Lollapalooza Music Fest

As a fan of music, and sometime musician, I was excited to hear that Chicago will host Lollapalooza for 5 more years. I was disappointed this past year because I was not able to make any of the three day festivities. Now, with the music fest being here for the next 5 years I will be able to enjoy it for sure.

Here is an article by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, staff reporter from the Chicago Tribune. Lollapalooza gets 5 more years here.

Chicago Visitors Tour

Imagine sitting in your favorite chair playing the guitar, watching the game and all of a sudden your wife tells you that her family or friend is coming in town. Not a big deal right. Then she tells you that the two of you are responsible for showing them around Chicago. Now you start to rack your brains on how you can show your guest this beautiful city. You know that there are tons of great things to do (check this site out if you find yourself in this situation) so you spend the rest of the night surfing the web planning out your guest weekend/week(s).

Since my wife is from Colombia, we get frequent visits from family and friends. We have become experts on showing people around this city, and giving them a feel of true Chicago. I wanted to share with you a great "first impression" drive that I have created and use all the time. As soon as our guest arrive they immediately want to start seeing the city. So I put them in the car and take them on about an hour drive that shows them a lot of what this city has to offer. Now this drive is not intended to show them everything, but gives them a good idea of what they can do while they are visiting our city.

We start out in Lincoln Square. I explain the history of the neighborhood and it's cultural roots. I point out a view of the coffee shops and pubs that we may frequent during their time with ups. From the cobblestone road of the square we merge onto Lincoln Ave. heading southeast. I point out the many restaurants, boutiques and bars, and a couple of our favorite places to go to. We follow Lincoln Ave. southeast until Addison. We then head east on Addison until we reach Clark St. Now we should all now what is at the corner of Clark and Addison. The most beautiful baseball field in the world Wrigley Field.

Depending on who our guest is, I will give them some history of Wrigley Field and the Cubs. I will drive them around Wrigley Field giving them the history of te neighborhood. I will point out the classic differences that make this place such a fixture in Chicago. I will point out the manual scoreboard, the rooftop bleachers, the newly remolded bleachers, the opening in the right field wall, Harry Carry's Statute.

We continue our tour heading southeast on Clark explaining to them that the area is driven by the massive amounts of Cubs fans. We stay on Clark until we reach Belmont Ave, turn left heading east. We are on our way to Lake Shore Drive(LSD).

Once on LSD heading south straight towards downtown. I point out Belmont harbour on the left and Lincoln Park on the right. Straight ahead of us is what I consider one of the best views of Chicago. You see theSears tower off in the distant, and the Hancock dead ahead. As you get closer the buildings seem to climb towards the sky, and are right on top of you. We stay on LSD so we can show our guest Navy Pier. We go past Grant Park and point out Buckingham Fountain. We go by all the museums and point out each one. We continue until we reach Soldier field. At 18th St. we turn around and head back north of LSD. Once we get to Jackson we turn left heading West. We go to Michigan Ave and turn right heading north again. I like to point out the Art Institute and take them down the magnificent mile. Then we are back on to LSD heading back to Lincoln Square.

This trip is quick and easy, and always gets our guest excited about the city. They have seen some many different shops and boutiques on Lincoln Ave, they have seen the museums and can decide which ones to visit. They have seen all the shopping on Michigan Ave. Also, they have seen some picture perfect views of this geat city. If you ever have guest in town, and want to show them as much as possible in a short amount of time. I highly suggest taking this tour. You and your guest will not be disappointed.

Current Real Estate Market

Reading through the Sunday Chicago Tribune Real Estate section. I came across an article by Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post Writers Group. His article titled "Market 'rebalancing' gets caught in the spin cycle," is an article that supports what I believe is the true state of the Real Estate market. I blogged about this last week (see blog entry of 10/05/06). For months we have been hearing that the Real Estate market is busting, and that the interest rates are high. This is just not true. Interest rates have been falling and the market is not busting, but coming back down to normal. I think this is a great article and a very informative article on the Real Estate Market.

Buyers Market...Means BUY!

What does the term "Buyers Market" mean? This is a term that has been used alot when discussing Real Estate recently. The best way for me to describe it is to explain why the term is so prevalent right now. The media loves to talk about how the Real Estate market has burst it's bubble. Now, I am not familiar with other parts of the country, but I can say that the Chicago Real Estate Market, has not experienced a burst. Why do I say that the Chicago Real Estate Market has not experienced a burst, well if you live, work or visit this city you can see that there is still new Condo construction happening. Condos are still going on the market and selling. I will agree that there has been a slow down in the amount of time that it is taking to sell a Condo, but they are still selling.

Now what is the cause for the slow down? The media loves to point to the interest rates as the main reason why (just a side note, I don't have anything against the media. I just keep hearing the same thing over and over, but is not true). I do not claim to know the reason for the slow down, but I have an idea. Which, leads me to the definition of "Buyers Market". "Buyers Market" to me means that prospective buyers should buy. Sounds simple enough right. But, what we are finding is that prospective buyers are so influenced by all the hype about interest rates being so high, that they are staying away from buying. Prospective buyers have been conditioned to believe that the interest rates are the highest they have been in years and therefore Real Estate is a risky investment. Is this correct? Yes...but what the masses fail to tell you is that the interest rates have risen a grand total of... 1 point from the days of the housing boom (2003). (see for yourself. Mortgage Rates). If you look at height of the housing boom which was in 2003. The best prime rate (30 years) was 5.23 which was in June, 2003. Today the current prime rate is 6.3. One year ago (10/2005) the prime rate was 6.07, and a month later (11/2005) the prime rate was 6.33, which is higher then todays current prime rate. Ask anybody who bought a house in the 1980's what there interest rate was (can we say double digits). The whole start of the boom was not because of the prime rate, but because of the Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that were being offered in 2003. You could get an ARM for as low as 4%. Of course the ARMs were only good for 1, 3 or 5 years, and then you would have to refinance.

Todays Real Estate Market is slow, but by no means has there been a bust.