Cost of Living Calculator

Have you ever thought about relocating to a different part of the country, but were unsure of how it might effect your ability to maintain or enhance your current lifestyle? We all know that the cost of living in New York City or Santa Barbara or even Miami is probably at least as high as it is in Chicago's North Shore, but how about Ann Arbor or Walla Walla? Here's a tool from CNN and Money Magazine that could help you make some general conclusions about a distant location:

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

Don't use this as your final decision-maker, but at least it can set you off on beginning that dream.

Ten Most Overpriced Places To Live

High home prices got you down? Well, remember, everything's relative. According to Forbes Magazine, the ten most overpriced housing markets are at least 1000 miles away from here. They based their results on factors like slowing job markets, cost-of-living, lagging salaries as well as the cost of home ownership. Try and guess which communities are on the list and then go to this link to see if you were correct:

http://realestate.msn.com/Rentals/Articleforbes.aspx?cp-documentid=648559

So... How's the Market Doing?

Time to take a look back at the month of May here on the North Shore. We thought it would be interesting to see how many properties came on the market in May (defined as a listing date between May 1 and May 31), and how many of them are already under contract (or perhaps even closed!) This is just a quick snapshot, covering the broad spectrum of property offerings: new construction, resale, a cancelled/new listing situation (ask your friendly realtor what that means!), etc. Generally speaking, it seems there is plenty of buying opportunity on the North Shore.

ROLL CALL:
Single family/ condo or townhome
(# under contract or closed) (# under contract/closed)

EVANSTON 10/ 193
(24, or 22.4%)/ (27, or 13.9%)

WILMETTE 84/ 4
(15, or 17.8%)/ (0)

KENILWORTH 4/ 0
(1, or 25%)/ (0)

WINNETKA 45/ 1
(8, or 17.7%)/ (0)

GLENCOE 26/ 5
(5, or 19.2%)/ (2, or 40%)

Life Expectancy...Home Appliances/Components Extreme Edition

This survey by Bank of America Home Equity and conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) gives real world estimates of the life expectancy of a variety of home components. Some examples:

1. refrigerators 13 years


2. dishwashers 9 years


3. decks less than 20 years


4. gas range 15 years or more

See this article for more info:

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/real_estate/0703/gallery.home_longevity/index.html