No Return
Transplanted Chicagoans learn you can’t go home again
Ad Categories: Real Estate
On the Market—Wilmette
List Price: $1.695 million
The Property: From its triangular floor plan to its hanging chimney, internal balconies, and master bathroom tiled in black polka dots, this Wilmette house built in 1981 is a study in unconventional design. The work of the late Marion Gutnayer—a University of Illinois architecture professor whose own even more unusual home is just a block away—this four-bedroom house has a big eight-sided living room whose brick walls shut out the sight and sound of the busy street outside, while its tall, slender windows frame views of trees and garden space. Upstairs loft spaces near two children’s bedrooms overlook the living room, and they are matched in the rear of the house by a broad balcony off the master bedroom that looks out over the glass-walled family room and into the yard. There is also a wide spiral staircase, vertical cutouts in some brick walls, a large-panel terrazzo floor, and…
Housing Bulletin—Dimon in the Rough
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November 28, 2007
Housing Bulletin: Dimon in the Rough
Jamie Dimon, the banking executive who now heads New York–based JP Morgan Chase, has cut 11 percent off the asking price of the 26-room Gold Coast mansion where he lived while he ran Bank One. Originally listed at $13.5 million, the house now has a price tag of $12 million.
The broad house, faced with rough-hewn orange limestone, was built by Potter Palmer in 1889 as part of his effort to make the nascent Gold Coast into the fashionable new neighborhood. The architect Ernest Graham, of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (think Wrigley Building and Field Museum), did a later expansion and remodeling. The house’s exterior is a many-textured composition of hefty stones, arched windows, copper-topped turrets, and dormers puncturing a…
Sale of the Week—Winnetka Charmer
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List Price: $2,394,500
Sale Price: $2,190,000
The Property: A handsome new home whose rough limestone exterior and creamy shingles fit comfortably among the vintage homes in a tucked-away corner of Winnetka, this house has 11 rooms (five of them bedrooms), four-plus baths, a ten-foot-long kitchen island, and three fireplaces. The builder, Tamara Kasey, bought the lot, which then contained a smaller house, in 2000 for $549,000. With this replacement house, she took advantage of the extra-deep corner lot, giving the residence an elongated layout that strings together living and dining rooms and an open kitchen–family room combo. Out back, beyond French doors, sits a bluestone terrace and a cottage-look…
Housing Bulletin—Nobody Is Rushing to Gobble Up These Turkeys
By now, just about everybody with a home listed for sale understands that properties are taking longer to sell. Still, some houses sit on the market for what seems like an eternity. Sometimes a house is so unusual that it simply has to wait for the right buyer to come along. But others suffer from significant flaws: they are outrageously ostentatious; their builders stubbornly cling to the original asking price; they are in unlikely settings for a high-priced house. These are the turkeys of the real-estate market, and in honor of Thanksgiving, I have rounded up…
Wedding Cakes Not Wanted
Developer’s decision to omit traditional parking pedestals creates visual link with street
Sale of the Week—Oak Brook
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List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600
The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need
On the Market—Atop the Loop
List Price: $829,900
The Property: This two-story penthouse condo at the top of the 101-year-old Mentor Building (at 39 South State Street) has three bedrooms plus an office, a stylish kitchen, and striking views of the surrounding architecture. Windows in the condo’s lower floor look out between some of the columns that give the building’s upper reaches the look of a temple-in-the-sky. (The condo’s upper level, where the three bedrooms and two full baths are, is on a floor concealed from street-level view.) Views stretch north all the way to the new Trump building; what’s more, those views can never be blocked because…
This Week on Spike—November 14 – price cuts
Dennis Rodkin appears regularly on WGN’s Spike O’Dell Radio Program sometimes discussing properties not mentioned in the Deal Estate blog. Check back here each week to find links and information for those listings.
From the November 14th show – Price cuts in the Chicago region:
| AURORA List Price Now: $575,000 Original List Price: $649,500 |
GURNEE List Price Now: $389,000 Original List Price: $439,000 |
| LAKEVIEW List Price Now: $489,000 Original List Price: $570,000 |
PALOS HEIGHTS List Price Now: $699,000 Original List Price: $759,000 |
Housing Bulletin—Assessing Mr. Toll’s F
While releasing some downward-sliding sales figures last week, Robert Toll—the CEO of Toll Brothers, a national home-building company—gave an informal letter grade to each of several regional markets where it operates. Chicago got an F.
That’s not to say that the housing market here has tanked more than in other parts of the country. In fact, as I read it, that low grade suggests that buyers here might be more cautious or judicious than elsewhere. The F is Toll’s assessment of how each market is doing vis-à-vis his company’s sales performance. He reported 38.9 percent of people with contracts to…