Sale of the Week: Gadzooks! Teardown Planned for Hinsdale Tudor

List Price: $3,900,000
Sale Price: $3,575,000
The Property: This mammoth, lavishly detailed Tudor mansion, completed in 1932 in a section of Hinsdale known as the Woodlands, was sold in late September to only its fourth owner—who plans to demolish it and build a new home on the 2.2-acre lot. The Chicago architecture firm Armstrong, Furst and Tilton designed the 14-room house, which was built for the family that…

On the Market: Highland Park, AZ

List Price: $1,998,500
The Property: Walking between stacked-stone pillars into the coolness of an open-ceilinged entry court at this Highland Park house, you get the feeling you’ve left the North Shore and arrived in the arid Southwest. That’s all intentional: the house was designed in 1964 for a man whose wife, the story goes…

Housing Bulletin: Fighting Foreclosures

Recently, several government and philanthropic agencies have rolled out new programs to help the growing number of Chicago-area homeowners facing foreclosure. Last week, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that it will provide $68 million in grants and low-interest loans to help people on the edge of foreclosure. And in mid-September…

Sale of the Week: Going Geothermal in Wilmette

List Price: $1,395,000
Sale Price: $1,327,500
The Property: On a street of mostly traditional-looking homes in Wilmette, this residence fits right in with its red brick exterior trimmed in white. But the house is a departure for its neighborhood—and for almost any other community in the Chicago area—because it has…

On the Market: A Vacancy at Aurora’s O’Dell Hotel

List Price: $619,900
The Property: Last week, Spike O’Dell, the morning host at WGN-Radio for the last eight years, confirmed on the air that he will leave the station in December when his contract expires. With their kids grown and “everything we wanted to do done,” O’Dell told me, he and his wife, Karen, plan to retire to…