Deal Estate - December 2011

12/29/11

A Mies van der Wow Renovation

List Price: $779,000
The Property: Sixty years ago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe changed the way Chicagoans—and people around the world—lived with his paired apartment towers at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive. Although they came after his Promontory Apartments in Hyde Park, their steel-and-glass muscularity made them the icons...

Posted at 10:00 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/28/11

Building Green in La Grange

With its farmhouse shape, Tony and Janet Lewandowski’s nearly finished new home in La Grange fits well among the traditionally styled homes on the block. But it differs from the old-timers in a significant way: designed to be miserly with natural resources, the house aims to be the first in La Grange to get LEED certification...

Posted at 10:40 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (2)

12/27/11

Rodkin on the 2012 Real Estate Market

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Jessica from Streeterville asks for a forecast of the 2012 Real Estate Market.

Posted at 1:52 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/26/11

Retired Banker Takes Big Loss on State Parkway Condo

List Price: $1,699,500
Sale Price: $1,550,000
The Property: A now-retired executive who joined the banking superstar Jamie Dimon in Chicago has now followed his old boss’s lead in another way: selling his home at about half what he’d been asking for it...

Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/22/11

A Woodsy Retreat in Barrington Hills

List Price: $2.68 million
The Property: Tom Ciaglia is a veteran builder in Barrington Hills, and for the most part, he says, buildable lots in that northwest suburb have either rolling hills or dense woods. But several years ago, Ciaglia, whose company is Homes by Pinnacle, purchased a parcel that had both...

Posted at 10:05 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/21/11

What’s the Hemisphere’s Tallest Residential Building? (Hint: It’s Not Here)

Chicagoans long ago got used to being snubbed by New York, but one thing that’s hard for New York to overlook is our enviable array of skyscrapers. In addition to having two of the world’s 15 tallest buildings, Chicago has five buildings over 1,000 feet tall—one more than New York. What’s more, three of the world’s 20 tallest buildings completed in 2009 were residential towers in Chicago...

Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/20/11

Rodkin on People Affected by Foreclosures

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named James from Buffalo Grove asks why no one he knows has been affected by foreclosure, despite the grim reports.

Posted at 5:10 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/16/11

Bill Wrigley Sells Three Properties in One Day

Lake Forest
List Price: $6.9 million
Sale Price: $5.6 million

Gold Coast
Sale Price: $6.7 million (for 2 condos)
The Properties: On Thursday, Bill Wrigley closed on the sale of his 16-room lakefront mansion in Lake Forest and on two of the three pieces of his unfinished penthouse space at 65 East Goethe.
Wrigley’s 11,000-square-foot Lake Forest home went up for sale informally in May 2009 priced at $16 million...

Posted at 11:53 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/15/11

Playboy Mansion Condo Features Original 1899 Ballroom

List Price: $5.8 million
The Property: When this Gold Coast mansion belonged to the surgeon George Isham and his wife, Katherine, its palatial ballroom hosted Theodore Roosevelt and Admiral Robert Peary. But past presidents and polar explorers fade in comparison to the home’s most notorious denizen, Hugh Hefner, who lived and played in the house between 1959 and 1974...

Posted at 7:00 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/14/11

Foreclosure Crisis Sparks a Script

Stephanie Walker lost a home to foreclosure, but in the aftermath, she found her voice. She has blogged about it and put out an e-book about it. And on Sunday, a group of actors at Victory Gardens Theater performed a staged reading of American Home, her play about it...

Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/13/11

Rodkin on How to Dispute a Property Appraisal

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Elizabeth from River North asks how to go about disputing a low appraisal.

Posted at 2:07 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/12/11

Highland Park’s Highest-Priced Sale in Four Years

List Price: $7.349 million
Sale Price: $5.1 million
The Property: A lakefront house in Highland Park was sold on December 5 for $5.1 million. That’s just 58 percent of the $8.7 million that the seller, Maryclaire Collins, was asking for the home when she first listed it in the fall of 2010...

Posted at 9:55 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/08/11

Water Tower Place Condo Belonged to Former Hollywood Starlet

List Price: $1.75 million
The Property: Outside the windows of this 46th-floor condo at Water Tower Place lie two of Chicago’s great beauties: its architecture and its shoreline. They are a good complement to the beauty that resides inside the condo—as well as to the Hollywood beauty that was its most recent resident...

Posted at 10:15 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/07/11

Rockford’s Only Frank Lloyd Wright House Up for Auction

In 1948, Kenneth Laurent, a young man from Rockford who had lost the use of both his legs during his World War II service, wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright to ask if the architect would design a home for him and his bride, Phyllis. The couple had $15,000 to spend from federal and state grants for paralyzed veterans. By 1952, when their new home was completed, they had spent about $31,000 to build the two-bedroom house...

Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (4)

12/06/11

Rodkin on an Apartment Bubble in Chicago

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Sandra from the South Loop asks if we are on the verge of an apartment bubble similar to the condo bubble.

Posted at 2:42 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/05/11

In Lake Forest, a Home From Two Eras

List Price: $2.295 million
Sale Price: $2.1 million
The Property: Overlooking Lake Michigan from atop a wooded bluff, this Lake Forest home combines architectural elements from the late-19th and mid-20th centuries...

Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/01/11

An Arts and Crafts Latecomer, in Lake Bluff

List Price: $2.495 million
The Property: Although it’s only 14 years old, this Lake Bluff house on one and a half acres has many of the hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts movement from a century earlier...

