Archive for February, 2008
February 28th, 2008
When the Rockford Area Association of Realtors releases its monthly home sales statistics, the Register Star as long as I’ve been here focuses first on the number of homes sold and then second on the average price.
Dr. Lawerence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, was at Cliffbreakers last week to speak at a Rockford Chamber of Commerce event. Afterward, I asked him how we should measure the housing market.
He said we’ve been doing it backwards. He said the most residents don’t care how many houses sold, they only care about the prices because they want to know what to expect if and when they put their home on the market.
Yun said, and it makes sense, that the only people that care how many homes are selling are the ones whose livelihood depend on the transactions.
That is a wider group than you would think.
* Certainly, it includes area Realtors and employees of title companies.
* It also includes home builders and the workers who build them.
* It even includes people who work at building and supply retail stores and furniture stores because most homeowners spend the majority of the money right after they buy their house and right before they put it on the market.
Still, from now on I’ll follow Yun’s advice and focus first on the average price and then second on the number of houses changing hands.
February 5th, 2008
High-flying Internet retail information firm FatWallet.com’s move from Machesney Park to Rockton opened up the building on Illinois 251 in front of the nearly vacant Machesney Park Mall for a different kind of computer company.
Mike Broski, President of Entre Computer Solutions, notified customers by email that Entre is moving from its East State Street building just off the Alpine Road intersection into the former FatWallet location. The move should be completed by Feb. 28.
“This space features many amenities not found in our current location,” Broski said in the email. “We will have state of the art training facilities as well as the most modern of inventory control areas.”
Entre Computer Solutions sells and services computer software and systems as well as training. The company won the Rockford Chamber of Commerce Small Business Award in 1998.
February 5th, 2008
RE/MAX Accord, one of two RE/MAX real estate franchises in Rockford moved into a larger office at 7062 Walston St. at the beginning of the year.
RE/MAX Accord’s new space has 12 private suites for agents who want to base their offices there. The company now has four agents.
The Rockford location is the second office for RE/MAX Accord, which also has an office Bloomingdale, a western Chicago suburb.Franchise owners, Debbie Maxvold and Terry White, expanded into Rockford because it is the marketer of homes built by Hallmark Homes, a Rocfkord-based builder with active subdivisions in Loves Park, Rockford and Roscoe.
RE/MAX Property Source is the larger of the two Rockford RE/MAX franchises with 33 agents, according to the Rockford Area Association of Realtors. All together, the 10 RE/MAX franchises in the Rock River Valley have 94 agents.
