You didn’t ask for it, but you worked for it and now your increase is here. The right people have taken note of you and they like what they see. To say thank you and as an expression of gratitude, you are being rewarded. You don’t have to plead a case, sell yourself or persuade anyone. The ones who value you recognize not only your significance, but more importantly how you enhance them and add to their worth. Therefore, they want to keep you and maintain a maturing partnership.

You may have been rejected on one hand, typically by the one you asked for it and craved recognition from, yet you’re genuinely appreciated on the other hand by the one who surprised you. Today’s yes by the right person is far greater than yesterday’s no by the wrong people.

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Before the pandemic hit, I darted between Chicago stages to review drama and dance. I love theater, but it’s not in my blood. I’ve never appeared on a stage. My attempts to be a supernumerary at the Lyric went nowhere: most of the roles are for younger volunteers who fit specific costumes, and I missed my big chance to be a shrouded corpse in Orfeo ed Euridice.

But I did direct a play once, to great acclaim. I wasn’t a fan of the play, J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, a grimly didactic political tract in the guise of a whodunit. Admittedly, my view of the play might have something to do with where and when I directed it: Beijing, 1981.

As a visiting professor at the Wai Jiao Xue Yuan (Foreign Affairs University), I taught American literature to students destined to become diplomats, but my real job was to bring students and faculty up to speed on American slang. Parched from the educational drought of the Cultural Revolution, they stopped by my office for casual conversation and peppered me with questions.

“What are knockers?” they asked after they borrowed a soft porn video from the Canadian embassy. They wanted to know why a John Updike character becomes incoherent after he eats a chopped meat pastry — their too literal translation of hash brownie. As a native speaker, I was in big demand.

No wonder the dean turned to me when he decided the university should stage a play in English. I had never directed a play, but at least I’d be able to decode those pesky idioms. The dean chose An Inspector Calls for its socialist pedigree, just the ticket for Beijing theatergoers in 1981. Priestley’s 1946 play highlights the economic inequalities that persist to this day in many places, including — ouch! — China.

My students learned their lines like pros, even affecting British accents to suit the action, which takes place in a stately English manor in 1912. But costumes presented a challenge. “An Inspector Calls” requires Edwardian evening dress. My male students improvised, unearthing blazers and ties mothballed by ancestors in prerevolutionary China — not the white tie and tails of the classic production, but close enough in their view.

Dress for the women’s roles was a bigger problem. In An Inspector Calls, the wife and daughter of wealthy industrialist Arthur Birling appear on stage in long, floaty evening gowns. My students, male and female, wore navy cotton trousers and padded jackets. Every day. For all occasions. They owned little else.

My female students were in despair, but they quickly regrouped and came up with a plan based on their presumption that their American professor must have packed evening attire for her year in Beijing. I had not, but I invited them to my dated apartment at the Friendship Hotel to rifle through my wardrobe, which was probably their real goal all along. Only minutes into their hunt, they announced: “You were holding out on us!” (I had taught them that idiom.) From a drawer, they withdrew long, sheer polyester nightgowns.

My wardrobe yielded more. In the title role of the inspector, I cast the student with the most confident English, a woman. She struck gold in my closet, discovering a double-breasted trench coat.

The production was a success, although I struggled to keep a straight face as I reviewed the parade of my lingerie on stage, layered over turtlenecks for modesty’s sake. After the performance, I snapped a photo. When I look at it today, I am reminded of my students’ ingenuity and their eagerness to learn about a culture mostly at odds with their own. For me, that was stage magic.

Well, finally, what everyone has been talking about has finally been confirmed in the data so now it’s real. According to this morning’s release of the September Case Shiller home price indices for single family homes prices across the nation soared by 7% in the last year. That’s the strongest gain in more than 6 years. The Case Shiller Chicago area index also took off but by a somewhat smaller 4.7%, which places Chicago’s gains second from the bottom of the 19 metro areas reporting. As you know Chicago has been trailing the rest of the nation for some time. But at least the New York metro area is behind us with a 4.3% increase.

The good news is that the S&P Dow Jones CoreLogic folks quietly revised the August numbers and, instead of the 1.2% that was originally reported they now show 2.5% for that 12 month period. Also, note that 4.7% is the highest year over year gain that the Chicago area has seen in a little over 3 1/2 years.

Condo prices also showed their highest annual gain in 1 1/2 years at 3.9%. The year over year increases for both types of homes are plotted in the graph below.

Chicago area single family home prices have shown annual gains for 95 consecutive months

Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, echoed the theory that many have suggested as to why we are seeing this surge in home prices:

This month’s increase may reflect a catch-up of COVID-depressed demand from earlier this year; it might also presage future strength, as COVID encourages potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes. The next several months’ reports should help to shed light on this question.

The FHFA also released their 3rd quarter 2020 House Price Index report today, which goes through September. It shows the nation’s home prices climbing by 7.8% in the last year while Chicago gained 5.5%. They look at 100 metro areas and Chicago ranked #90 on that list – pretty consistent with the Case Shiller result. They also provide this graph that shows how Chicago has performed relative to the rest of the nation and it’s pretty depressing.

Chicago area home prices have been lagging the nation for at least 14 years

Case Shiller Chicago Area Home Price Index By Month

I’ve got the monthly home price index values graphed below for both single family homes and condos along with a trend line for single family homes based on the pre-bubble years. Single family home prices were up in September by 1.2% from August while condo prices were up by 1.0%. Sadly, as you can plainly see, we still have not recovered to the bubble peak. Single family home prices are still down 9.7% while condo prices are still down 3.0%. From a historical perspective that means that single family home prices are still lower than they were during the entire period from March 2005 – February 2008 and condo prices are still lower than the January 2006 – January 2008 period.

Another fly in the ointment is that, unless we can have many more months like September, we’re never going to catch up to that trend line which has left us in the dust. We now lag it by 26.2%.

Nevertheless, the recovery from the bottom is dramatic. Single family home prices have risen 48.2% and condo prices have risen 60.5%.

The Chicago real estate market still has a long way to go before catching up to bubble peak prices.

#ChicagoHomePrices #CaseShiller #HomePrices

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.