Posted at 12:54 PM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (2)

	12/29/11 A Mies van der Wow Renovation List Price: $779,000 The Property: Sixty years ago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe changed the way Chicagoans—and people around the world—lived with his paired apartment towers at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive. Although they came after his Promontory Apartments in Hyde Park, their steel-and-glass muscularity made them the icons... Posted at 10:00 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	12/28/11 Building Green in La Grange With its farmhouse shape, Tony and Janet Lewandowski’s nearly finished new home in La Grange fits well among the traditionally styled homes on the block. But it differs from the old-timers in a significant way: designed to be miserly with natural resources, the house aims to be the first in La Grange to get LEED certification... Posted at 10:40 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (2)
	12/27/11 Rodkin on the 2012 Real Estate Market Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Jessica from Streeterville asks for a forecast of the 2012 Real Estate Market. Posted at 1:52 PM in DEQ's \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/26/11 Retired Banker Takes Big Loss on State Parkway Condo List Price: $1,699,500 Sale Price: $1,550,000 The Property: A now-retired executive who joined the banking superstar Jamie Dimon in Chicago has now followed his old boss’s lead in another way: selling his home at about half what he’d been asking for it... Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/22/11 A Woodsy Retreat in Barrington Hills List Price: $2.68 million The Property: Tom Ciaglia is a veteran builder in Barrington Hills, and for the most part, he says, buildable lots in that northwest suburb have either rolling hills or dense woods. But several years ago, Ciaglia, whose company is Homes by Pinnacle, purchased a parcel that had both... Posted at 10:05 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	12/21/11 What’s the Hemisphere’s Tallest Residential Building? (Hint: It’s Not Here) Chicagoans long ago got used to being snubbed by New York, but one thing that’s hard for New York to overlook is our enviable array of skyscrapers. In addition to having two of the world’s 15 tallest buildings, Chicago has five buildings over 1,000 feet tall—one more than New York. What’s more, three of the world’s 20 tallest buildings completed in 2009 were residential towers in Chicago... Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/20/11 Rodkin on People Affected by Foreclosures Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named James from Buffalo Grove asks why no one he knows has been affected by foreclosure, despite the grim reports. Posted at 5:10 PM in DEQ's \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/16/11 Bill Wrigley Sells Three Properties in One Day Lake Forest List Price: $6.9 million Sale Price: $5.6 million Gold Coast Sale Price: $6.7 million (for 2 condos) The Properties: On Thursday, Bill Wrigley closed on the sale of his 16-room lakefront mansion in Lake Forest and on two of the three pieces of his unfinished penthouse space at 65 East Goethe. Wrigley’s 11,000-square-foot Lake Forest home went up for sale informally in May 2009 priced at $16 million... Posted at 11:53 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/15/11 Playboy Mansion Condo Features Original 1899 Ballroom List Price: $5.8 million The Property: When this Gold Coast mansion belonged to the surgeon George Isham and his wife, Katherine, its palatial ballroom hosted Theodore Roosevelt and Admiral Robert Peary. But past presidents and polar explorers fade in comparison to the home’s most notorious denizen, Hugh Hefner, who lived and played in the house between 1959 and 1974... Posted at 7:00 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/14/11 Foreclosure Crisis Sparks a Script Stephanie Walker lost a home to foreclosure, but in the aftermath, she found her voice. She has blogged about it and put out an e-book about it. And on Sunday, a group of actors at Victory Gardens Theater performed a staged reading of American Home, her play about it... Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	12/13/11 Rodkin on How to Dispute a Property Appraisal Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Elizabeth from River North asks how to go about disputing a low appraisal. Posted at 2:07 PM in DEQ's \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/12/11 Highland Park’s Highest-Priced Sale in Four Years List Price: $7.349 million Sale Price: $5.1 million The Property: A lakefront house in Highland Park was sold on December 5 for $5.1 million. That’s just 58 percent of the $8.7 million that the seller, Maryclaire Collins, was asking for the home when she first listed it in the fall of 2010... Posted at 9:55 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	12/08/11 Water Tower Place Condo Belonged to Former Hollywood Starlet List Price: $1.75 million The Property: Outside the windows of this 46th-floor condo at Water Tower Place lie two of Chicago’s great beauties: its architecture and its shoreline. They are a good complement to the beauty that resides inside the condo—as well as to the Hollywood beauty that was its most recent resident... Posted at 10:15 AM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/07/11 Rockford’s Only Frank Lloyd Wright House Up for Auction In 1948, Kenneth Laurent, a young man from Rockford who had lost the use of both his legs during his World War II service, wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright to ask if the architect would design a home for him and his bride, Phyllis. The couple had $15,000 to spend from federal and state grants for paralyzed veterans. By 1952, when their new home was completed, they had spent about $31,000 to build the two-bedroom house... Posted at 9:35 AM in Housing Bulletin \| Permalink \| Comments (4)
	12/06/11 Rodkin on an Apartment Bubble in Chicago Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Sandra from the South Loop asks if we are on the verge of an apartment bubble similar to the condo bubble. Posted at 2:42 PM in DEQ's \| Permalink \| Comments (1)
	12/05/11 In Lake Forest, a Home From Two Eras List Price: $2.295 million Sale Price: $2.1 million The Property: Overlooking Lake Michigan from atop a wooded bluff, this Lake Forest home combines architectural elements from the late-19th and mid-20th centuries... Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week \| Permalink \| Comments (0)
	12/01/11 An Arts and Crafts Latecomer, in Lake Bluff List Price: $2.495 million The Property: Although it’s only 14 years old, this Lake Bluff house on one and a half acres has many of the hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts movement from a century earlier... Posted at 12:54 PM in On the Market \| Permalink \| Comments (2)

December 2011