Sale of the Week – Pleasures of Kenilworth

List Price: $3,550,000Sale Price: $3,400,000 The Property: Almost perfectly situated in tony Kenilworth, with prestigious public elementary and high schools within a few blocks’ walk and a picturesque park right across the street, this new 20-room home has the charm and hand-wrought details of an old-time house in the North Shore village, but a contemporary … Read more

New on the Market-Lake Forest Mansion

List Price: $4,375,000 The Property: Not only is this elegant ten-room mansion situated in upscale Lake Forest, but it sits in the most prestigious part of town, a neighborhood known as VELF: Very East Lake Forest. But in 2005, when Dan and Wanda O’Rourke bought the place for $2.9 million, the house was showing its … Read more

Deal Estate Flash!-A Big Deal in Lake Bluff

List Price: $25 million Sale Price: $16 million On Tuesday, the developer Orren Pickell bought a princely Lake Bluff estate-a 24-room mansion on 21 acres-for $16 million. The estate’s sellers, Ron and Pat Friedman, had listed the place for sale almost six years ago at $25 million and held firm to their asking price all … Read more

Housing Bulletin-Click Here to Buy a Condo

(blog updated below) There may be an unusually large number of people using personal digit assistants (PDAs) in the Loop on Thursday evening, but they won’t be checking their e-mail or the sports scores. They will be buying condos. The developer American Invsco, which is converting the 47-story apartment high-rise at 200 North Dearborn Street … Read more

Sale of the Week-Double-Size Wheeling Condo

List Price: $1 millionSale Price: $1,106,506 The Property: By combining two corner-unit condos into one 4,000-square-foot layout, a pair of senior citizens looking for a low-maintenance home created what is now far and away the highest-priced home in Wheeling. Gloria and Donald Cooper sold their house of 20 years in Riverwoods this year. “We’re too … Read more

New on the Market – Chicago’s Gold Coast

List Price: $4,499,999 The Property: This four-story townhouse on Astor Street is a stunner both outside and in: although the exterior-with its ornately detailed brick, copper, and stone façade-dates to 1888, the interior got a complete overhaul in 2007. The home and two of its neighbors were designed by the great Chicago architect John Wellborn … Read more