October 27, 2015 Meeting
Today we welcomed Assistant District Governor Tamiye Meehan and Tom Zander to the meeting. Tamiye wanted to thank our club for supporting the Wheeling Rotary club’s recent fundraiser. She specifically thanked John Eilering, Rodney Adams, Bret Fahnstrom, and Kathy Nowicki for donating raffle prizes. As usual, free golf always wins the day!
Tom Zander was our speaker. Tom and his wife own Picket Fence Realty. Tom has over 25 years’ experience in real estate and spoke to us about how the Great Recession impacted home prices and whether the next few years will bring a rebound.
The northwest suburbs see a steady influx of young families that are leaving the city for better schools for their children. While we can’t compete with the North Shore, our schools are highly ranked, our park districts are established and our libraries are well funded. Plus we have trees! Move to a new or growing suburb and trees are few and far between. During the late 1990’s and through 2005, there was a huge run-up in home values – averaging 7-8% each year. This far outstripped typical wage increases and was unsustainable. In April 2006, the bubble burst bringing six years of declining home values. Particularly hard hit were condos and “McMansions” large homes built on lots that previously contained a smaller home.
2012 seems to have brought the bottom of the market with prices stabilizing. 2013 saw the beginning of a rebound in prices as people who were previously hesitant to buy started entering the market. The first part of 2014 saw continued gains. Those they have since evened off but Tom is hopeful that we will settle back into the long-term trend of home values increasing a few percentage points each year.