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Ad Categories: Real Estate

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…

This Week on Spike—December 27

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A nice two-year-old house in northwest Elmhurst, this one sold in early December for $865,000, which is 5.9 percent below what the sellers paid in September 05.

The 2007 sale price was approximately the 2004 value (approximate because this house did not exist then; it’s a replacement of a modest ranch). That is what some real estate appraisers are now saying is appropriate–prices from three years ago. As recently as September, appraisers were telling me they were using 2005 prices.

The asking price was $924,900…