Don’t Fence Me In
Rules regarding renovations may inhibit the sale of an eccentric house built by a real Texas Maverick
Ad Categories: Real Estate
Housing Bulletin: It Takes a Village
When checking out the highest-priced home sales in the Chicago area, the two suburbs where I most often wind up are Lake Forest and Winnetka. While other towns (Hinsdale, Kenilworth, Glencoe) have lots of high-end sales, these two towns are perennially near the top of Chicago’s rankings for the number of sales at a million dollars or more (usually behind Chicago’s Gold Coast and…
Sounding Off
Developer subdues noise at former railroad site
A Bigger Backyard
Condo dwellers offered all the pleasures of home
Sale of the Week: Field Mansion Finally Fills Up
List Price: $1,350,000
Sale Price: $1,175,000
The Property: One week ago, unidentified buyers closed on the sixth and final condo in the gigantic old Marshall Field Jr. mansion at 1919 South Prairie Avenue in Chicago’s South Loop. An eight-room unit with some 4,100 square feet of living space, the condo fills the rear half of the first floor—which includes the mansion’s original dining room and an entrance rotunda that served the rear portion of the…
On the Market: Mini-mizing a Gold Coast Flaw
List Price: $2.5 million
The Property: Elaborate carvings on its rough sandstone façade and an elegant renovation of its interior make this 19th-century Gold Coast house very appealing. But Tricia Fox, the listing agent for its seller, Joseph Aldeguer, noticed one drawback…
Housing Bulletin: Low-Income Housing Developer Hit Hard by Downturn
On Monday, February 9th, Duane Ehresman received a Chicago Neighborhood Development Award for his work preserving 153 low-cost apartments in five buildings in North Lawndale. It’s the latest project in Ehresman’s 28-year career of creating and managing affordable rental housing in Chicago; in that time, he has had a hand in the renovation of almost 1,500 housing units for low-income people…
Sale of the Week: Pool with a House Attached – Northbrook
List Price: $2.095 million
Sale Price: $1.6 million
The Property: Set on 1.6 wooded acres overlooking a private pond in Northbrook, this four-bedroom ranch house has a long, glassy second wing that contains a swimming pool. But it’s not just an indoor pool: the many windows and doors of the 1,800-square-foot…
On the Market: Majestic River View in River North
List Price: $990,000
The Property: The spectacular view is the primary attraction of this two-bedroom condo on the 13th floor of the 38-story Riverbend; it looks eastward along the main branch of the Chicago River, taking in all the soaring skyscrapers that flank its sides and the muscular bridges that cross it. From the condo balcony, the el trains on the Wells Street bridge “look like Mr. Rogers’…
Housing Bulletin: Job Cuts May Spur More Foreclosures
The foreclosure crisis continues to morph. Even as new data show that foreclosures on condos are multiplying faster than those on single-family homes, real-estate experts suggest that foreclosures, boosted by pervasive job cuts in the sagging economy, may soon aggressively climb the socioeconomic…