Lucas turned one last week. And the change is colossal.
He always was a bright child - but now I will wake in the morning to find him transliterating speeches of the aspiring presidential candidates into both Latin and Greek. Nonplussed by criticism of some naysayers that these so-called "dead" languages are pointless, Lucas laughs and utters truisms in Mandarin that silence his critics.
If only it were so easy to quiet all critics.
I thought of this several days ago when I met an appraiser at one of my listings that recently went under contract. He mentioned that he was having difficulty coming up with comps to justify the sales price of the property.
"Really," I responded. "And what are your guidelines?"
"Basically," he said, "lenders are demanding closed transactions within the last six months within a five and no more than an eight block radius." In and of itself this is not unusual.
Until you consider that the transaction pipeline just about dried up in Chicago last May. And because not much has sold for about ten months (and in some locales for nearly twice as long) it becomes problematic to glean comps for homes that are selling now. And without comps funders won't be willing to fund.
Now my point is not to say that the underwriter considering the loan package concerning my listing is a critic that I seek to ssh. But what I do seek to give the big librarian-style glare to is the entire lending industry that is applying unrealistic standards to what most analysts refer to as a crisis.
Let me put it to you this way - who knows the market better, the couple under contract for my East Village single family listing who scoured the entire northside market since last September or a pencil-pusher in a fluorescent-lit cube far-removed from the great Chicago landscape that we call home?
My money is on the locals. But the funding decision sits with the man in the cube.
As with all things my sincerest hope is that reason will prevail. This goes for the real estate market, for the economy, and for the presidential election.
Actually, this is one of those "fill in the blank" things. I hope for reason to prevail in all things. And to make it even more concise, the crux of my life philosophy is that I hope.
That's why I was so thrilled Sunday as my family and I made our way to the parking garage at Bloomie's and we ran into another stalwart advocate of hope, Barack Obama.
And while I don't know if he transliterates Greek or Latin like my boy Lucas what I do know without reservation is that I trust in his hands the well-being of my sons and my family.
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