Deal Estate - July 2012

07/31/12

Rodkin on Appraisal Disputes

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Penny from Florida asks if her appraiser, who valued her home lower than expected, is right about a garage-adjacent room not being an actual bedroom.

Posted at 6:37 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/30/12

Dirk Lohan Leaves Architects’ Corner in Old Town

List Price: $1.89 million
Sale Price: $1.795 million
The Property: On July 20, Dirk Lohan, the architect of the Soldier Field renovation and the high-rise office building at 353 N. Clark among many other notable buildings, sold his home in Old Town...

Posted at 9:58 AM in Sale of the Week Real Estate Real Estate: Featured story | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/26/12

A Lagoon Runs Through It, in Lincoln Park

List Price: $1.695 million
The Property: From the 19th-floor vantage point of this Lincoln Park condo, you look out over most of the park, stretching from the Goethe statue at Diversey to the North Avenue beachhouse, with all the historical structures, museums and greenery in between...

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

07/25/12

Top 20 Chicago-Area Train Towns Tallied

A new DePaul study picks the best suburbs for transit commuters, choosing places with walkable downtowns, comfortable stations, and reliable service that "dignify the experience of commuting by train."

Posted at 11:48 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (3)

07/24/12

Rodkin: Too Much Optimism Threatens Housing Market Recovery

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Ryan from Printer’s Row asks if there’s too much optimism about improvements we see in the housing market.

Posted at 4:35 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/23/12

Yet Another Chicago Condo Sale at $6 Million or More

List Price: $7.25 million
Sale Price: $6.55 million
The Property: An extensively restored and modernized nine room co-op condo at 209 E. Lake Shore Drive is the third downtown condo to have sold for $6 million or more since late June.

Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/19/12

Ben Hecht’s Hyde Park Home

List Price: $699,000
The Property: Of Ben Hecht’s thousand and one afternoons in Chicago, it’s likely that some were spent at this Queen Anne-style Hyde Park house where he lived in the early 1920s...

Posted at 10:18 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/18/12

At Long Last: An Uptick

There’s a long-overdue ray of hope in the data that Redfin released Thursday: Chicago home prices inched up 0.8 percent from June 2011 to June 2012...

Posted at 9:45 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/17/12

Rodkin on Banks’ Free and Easy Refinancing—What’s the Catch?

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Janet from Rogers Park asks if her mortgage lender’s offer for streamlined refinancing—without an appraisal—is legit.

Posted at 3:43 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/16/12

Buyers Get Bargain on Barrington Hills Estate

List Price: $8.9 million
Sale Price: $7.5 million
The Property: A Barrington Hills estate that encompasses two golf holes, a pond stocked with fish, and more than a thousand trees—not to mention a 30,000-square-foot house—sold Thursday after being on the market just shy of three years...

Posted at 10:00 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/12/12

A Green Home Grows in Bucktown

List Price: $1.79 million
The Property: Some of the greenest buildings are old ones that get reused rather than torn down. That was the philosophy behind this single-family home in Bucktown, which was built into and atop an old two-flat...

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

07/11/12

Can Two Historical North Shore Houses Be Saved?

Two historical North Shore homes, both on the market, were built according to very different aesthetics and are at price points far removed from one another. But they do have one thing in common: despite the eagerness of preservationists to see the houses saved, they both face the threat of being demolished...

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

07/10/12

Rodkin on Why Some Houses Sell at Unusually High Prices

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Liz from Glenview asks why a neighbor's house sold for about $400,000 when others near it are sitting at prices in the $300,000s.

Posted at 2:06 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/09/12

Sambolin Sells Maher-Designed Home in Oak Park

List Price: $1.65 million
Sale Price: $1.34 million
The Property: The television journalist Zoraida Sambolin and her husband, John Hobbs, have sold their six-bedroom Prairie-style home in Oak Park...

Posted at 9:15 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/06/12

How Foreclosures and Land Banking Could Transform Midwestern Cities

We’ve known for a few years that the foreclosure crisis has led banks to offer some seized homes at bargain-basement prices. Now an executive with a real-estate company that focuses on foreclosures has predicted that this sales trend could have an upside for hard-hit Midwestern cities, transforming them into some of the most desirable places to live in the country...

Posted at 12:08 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/05/12

In Winnetka, a Tudor for the 21st Century

List Price: $3.1 million
The Property: When it was built in 1903, this Tudor-style home in Winnetka was more of a country house, with just one large estate between it and nearby Lake Michigan. More than 100 years later, it still retains all its charm and comforts...

Posted at 10:00 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/03/12

Rodkin on Why He's 'Cranky' about the Chicago Housing Market

Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Jeannie from South Loop asks why Dennis Rodkin is so “cranky” about real estate in the Chicago area.

Posted at 2:26 PM in DEQ's | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/02/12

Riding High at the Bristol

List Price: $6.795 million
Sale Price: $6 million
The Property: A two-story penthouse at the top of the Bristol, a condominium building at 57 East Delaware Place, sold Tuesday for $6 million...

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

July 2012