Events Newsletters Subscribe

Ad Categories: Real Estate

Housing Bulletin—Beyond ARMs’ Length

by

In the midst of all the recent fretting over subprime mortgage failures, some real-estate analysts have been warning of another wave of mortgage trouble on its way: the massive reset of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) to higher rates than what prevailed when the loans were made three to five years ago. According to many industry observers, the new, higher payments on those loans could force another round of borrowers out of their homes.

People who used lower-cost ARMs to buy more house than they would otherwise have been able to afford may have been counting on their own income going up before the inevitable reset to a higher rate. Or they might…

Sale of the Week—Glenview’s Glen

by

List Price: $2.48 million Sale Price: $2.31 million The Property: This four-year-old, 21-room house resides within the Glen, the development that replaced the old Glenview Naval Air Station. Where once were runways and ramshackle military buildings, there are now winding boulevards lined with large, high-priced homes, retail shops, parks, and a junior high school. This … Read more

New on the Market—A Lake Forest Villa Still Looking for a Buyer

by

List Price: $10.999 million The Property: A lakefront house designed by David Adler and Henry Dangler, this 90-year-old, 21-room mansion evokes the elegance of an Italian villa. Because its first owners—the Chicago banker and attorney Charles Pike and his wife, Frances—often arrived here by boat, the house originally had its main entrance on the east, … Read more

Housing Bulletin—The Link Between Housing and Schools

by

As a real-estate agent in a family of real-estate agents, state representative Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) knows all about the close connection between house values and school quality. “When I work with [homebuyers],” she says, “the single most important thing they always ask is, ‘How are the schools?’ You could show them a Frank Lloyd Wright house with all kinds of architectural amenities, but if the community’s schools aren’t good, they will pass it by. There are two basic building blocks of healthy communities: good schools and good housing.” 

That’s why Yarbrough took the lead with state senator Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) in sponsoring the Good Housing Good Schools bill (SB 220) that both houses of the state legislature passed last spring and that…

Freeze Frame

by

As Chicago’s real-estate market began to experience the big chill, homeowners worried that this was the beginning of the next ice age. But as our annual house survey demonstrates, there were a few bright spots in a year that was more frustrating than desperate.

Sale of the Week—Shingles and Shade in Lake Bluff

by

List Price: $1.25 million Sale Price: $1.17 million The Property: With its shingle siding and crisp white trim, this 11-room house—built in 1998 and surrounded by tall trees—contributes to the feel of a small New England village that characterizes the east side of Lake Bluff. The welcoming arch over the front steps is repeated in … Read more

New on the Market—Roomy Contemporary in Chicago’s Bucktown Neighborhood

by

List Price: $2.499 million
The Property: This spacious, newly completed four-story home is one of a planned string of five houses and an eight-unit condo building going up on the 1600 block of North Wolcott Street in Bucktown. The first one finished, this house is a joint project of JODI Development and Ranquist Development. The latter, run by the husband-and-wife team of Bob and Karen Ranquist, has been responsible for some of the finest contemporary architecture in this architecturally savvy…

This Week with Spike—Links from the program

by

Dennis Rodkin appears regularly on WGN’s Spike O’Dell Radio Program to discuss properties not mentioned in the Deal Estate blog. Check back here each week to find links to those listings. From the 9/26/07 show: Near West Side/UIC area ($295,000) Flossmoor ($299,000) Forest Park ($299,000) From the 9/20/07 show: Plainfield ($234,900) Elk Grove Village ($229,999)

Housing Bulletin—Correction of Lincoln Square Data

by

It turns out housing prices in the Lincoln Square neighborhood (on Chicago’s Northwest Side) haven’t been on the two-year roller coaster ride suggested by Chicago’s October issue. Because of a problem with our data, the magazine’s annual real-estate charts reported an artificially large jump in prices in Lincoln Square in October 2006; as a result, the October 2007 charts indicated a dramatic (and false) decline…