We all own electronic equipment. Most of us replace our cell phones, television sets and sound systems as technology improves. And we are usually “wowed” with the new features and improvements.

Technology keeps improving. Most ears appreciate the difference in sound quality, better hearing in noise, and better hearing in general, when exposed to new technology. Accessories have improved as well. This begs the question, how often should we replace our hearing aids?

Did you know that the average lifespan of a set of hearing is 4 to 6 years? Over time, hearing aids will lessen in performance. A reduction in efficiency can be due to age of the instruments, how they have been handled or cared for, or the number of years they have been worn. Individual differences in body chemistry can also play a role. Individuals with oiler complexions may experience decreased performance as compared to those with normal or dry skin. Those who produce an abundance of ear wax or cerumen may also experience more issues with their hearing aids not working at their best.

Even if hearing aids appear to be working, as they age the components may become weak and will not provide the benefit that they once had. A hearing aid is a computerized piece of electronics which operates in a dark and moist environment. Over time the odds are with us that performance will be reduced.

It’s true that hearing aids can work beyond the time frame of 4-6 years. Much depends on your body chemistry and how you care for your devices.

I spoke to a patient last week who recently replaced her four year old hearing aids. Her comment was, “These new hearing aids are game changing. I thought that I would be switching back to my older hearing aids as I have done in the past. Now I hope that I will never have to put my old hearing aids on every again.”

If you wish that you could hear better, consider replacing your current hearing instruments. Ask an Audiologist. We’d be happy to help.

On my new computer, I bookmarked NPR, CNN, and other news sites one day and removed the bookmarks the next. Their stories were mostly different angles on news I already knew, and nothing was must-know-immediately. And unless my safety is in danger, what is must-know-immediately anyhow?

The depth, analysis, and insight of long-form journalism is what I’m looking for. I reminded myself that I’d replaced a desktop computer with a laptop to enjoy reading long articles away from my desk, ensconced in my reading chair.

I was also reminded of how much high-quality long-form journalism is available online and in print as I looked at a three-month stack of New York Times Magazines passed on by a friend. Giving up trying to read the magazines thoroughly, I skimmed the contents for topics of interest, just a scattering. That brought to mind why I haven’t subscribed to many magazines. There are few I want to read cover to cover. 

Reading online, I can pick and choose articles whose topics interest me. Sites such as Arts & Letters Daily and Longform curate magazine-length articles. I make PDFs of articles of interest to read at my leisure. They are in a folder on my computer that isn’t guilt-tripping me as the pile of printed magazines did.

*****

On my last turn as book group suggester, I offered a choice of three novels by African Americans. The group picked Jean Toomer’s Cane from the list. Fortunately, I started reading the selection soon and realized Cane is difficult, obscure, and almost plotless. I sent a panicky email to the group asking to switch to the runner-up.

The last book our group read was Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story. Although less esoteric than Cane, its language is excessively descriptive and its plot is desultory. Not my cup of tea.

I next began Philip Roth’s American Pastoral and quit about a quarter of the way in. This time my compliant was not about the writing but the main character. I couldn’t relate.

In the past I would apologize for my taste if I disliked a book praised by literary critics. After a lifetime of making lists of literary fiction and classics I should read, at last I am letting myself read what I enjoy and give up on what I don’t.

I don’t want prose that reads like poetry. I don’t want to get lost in sentences where authors show off their wordplay.

I want straightforward writing, plots, and sympathetic characters to identify with. 

I’m not looking for escapism, but I want to comprehend the characters’ struggles, not struggle with impenetrable stream-of-consciousness ramblings.

*****

While I congratulate myself about being willing to give up on a book, it would be better to not to waste time reading the first however many pages. What I now plan before getting a book is to look at the most critical (one- and two-star) reviews on Amazon. If the reviewers seem to share my taste, I’ll take a pass on the book. 

What does it matter if I miss a literary sensation? Life goes on even though I haven’t traveled to every so-called must-see place or watched every must-see television series. Same goes for must-reads. There are always other places, programs, and books.

*****

John Warner, the “Biblioracle” published in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, has a refreshing take on must-reads: There aren’t any.

“[N]ever read a book because you think it will make you seem with it or worldly or cultured. Read for yourself. . . . Read what you want to. . . . There’s no way to do it wrong,” he wrote in a column. 

I’ll still make reading lists to remember titles I expect to like, but the list of must-reads can go. Reading is meant to be a pleasure. 

