Momentum is gathering behind the idea of converting large numbers of empty foreclosed homes into rentals. The Tribune reported last week that Chicago is selling entire condo buildings to apartment developers. And Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, wrote that large-scale foreclosure-to-rental programs would help heal the housing sector—a concept that is reportedly central to a plan being developed by the Obama administration…
Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Stevie asks about buying vs. renting a condo in the $270,000 price range.
INSIDER’S GUIDE: From contemporary art to craft beer to upscale Chinese food, this Near South Side neighborhood offers plenty of local color
List Price: $1.795 million
Sale Price: $1.47 million
The Property: About a year ago, construction ground to a halt on this 16-room mansion in South Barrington, leaving much of its interior unfinished—including a planned copper dome, which had only been framed out with wood. But that didn’t stop the selling agent from making a silk purse out of this 22,795-square-foot sow’s ear…
List Price: $810,000
The Property: A traditonal-looking neighborhood is springing up next door to Libertyville’s charming downtown. SchoolStreet, a New Urbanist development on the site of a failed townhouse project, has been selling well, and its promised front porches are becoming more numerous…
Lockerbie Lane is a residential cul-de-sac west of the Edens Expressway in Wilmette. In July, an Indiana hotel operator announced plans to build a 130-room Residence Inn by Marriott on a vacant parcel of land in a nearby commercial area, next to an existing three-story building. “It just changes everything about our neighborhood,” laments Carol Stutz, a 20-year Lockerbie Lane resident. “It’s not what is best for our quality of life and property values…”
Readers ask questions, and our real estate expert answers. This week, a reader named Marie from the Southwest Side asks if it’s a bad idea to put a house on the market during the winter.
List Price: $5.995 million
Sale Price: $4.5 million
The Property: This 17-room home in Hinsdale has an indoor pool, eight bedrooms and, according to the listing sheet, “four truly epic levels”—which may be the selling agent’s way of saying that the basement pub is as lavish as the hunt room–styled family room…
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…
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…
