Chuck Ventura is a drummer and drummers need their space. You probably would want them to have their space, too.

The 27-year-old has been living at his parents’ house near Midway all his life. And even though he’s the only offspring still at home – giving him the entire second floor to himself – he’s still hankering for his own house. And Christmas or no Christmas – he’s looking now.

He went out with his real estate agent, Julie Anderson of RE/MAX Select, in early December and plans to keep on hunting through the holidays until he finds an affordable, three-bedroom, single-family home with a yard, priced between $225,000 and $250,000, preferably in Jefferson Park.

“I’m interested in buying,” said Ventura. “I plan to look through December because I’m ready to buy.”

He is especially hoping to get closer to his job in Round Lake, but not too close, since he likes being in or near the city and closer to the gigs he and his band, Pneuma, play.

Ventura is a first-time buyer, making him particularly happy that the tax credit was extended. In the fall, when many first timers were scrambling to find a house, he was betting the tax credit would get extended, and maybe would get bigger, too.

Also, “I’ll admit I wasn’t 100 percent ready,” he said. “I got kind of lazy.”

And it is people like him who may be changing the face of what traditionally is the slowest market time of the year.

“Despite all the publicity (earlier this year) about the first-time home buyers tax credit,” said Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, “we are seeing young buyers now who newly discovered it but were too late to close by Nov. 30. So they are in the market right now.”

Typically there are about half as many new active listings in December as in October, he notes.

“We have a dip or a V in December,” he said, “where it starts to slide from roughly 4,000 a month to 2,000 in December. Then in January, it goes back up to about 3,500. But at our broker owner meeting Dec. 1, they were all saying the activity has been up noticeably. Call volume is up, Internet web traffic is up.”

For that reason, Merrion predicts that this might not be a typical Christmas season, and has been urging Realtors to stay home and work instead of taking their traditional Christmas-to-New Year’s vacation.

“We’re saying, we expect a busier end of the year than normal,” he said, “and they should be prepared to work through Super Bowl. The whole dynamic of the marketplace is going to change.”

He expects that not only the extension of the first-time buyers’ tax credit of $8,000, but the additional $6,500 credit for move-up buyers will make a big difference.

“Some upgraders who have been sitting, thinking it’s hard to sell and we won’t get much,” he said, “now are thinking we can get the bigger house for less – for 2002 or 2003 level prices. It’s a dynamic shift.”

Still, house hunting in the winter presents its own challenges.

“It’s hard in the winter,” said Anderson. Most buyers need to shop when they aren’t working, and evenings are especially tough since it gets dark so early.

“It’s cold and pitch black outside and it’s dark inside,” she points out. Not only is the exterior tough to see at night, but many of the homes are vacant, and may or may not have light bulbs. The heat is turned very low, making the homes uncomfortably chilly.

“I’ve have to have a flashlight with me now,” she said.

The wintertime complicates what is already a tougher shopping situation for people like Ventura. Many of the homes in his price range are foreclosures or short sales. That means they’re not always in good condition, and are usually vacant. They need to be seen in full light.

“There is seldom anyone living there anymore,” said Anderson. “It’s such a turnaround.”

While she used to work mostly with buyers in higher price brackets, those buyers disappeared last year and now she works mostly with first-timers like Ventura. These buyers tend to be looking under $250,000, which leads them to short sales and foreclosures.

“You hope to find an estate sale,” she said. “They are usually old and not updated, but in good condition.” But those homes are rare, she said.

For Ventura, the right home will have a basement that he could turn into a recording studio and a band practice area. Everyone in his band is on a completely different schedule, and late nights would be their best practice times.

While his parents don’t mind – he said – if the band is there practicing during the day or early evening, what he really wants is a place to rehearse until 4 or 5 a.m.

Let’s hope that his future neighbors are sound sleepers.