About 1 year ago, 4 year old micro influencers known as The Heath Dolls, started a social media series entitled “Channeling”. In the series, the girls would model looks worn by our favorite celebs which are all recreated by their mom and stylist Nellisa Heath. A list stars and Influencers like Beyoncé, Cardi B, Jennifer Hudson. Trayce Ellis Ross, and Ciara have all made the cut and the list goes on.  To date, the series has caught the attention of millions all around the world and has been shared and reposted by celebs, magazines, and blogs making the little girls social media sensations overnight.

The Heath Dolls Channeling Cardi B Photo taken by TK Photography Chicago. Click image for more!

The Heath Dolls Channeling Traycee Ellis Ross Photo taken by TK photography Chicago. Click the Image to see more!

Well, if you’re amongst the many people wondering when or if the dynamic duo will begin the popular series again the answer is yes! This time around, the series will be called “Inspired By”which will definitely include more celeb recreations but with even more excitement, fun and creativity in its content. What’s better, is that the new series is expected to begin this month.

“The Heath Dolls and I are so excited to begin the new social media series “Inspired By” We’ve been working hard on this and can’t wait for you guys to see. We know you’ll love it” said Nellisa Heath mother and stylist

To learn more about The Heath Dolls visit their social media pages. For Collaborations, Sponsorships, and or Partnerships please email [email protected]

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TheHeathDolls/?ref=bookmarks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theheathdolls/

Website :http://Www.fancylikemommy.com

It looks like the Chicago real estate market is off to a really strong start in 2021 with January setting a 14 year record high for closings. Closings last month were 17.1% higher than last January as the market continues to make up for lost home sales early in the pandemic. In fact, for the trailing 12 month period sales were actually slightly higher than for 2019. In other words, the recovery is complete and from here on out any continued growth in sales will push us above 2019 levels. Comparing ourselves to 2020 will be pointless for obvious reasons, though the year started off with a nice increase over 2019 – until April.

Note that the Illinois association of realtors will report a 14.1% rise for January because of the weird way they calculate their comps.

You can see a lot of these patterns in the graph of monthly sales below. The green line is the rolling 12 month average and it just poked up above December 2019 levels.

What I don’t show in the graph below (it would be too busy) is that the bulk of the gain in sales actually came from condos, which had been lagging until January. If you split it out you would see that condo sales were actually up 21.4% while single family home sales were up only 6.0%. It could be that the single family home inventory shortage is holding back sales of those homes. And, obviously, condos are not as much out of favor as the recent popular narrative suggests – except maybe in the Loop.

Chicago home sales have been declining now for several years but the Coronavirus really tanked the market in May and June. The market returned to more normal levels starting in July.

Chicago Home Contract Activity

A significant increase in contracts for home purchases is confirming the rise in closings. We’ve had 8 consecutive months of large increases. January contracts were up 15.8% over last year so that should continue to feed the growth in closings for the next month or two.

As you can see in the graph below January contract activity was the highest in the 13 years since I’ve been tracking the data and the moving average is also now running higher than it was in late 2019 and early 2020.

Chicago home sale contract activity hit another record high for this time of year after plummeting to record lows because of Coronavirus issues.

Pending Home Sales

The number of homes waiting to close is also on the rise. Pending home sales at the end of January hit a 4 year high and the moving average is higher than late 2019/ early 2020 also. Pending home sales rose by 462 units from last year. To put that in perspective last February had around 1500 closings so that increase could significantly impact February closings. So not only are the new contracts resulting in significantly more current closings but they are also filling the pipeline with future closings.

After hitting historic lows the backlog of homes likely to close in the next 1 – 2 months has reached the highest levels in 4 years.

Distressed Home Sales

The percentage of home sales that are distressed continues to decline in light of the foreclosure moratorium in place. January normally has a pretty high percentage. Last year it was 9.1% but this year we hit another record low of only 3.2%. I don’t know that it can go much lower than where we are so we are not going to be seeing the kinds of seasonality in the numbers that we have historically seen.

Since the housing crisis the percentage of home sales that are distressed has steadily declined.

Chicago Home Inventory

I’m still running my own inventory numbers to better capture the dynamics of the current housing market. I’m calculating months of supply based on current month contract activity. On this basis detached home inventory is still at ridiculously low historical records. We were down to a 1.8 month supply in January. Attached inventory is clearly higher but not to the point suggested by reports of condos being out of favor right now. Although there are many more condos on the market now, as I pointed out above, there are a lot more contracts being written also. We had a 3.8 month supply of attached inventory at the end of January compared to 3.9 months last year. So inventory (months of supply) is actually lower.

