show your A/C unit some love this weekend

Due to the wet weather this spring in Chicagoland  the littlecottonwood “Snowflakes” fell early!

 

Cottonwood   Clogs A/C  COILS

Think about it for a moment… During the peak of cottonwood season, fuzzies are flying around your neighbor hood. This is when they attack your air conditioner. No they don’t use magic, or contain some sort of chemical agent. Instead, they are sucked into your condenser coil, and the result is reduced air flow across the coil. This will first cause your air conditioner to loose some of its energy efficiency. Although this is a problem, losing a little efficiency will only cost you pennies, but the bigger problem of an over heated compressor can cost hundreds.
Picture this, its 100 degrees outside and your cottonwood seed packed coil can’t cool itself off. Do you see the problem here? Those cute little fuzzies we chase around as kids just burnt out your compressor! Now you have to call up for an emergency service call in the high heat of summer.

From what the experts' tell me, the simple solution is to just fully hose down the grill work around your A/C unit so it can do it’s job!

Click here to see a Video on how it's done

“Neal Paskvan is a Real Estate Agent in Downers Grove with Baird and Warner”

Kitchen Counter Options That Will Make You Forget Granite |

 great   article from our friend at Zillow Mary Barnes  

 

 

   granite is great! no one is denying that. Mary has really done her research and talked to the experts take a moment to read her report it may make you more aware about the alternative's to granite and save you  some money

Its use in residential applications has skyrocketed in recent years. A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of The Marble Institute, found that 75 percent of homeowners who intend to remodel their kitchens in the next two years indicated they want granite counter tops.

Granite’s durability, longevity and good looks make it ideal for kitchen counter tops and other heavily used surfaces, including table tops and floors. Still, it’s expensive (typically $60 to $100 per square foot installed), it’s extraordinarily heavy (requiring reinforcement of base cabinets) and requires     click here for the rest of the story

Median Sales Price for 515 - Downers Grove

Median Sales Price for 515 - Downers Grove

NEAL PASKVAN ASSOCIATE WITH BAIRD AND WRNER REAL ESTATE, IN DOWNERS GROVE HAS EARNED THE SENIORS REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST

NEAL PASKVAN ASSOCIATE WITH BAIRD AND WRNER REAL ESTATE, IN DOWNERS GROVE HAS EARNED THE SENIORS REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST GROVE HAS EARNED THE SENIORS REAL ESTATE SPECIALIST (SRES) PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATION FROM THE REAL ESTATE BUYER'S AGENT COUNCIL (REBAC)

easter lily care tips

thanks to BOBs market greenhouse!

Student Debt Starting To Hurt Housing and Mortgage Markets | The Real Estate Bloggers

We have been saying that one of the great risks to the housing recovery is the huge increase in student debt over the past decade. If the universities get the youth to finance their education they will not be in a position to buy, and borrow, for a home. It is not rocket science…

Now the New York Federal Reserve is chiming in and showing that this is starting to happen

click for the rest of the story from Tom Royce at the Real Estate Bloggers

What the Case Shiller Report is Actually Telling Us

What the Case Shiller Report is Actually Telling Us

Case Shiller released their latest Home Price Index yesterday. The headlines that followed were true but, in our opinion, a little misleading. Here are some of the highlights of the report that have dominated major media coverage:

Home prices rose 5.5% in the 12 months ending in November 2012 (the latest data available).

In the 12 months ended in November, prices rose in 19 of 20 cities.

Housing is clearly recovering. Prices are rising as are both new and existing home sales.

Great news for the housing industry. Realize however that all the highlights mentioned above refer to
year-over-year

What is NOT Being Reported

There is another finding in the report that hasn’t garnered many headlines – month-over-month prices are softening.
There is no doubt that prices are up over the same time period last year. However, home price movement is seasonal. During the winter months for each of the last three years, prices have softened. That is taking place again this winter. As the report states:

“Winter is usually a weak period for housing which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compared to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer.”

This does not mean the housing recovery is slowing. It just means that home values are following their historic trend. As explained in the report:

“The better annual (year-over-year) price changes also point to seasonal weakness rather than a reversal in the housing market.”

If you are thinking of selling, you really need to know what will happen to home values in the short term. Prices, based on history, will soften over the next several months in many markets. Therefore, if your plan is to move by next summer, waiting for higher prices before putting your house on the



market may not make sense.

click here for the case shiller report.
neal Paskvan is a member of  kcm  and a real estate broker with baird and warner in Downers Grove