11/30/09

A Distressed House Rebounds in Lincoln Park

List Price: $2.875 million
Sale Price: $2.830 million
The Property: Just 13 months ago, this house was a bank-owned mess. The bank, Countrywide, let it go as a short sale for $1.85 million—although in 2006 it had approved a mortgage on the place for $4.1 million.

Posted at 07:44 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/26/09

Georges Seurat, Jules Breton, and an Oak Park Victorian

List Price: $989,000
The Property: When Gary and Marcia Myers first saw this 1902 Victorian in Oak Park 26 years ago, it was well past its prime. But the couple eagerly took it on—“I like to have a project,” Gary recalls—partly because of its excellent location on a street of impressive older homes only a short walk from Oak Park–River Forest High School and the town’s bustling central shopping district...

Posted at 01:00 PM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/25/09

Thankful in Lockport

PJ and Jaime Klacko have 10,000 reasons to be thankful this week—the $10,000 that the city of Lockport will kick in on the purchase of their newly built house, which should finish construction next March. They are among the first dozen buyers to take advantage of an incentive...

Posted at 07:24 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/23/09

Former Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke Sells in Wilmette

List Price: $1,275,000
Sale Price: $1,165,000
The Property: Michael Cooke, who served two stints as editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, has sold his house in Wilmette. “We haven’t severed links with Chicago,” Cooke says. “We may keep...

Posted at 07:47 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/19/09

A Lap Pool in Noble Square

List Price: $1.65 million
The Property: Situated west of the Kennedy and centered around Grand Avenue, Noble Square is one of those semi-secret Chicago neighborhoods some people whiz right past without realizing it’s there. Well, there’s a secret within the secret...

Posted at 10:05 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (4)

11/18/09

Widow of the Director John Hughes Buys Lake Forest Mansion

Sale Price: $5.2 million
List Price: $5.795 million
Nancy L. Hughes, the widow of the director John Hughes, has paid $5.2 million for the Lake Forest mansion owned by the developer Robert Shaw. John Hughes, who died of a heart attack on August 6th, was the director of a number of films...

Posted at 07:58 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/16/09

River Forest’s Priciest 2009 Sale

List Price: $2.695 million
Sale Price: $2.1 million
The Property: This elegant Mediterranean house in River Forest was the town’s first home this year to sell for over $2 million. In 2008, five homes in River Forest sold for over $2 million. In 2007, there were three sales in that price range.

Posted at 07:21 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/12/09

Scott Turow’s Glencoe House Under Contract

List Price: $5.9 million
Sale Price: Not yet known

The novelist Scott Turow’s Glencoe lakefront home, which has been on the market for $5.9 million, is under contract with a buyer, Turow’s real estate agent confirmed for Deal Estate on Wednesday.

Posted at 01:00 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/12/09

Terrace Views of Lake View

List Price: $649,999
The Property: This three-bedroom condo, with large terraces on its north and south sides, occupies the 16th-floor of a 17-story Lake View building that offers unimpeded panoramic views in most directions. As you will see in the video, the south terrace, with views of Wrigley Field and the Chicago skyline, is nicely finished. The much larger north terrace...

Posted at 09:27 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/11/09

Renting Unsold Condos

At the height of the condo boom, many investors snapped up under-construction condos, planning to turn around and sell them upon or shortly after completion. In the crash years, reselling has proved difficult, leaving some investors bleeding money as their condos sit unsold. Justin Elliott, the founder and CEO of Chicago Apartment Finders (which leases about 6,000 apartments each year), suggests that investors consider renting those condo until the market becomes more stable...

Posted at 09:32 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (2)

11/09/09

Foreclosed in Winnetka

The Properties: Both of these Winnetka houses sold in October as foreclosures. In each case, the buyers got the house for at least $1 million less than its presumed value—and a closer look at those sales reveals the different ways foreclosures can impact affluent and lower-income communities...

Posted at 09:52 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/06/09

Antonio Davis Sells in Burr Ridge

Yesterday, Antonio Davis, who spent two seasons with the Chicago Bulls, closed on the sale of his Burr Ridge home for $2.75 million. That’s $1 million less than the $3.75 million he had been asking for the 13-room house at the beginning of the year. It was the second house Davis had sold in the Chicago area in the past few months...

Posted at 10:36 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/05/09

View to a Thrill — South Loop

List Price: $990,000
The Property: The west-suburban couple who bought this three-bedroom condo on the 27th floor of the new One Museum Park East tower in 2008 were counting on using it as a second home for city getaways. They also hoped to live in it full-time...

Posted at 09:56 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

11/04/09

Upgrades at Two Home Search Sites

Over the past week, two Chicago real-estate companies beefed up their online presence. On October 30th, @Properties went live with its upgraded site, and Dream Town Realty followed suit on November 3rd. Last week, both companies gave me a prelaunch look at their new sites, and I was impressed...

Posted at 03:05 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/02/09

A (Pabst) Blue-Ribbon Sale — Glencoe

List Price: $7.95 million
Sale Price: $5.2 million
The Property: The software entrepreneur Marc Ewing and his wife, Lisa Lee, last week sold their 26-room Sheridan Road mansion in Glencoe for just three-quarters of the price that they had paid for the gated estate nine years earlier.

Posted at 08:07 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)