A report last week from CoreLogic showed that 25.4 percent of Chicago-area homeowners with a mortgage are now underwater—they owe more on the mortgage than the house is worth—and another 5.3 percent are near that point. There’s no way of knowing how many of those people will have to sell their homes this year, but if you’re at or near the short-sale line, the first thing to do is pull your head out of the sand…
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?: Remaining condos at SoNo, all on lower floors, still have good views
THE SILENT MAJORITY: Heavy-duty insulation captures the sound of one pin dropping
WHERE PIGS RAN FREE: Mired in foreclosure, the estate of Estelle Walgreen sells for about 58 percent of the $3.3 million she paid in 2006.
THE NAME GAME: New developer gives rechristened building price cuts and upgrades
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Residence with stylish interiors goes under contract after only six weeks.
The most recent Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks residential real estate in the country’s major metropolitan areas, shows that, by one measure, the housing collapse hit Chicago harder than many other cities. Over the past four years (from November 2006 to November 2010, the latest date for which information was available), prices here dropped … Read more
ELECTRIC AVENUE: Once a stark thoroughfare, West Chicago Avenue is transforming into a stellar destination for BYOs, bars, and more
List Price: $1 million
Sale Price: $900,000
The Property: In 2006, federal marshals seized this 7,400-square-foot, five-bedroom Winnetka house after its owner was charged with selling scores of luxury cars to Chicago gang members for cash as a way of helping them launder millions of dollars in drug profits…
List Price: $1.15 million
The Property: Cue-wielding pool players get some of the best views in this 4,200-square-foot loft in an old West Loop industrial building. Look out one set of tall windows and they get a straight shot of the Sears Tower; look out the other and they see more old industrial buildings and a clock tower…
