A Graystone Revival in West Wrigleyville

List Price: $2.495 million
The Property: Just about all that remains of this 115-year-old graystone is its rusticated stone façade. From there back—and from there up—the developer Jody Libman and his company, Trianon, have crafted an entirely new, though historically sensitive home. “You can’t build something that looks like this anymore,” Libman says. “Look how it

Sportscaster Tom Waddle Buys House at Below Half Price

The former Chicago Bears wide receiver Tom Waddle, now a sports anchor at Fox Chicago, ESPN 1000, and other media, bought a new 12-room house in an estate section of Lake Forest on February 12th. The $3.25 million that Waddle and his wife, Cara, paid was just 48 percent of the $6.7 million that the home’s builder, Lynch Construction, initially asked for the place in October 2008.

A Park Ridge Turkey Finally Flies

List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $857,500
The Property: The Park Ridge family who bought this new house that had stood unsold for nearly three years got the place for about half of what the builder had originally wanted. “There’s a lot that the builder put in that I don’t think he would have done if he’d known he would sell in the…

This Side of Paradise — St. Charles

List Price: $1.695 million
The Property: Back in 1984, when Pete and Barbara Rosi went looking for a tranquil country residence in Kane County, they fell in love with a hillside home outside St. Charles that had been built in 1932 as a getaway for a Chicago family. Situated 58 feet above its own private lake, and with tall oaks hanging overhead, the house was their ideal.

Chicago’s Real-Estate Forecast

“Realtors cannot change economic reality,” insisted Genie Birch, a Koenig & Strey GMAC agent and the president of the Chicago Association of Realtors (CAR). Birch’s remarks opened CAR’s economic forecast panel for 2010, which met on January 28th at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza. Here are ten other things that Chicago real-estate agents heard from the panel:

Down on the Farm in Barrington Hills

List Price: $2.97 million
The Property: Twelve years ago, Doug and Lucinda Hanover bought a little 1880s Barrington Hills farmhouse with a rhubarb patch out front. What they have now is a 6,000-square-foot home that incorporates the property’s old barn as a two-story…