The Columbian is magnificent. Although the 46-story condo tower in the southwest corner of Grant Park was completed in 2008, this unit is one of three penthouses on the 41st floor that the developers put on the market this past summer—but as the one that occupies the full east side of the floor, it offers the most enticing vistas..." /> The Columbian is magnificent. Although the 46-story condo tower in the southwest corner of Grant Park was completed in 2008, this unit is one of three penthouses on the 41st floor that the developers put on the market this past summer—but as the one that occupies the full east side of the floor, it offers the most enticing vistas..." /> The Columbian is magnificent. Although the 46-story condo tower in the southwest corner of Grant Park was completed in 2008, this unit is one of three penthouses on the 41st floor that the developers put on the market this past summer—but as the one that occupies the full east side of the floor, it offers the most enticing vistas..." />

From the 41st Floor, a Columbian Exhibition

List Price: $1.899 million
The Property: The view of the Museum Campus and the lakefront from unit 4101 of The Columbian is magnificent. Although the 46-story condo tower in the southwest corner of Grant Park was completed in 2008, this unit is one of three penthouses on the 41st floor that the developers put on the market this past summer—but as the one that occupies the full east side of the floor, it offers the most enticing vistas…

Midwesterner Homebuyers Slow to Get Federal Tax Credit

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported in June that only about 27 percent of homebuyers in 2009 who were eligible for the $8,000 federal tax credit had filed claims by late February (the most recent data available). At 25.9 percent, the Midwest was slightly below the national average, but Danielle Hale, an NAR research economist, … Read more

An Early Wright Revamp in Oak Park

List Price: $1.195 million
Sale Price: $1.050 million
The Property: Renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright early in his career, this 17-room Oak Park house had been on and off the market for more than two years before finally selling at about 61 percent of its original asking price…

True to Form in Irving Park

List Price: $859,700
The Property: In 1999, when Charlie and Natalie Walsh bought this big brick house in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood, “almost nothing had been done to it since the 1950s,” Natalie says. Since buying the place, the Walshes have extensively remodeled and updated the house, always trying to stay true to its original design…

Selling Time Increases Significantly in Many Communities

Comparing Chicago’s annual real-estate charts from 2006 to the ones that appeared in the October 2010 issue of the magazine, I found that the average length of time that a house waits on the market has more than doubled in 29 Chicago neighborhoods and 129 suburbs. The two places where market time has lengthened the most over those four years are Montclare on Chicago’s Northwest Side and Lake Forest on the North Shore…