A Spruced-Up Sears Home in Rogers Park

List Price: $479,000
The Property: There’s a quiet block of classic houses and apartment buildings in Rogers Park where you can tell what a rooted part of the neighborhood it is just by looking at all the well-designed front gardens—several of which still look nice in late fall…

Winnetka’s Maverick House Back on the Market

One of the quirkiest houses on the North Shore—with light fixtures carved from wooden salad bowls, a Western-themed mural above the living room, and a distinctly offbeat fence—came back on the market this month, five years after it went up for sale for the first time since it was built more than 90 years ago…

The Five Buckinghams

List Price: (See individual condos, below)
The Property: Today we’re looking at five different condos for sale in the Buckingham. That just happens to be the same number of musicians that were in the Buckinghams, the Chicago-based band behind the 1967 tune “Kind of a Drag”…

Push Is on to Extend Tax Forgiveness on Foreclosures, Short Sales

Part of a distressed sale—a foreclosure or a short sale—or a loan modification entails the mortgage lender forgiving some or all of a homeowner’s debt. Formerly, tax laws counted that forgiven amount as taxable income. But in 2007, President George W. Bush signed legislation that temporarily exempted forgiven mortgage debt from taxable income. That law expires December 31—unless Congress acts to extend it…