On the Market

On The Market—Contemporary Extravagance in Northbrook

List Price: $3.295 million
The Property: Set behind a 15-foot-tall privacy hedge, this house in western Northbrook has 18 rooms, a pool and a tennis court, and an outdoor kitchen big enough to cater a swim meet or a tennis match. The contemporary-styled home has a monumental entry flanked by two hefty...

Posted Sept. 4, 2008, at 8:04 a.m.

Housing Bulletin

Housing Bulletin—Will Property Taxes Decline with House Prices?

Now that we have pretty much accepted that our homes are worth less than they used to be, a question comes up: If the value of my home is dropping, will my property tax bill do the same?

Short answer: Not now, not for a few years, and very likely not at all.

For the long answer, it’s important first to grasp...

Posted Sept. 3, 2008, at 7:43 a.m.

Sale of the Week

Sale of the Week—New Sears Recruit Shops in Winnetka

List Price: $2.99 million
Sale Price: $2.88 million
The Property: Gunther Trieb, the new president of the Sears brands Kenmore, Craftsman, and DieHard, has bought this 17-room mansion in the heart of Winnetka. The sale closed August 25th, four days...

Posted Sept. 1, 2008, at 11:55 a.m.

On the Market

On The Market—Glen Ellyn’s Warwood Farm

List Price: $2.45 million
The Property: Prominent on its hilltop site and looking like a hen among chicks, this Arts and Crafts–style mansion is surrounded by the ranch houses and other smaller homes that now occupy all but two acres of its original 300 acres of...

Posted Aug. 28, 2008, at 11:24 a.m.

Housing Bulletin

Housing Bulletin—One Chicago Seller’s Limited-Time Offer

To save money on commissions to real-estate agents, Rachel and Mark Bickenbach have been trying to sell their Clybourn Avenue loft themselves this summer. They put it on craigslist.com and advertised it in the Chicago Tribune and the Reader—but all they heard was...

Posted Aug. 27, 2008, at 8:13 a.m.

Sale of the Week

Sale of the Week—Traded Again in Southeast Ravenswood

List Price: $2.399 million
Sale Price: $2.25 million
The Property: So far in its short life, this 14-room house, built in 2002, has been sold four times, most recently on August 11th. Those sellers had owned the place for just 11 months...

Posted Aug. 25, 2008, at 7:42 a.m.

On the Market

On The Market—Prairie Glass in Oak Park

List Price: $990,000
The Property: Eben Ezra Roberts, who designed some 200 buildings in Oak Park, was the architect of this 100-year-old residence (known as the Charles Schwerin House), as well as its neighbor (the Charles F. Lorenzen House). Roberts fronted this house with a broad, shading porch and...

Posted Aug. 21, 2008, at 10:12 a.m.

Housing Bulletin

Housing Bulletin—Good News for Chicago Condos

With all the reports (including many from Deal Estate) about a vast inventory of unsold condos, it’s a surprise to learn that urban condos are the best-performing part of Chicago’s six-county real-estate market. In the latest release of local market information by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR), the median price of a home dropped in five counties and stayed flat in Cook County. The declines ranged from 1.9 percent in Lake County to...

Posted Aug. 20, 2008, at 9:18 a.m.

Sale of the Week

Sale of the Week—A Robin’s Nest on Lake Shore Drive

List Price: $3.199 million
Sale Price: $2.75 million
The Property: In the late 1960s, when the construction executive Albert Robin developed The Carlyle, the 40-story condo building at 1040 North Lake Shore Drive, he set aside a two-story aerie for himself and his family. Robin—a benefactor of Roosevelt University, which named its Schaumburg campus after him—died in...

Posted Aug. 18, 2008, at 7:41 a.m.

On the Market

On the Market—A West Loop Loft

List Price: $560,000
The Property: This two-bedroom loft has a supremely contemporary sensibility, as evidenced by the gleaming metal kitchen cabinets (intended for a high-school science lab), the black granite tepee-shaped fireplace, and a sleek, elongated bathroom sink.

Marc Lawrence, an executive at Lawrence Foods (his family’s bakery and food-ingredients manufacturing company in Elk Grove Village), bought the space in...

Posted Aug. 14, 2008, at 10:38 a.m.