a larger home, while 22 percent were downsizing.

Sixty-one percent of buyers are married couples, 20 percent are single women, 10 percent single men, 7 percent unmarried couples and 2 percent other. Twenty-six percent are non-white, 9 percent were born outside of the United States, and 4 percent primarily speak a language other than English.

Seventy-eight percent of all respondents purchased a detached single-family home, 9 percent a condo, 8 percent a town house or rowhouse, and 5 percent some other kind of housing.

Fifty-five percent of all homes purchased were in a suburb or subdivision, 17 percent were in an urban area, 16 percent in a small town, 10 percent in a rural area and 2 percent in a resort or recreation area. The median distance from the previous residence was 12 miles.

NAR mailed an eight-page questionnaire in August 2008 to a national sample of 133,000 home buyers and sellers who purchased their homes between July 2007 and June 2008, according to county records. It generated 10,053 usable responses; the adjusted response rate was 7.9 percent. All information is characteristic of the 12-month period ending in June 2008 with the exception of income data, which are for 2007. Because of rounding and omissions for space, percentage distributions for some findings may not add up to 100 percent.

Rates were higher in the North-Central region, where Illinois is located, averaging 6.30 percent, according to Freddie Mac.

“Mortgage rates fell this week amid new indications of a pullback in consumer spending and a weaker jobs market,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “The economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter, led by the first decline in consumer spending since the fourth quarter of 1991.”

2 bedrooms: $389,220 (which is down 2.4% from last week)

 3 bedrooms: $671,170 (which is down 1.2% from last week)

 4 bedrooms: $1,071,468 (which is down 0.7% from last week)

The average listing price for all homes was: $1,228,116 (which is the same as last week)

There were 297 homes for sale and 81 recently sold, according to Trulia.

Existing-home sales – which includes single-family, town homes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.18 million units last month from 4.91 million in August. That is also an increase of 1.4 percent over the 5.11 million-unit pace in September 2007.

“This is the first time since November 2005 that home sales have been above year-ago levels,” said NAR President Richard F. Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif.

Total housing inventory at the end of September fell 1.6 percent to 4.27 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.9-month supply at the current sales pace, which is down from a 10.6-month supply in August, NAR reported.  This marks two consecutive monthly declines since inventories peaked in July.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $191,600 in September, a drop of 9.0 percent from a year ago when the median was $210,500.

Single-family home sales increased 6.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million in September from August’s 4.35 million. The median existing single-family home price was $190,600 last month, which is 8.6 percent below September 2007.

Existing condominium and co-op sales were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units in September.  The median existing condo price was $199,400 in September, down 10.2 percent from a year ago.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Midwest  increased 4.4 percent to an annual pace of 1.19 million in September, but that is 2.5 percent below a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $152,500, which is 7.9 percent lower than September 2007.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.04 percent in September from 6.48 percent in August.