After a big Coronavirus induced spike in April the inventory of homes for sale dropped back down. Detached inventory hit a record low in July while attached inventory returned to normal levels.

Chicago Home Sale Market Times

Market times are similarly encouraging. Detached homes that sold in January did so in only 75 days, down from last year’s 93 days – as you might expect when inventory levels are so low. However, attached homes also sold very quickly. January closings sold in only 92 days compared to 109 days last year.

There’s also an interesting observation in the graph below. For at least 6 years condos consistently sold faster than detached homes – until around 2019. Then they ran very close to the same market times until the last few months when detached homes started selling faster. So some sort of shift started to occur even before the pandemic hit.

When the pandemic first hit Chicago market times rose but now they are actually quite a bit lower than last year.

If you visit our Web site you will find that we have additional Chicago real estate market data available there.

#RealEstate #ChicagoRealEstate #Coronavirus

Gary Lucido is the President of Lucid Realty, the Chicago area’s full service real estate brokerage that offers home buyer rebates and discount commissions. If you want to keep up to date on the Chicago real estate market or get an insider’s view of the seamy underbelly of the real estate industry you can Subscribe to Getting Real by Email using the form below. Please be sure to verify your email address when you receive the verification notice.

The Kremlin

A fence around the seat of government

The Kremlin,  meaning a “fortress inside a city” in Russian, has for centuries stood for a tyrannical form of government. Within its walls despots, from the earliest czars, through Lenin and Stalin and up through Vladimir Putin, ruled with iron fists.

They had reason to hide behind walls. They oppressed millions upon millions of people. Stalin killed millions, some say more than died in the Holocaust. Even now, after the fall of the communist regime and the end of the Cold War, the Kremlin’s wall shields the Tyrant Putin.

Now the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court–the temples of our living democracy–are walled off from the self-governing citizens of the United States of America. Thank you Nancy Pelosi, who, like Putin, believes that she needs the kinds of protections deployed by the world’s worst despots.

That and thousands of mobilized troops and armored vehicles. Heavily guarded gates to make sure that no “unauthorized” persons get near the seat of government to exercise their right to petition their government.

Never before has anyone in the three branches of government assumed such unilateral power. To say to the world that our form of government isn’t working. That a republican form of government has the seeds of its own destruction.

Yes, a mob took control of the Capitol–even a short time was too much. I called it an insurrection. But, this? It is way too much.

I fear that just the immensity of this fence has not been accurately reported. It’s not just a temporary fence, the kind often seen used for crowd control. It is a (possibly) permanent physical barrier, as effective as that fence that Trump was building on the southern border.

To get a true sense of this mammoth structure, watch this full video:  [embedded content]

Each month, ChicagoNow holds a contest to select the best blog posts throughout ChicagoNow.

Out of more than 500  posts published during the month of January, here are the 20 judged to be the best.

Academic Ink-lings: Analyze this: the convergence between fairy tale villains, Disney thugs, and Donald J. Trump

Becoming SuperMommy: The end

Becoming SuperMommy: A eulogy for my husband, Michael Thomas Grover

Becoming SuperMommy: Gifts from my Husband

Cheating Death: There are personal decisions we make to preserve our integrity such as not going to a Cubs game while the Ricketts family owns the team.  (Or cutting my head off before laying it on a My Pillow)

Chicago Weather Watch: Midwinter reverie

Cut Out Kid: Mike Walsh crumpled my 1989 official Brewers program

Getting More From Les: This blog has decided to dump the Trump

Getting Real: How the Chicago luxury home market really compares to the suburbs

Go Do Good: When You Build it… They Won’t Come till You Build It Again

I’ve Got The Hippy Shakes: Fifty years later, Joni Mitchell will still make you feel “Blue”

Mom, I Think I’m Poignant!: I was born on either December 25 or 26. Who cares? Social Security, Comcast and my mom, for starters

Opinionated Woman: How a horde of numskull, violent, traitorous terrorists may have done us a favor

Opinionated Woman: How to find happiness going through the eye of a needle

The Quark In The Road: “I do not like thee, Mr.Pence”: a hymn of dispraise

Retired in Chicago: Do what makes you happy

Spiritual and Physical Wellness: Keep your brain healthy

Star Gazing: Words of Wisdom

Very Terry: Cats can have nine lives, Tino had ten

Where Are We Going So Fast?:  “Be safe” — what we’re really saying when we say this

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