List price: $1.95 million
The Property: One hundred years old in 2008, this 14-room Prairie-style home has been thoroughly renovated and updated but at no cost to its original character, which comes from five-piece banded molding in the main rooms, a massive fireplace bricked in a herringbone pattern, and numerous windows on three sides (a rarity in Hyde Park’s older attached houses). The Tudor look of the beamed upper and brick lower portions carries through this and four other houses built on this corner in a Hyde Park “Professors’ Row” cluster. The architects of the cluster, Tallmadge & Watson, were among the leading Prairie architects—in fact...

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List price: $1.95 million
The Property: One hundred years old in 2008, this 14-room Prairie-style home has been thoroughly renovated and updated but at no cost to its original character, which comes from five-piece banded molding in the main rooms, a massive fireplace bricked in a herringbone pattern, and numerous windows on three sides (a rarity in Hyde Park’s older attached houses). The Tudor look of the beamed upper and brick lower portions carries through this and four other houses built on this corner in a Hyde Park “Professors’ Row” cluster. The architects of the cluster, Tallmadge & Watson, were among the leading Prairie architects—in fact...

" />

List price: $1.95 million
The Property: One hundred years old in 2008, this 14-room Prairie-style home has been thoroughly renovated and updated but at no cost to its original character, which comes from five-piece banded molding in the main rooms, a massive fireplace bricked in a herringbone pattern, and numerous windows on three sides (a rarity in Hyde Park’s older attached houses). The Tudor look of the beamed upper and brick lower portions carries through this and four other houses built on this corner in a Hyde Park “Professors’ Row” cluster. The architects of the cluster, Tallmadge & Watson, were among the leading Prairie architects—in fact...

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On the Market—Pure Prairie in Hyde Park

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List price: $1.95 million
The Property: One hundred years old in 2008, this 14-room Prairie-style home has been thoroughly renovated and updated but at no cost to its original character, which comes from five-piece banded molding in the main rooms, a massive fireplace bricked in a herringbone pattern, and numerous windows on three sides (a rarity in Hyde Park’s older attached houses). The Tudor look of the beamed upper and brick lower portions carries through this and four other houses built on this corner in a Hyde Park “Professors’ Row” cluster. The architects of the cluster, Tallmadge & Watson, were among the leading Prairie architects—in fact…

Housing Bulletin—Transit Funding and the Real-Estate Market

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Last week, months of wrangling in the state legislature over how to fund the metro area’s rail and bus lines resulted in a deal that included an increase on the tax on real-estate transfers in Chicago. That increase¬—$3.50 per $1,000 in value of the property sold—will all go to mass transit, presuming the Chicago City Council approves the tax. (The current tax—$7.50 per $1,000—does not fund mass transit.)

The reasoning behind the measure was that Chicago was paying less than its share for transit because its sales-tax receipts weren’t up to what the collar counties collected. Since the owners of city property—not just housing, but retail and commercial real estate—clearly benefit from…

Sale of the Week—Chicago’s Old Norwood

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The Property: This 128-year-old house is in the heart of Old Norwood, a neighborhood on the city’s far Northwest Side. With its curving streets, charming older homes, relatively big city lots, a big park, and a nearby commuter train station, Old Norwood is “the best-kept secret ‘Mayberry’ in Chicago,” says Lisa Sanders, the Coldwell Banker agent who represented…

On the Market—Twin Moderns in Ukrainian Village

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List Price: $1,049,000 each
The Properties: These two sleek houses are the design of Studio Dwell Architects. Behind their almost-identical cedar and glass facades, they have spacious floor plans, sharp Arcilinea kitchens, and top-floor master bedrooms with exquisite views of two local landmarks: the gold dome of Sts. Vladimir and Olga Church and the multiple copper spires of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.

Each house has a big double-height front room that combines living and dining with an almost vertiginous view up two flights of stairs. Beyond are a kitchen and…

Housing Bulletin—Where is the Bottom?

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In the late 1990s, economists, real-estate analysts, and others were puzzled by the housing market. House prices kept going up, confounding everyone’s forecasts. Ten years later, we’re on the other side of that hill: Prices are going down, but nobody seems to know how far they will descend.

Since home prices are a moving target at the moment, up-to-date price data is hard to come by. But I have been hearing routinely that appraisers now use 2004 prices as their benchmarks; just a few months ago, they were using 2005 prices. A 2004 price would mean that after 13 years of increases, we’ve slipped back about three years. That means if you bought your home before 2004, you are still ahead of the game. But that’s only if the market doesn’t fall any farther—and most forecasts say…

Sale of the Week—A Lincoln Park Queen Anne

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List Price: $1,879,000
Sale Price: $1,879,000
The Property: The brick, limestone, and wood façade of this Queen Anne-style home is a flirting coquette among matrons on an east Lincoln Park block where the neighbors are all fine homes, but not as confidently decorative as this one. From its painted wooden gable front and cornice supports down through the carved limestone tablets above some windows and a hefty wood-and-glass front door, the exterior is enlivened by an array of textures and colors.

Inside, the seduction continues. Built in 1895, the house has ten rooms on three floors, plus a…

On the Market—Georgian on my Mind

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List Price: $3,625,000

The Property: This Georgian townhouse on Chicago’s Astor Street feels as if it were made for ambassadorial entertaining. The glass-fronted entry door opens onto an entry hall with a marble and ebony floor; from there, a broad staircase leads to a pillared gallery hall that sets the stage for a handsome living room with a trio of Palladian windows and Juliet balconies.

Built in the 1890s—possibly as a Victorian, its selling agent says, and reworked sometime later—the house has 11 rooms and four-plus baths on four stories, as well as a rooftop deck. Two of the four bedrooms…