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Sale of the Week—Putting the Park(ing) in Lincoln Park

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List Price: $3.25 million
Sale Price: $3.15 million

The Property: This lavish townhouse has splendid views across the street into Lincoln Park, a nice perk for a house that itself was built to block an unsightly view. In this case, it’s the view of a two-story parking structure on a block lined with handsome old co-ops and apartment buildings.

The association of owners in the vintage condo building immediately north of this house had a slim ground-level parking lot that they wanted to expand without fouling up the block. They enlisted the architect Lucien Lagrange to design the parking structure with two townhouses…

New on the Market—Reaching for a Record in Clarendon Hills

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List Price: $3.199 million

The Property: This new 8,500-square-foot house with a deep lot is nearing completion on a curving street in Clarendon Hills. Built by Double Diamond Developers, the house has 16 rooms, including a 3,000-bottle wine room and, off the kitchen, a small “chef’s office” that the listing agent, Bryan Bomba, says “would be a good time-out room for one of the kids.”…

Housing Bulletin—Signs of the Times

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On Saturday, October 6th, I happened to travel around much of the North Shore. As I went, I counted the for-sale signs in front of houses that had added language touting “Reduced Price” or something similar. In all, I counted 18 advertised reductions out of the 48 for-sale signs I had passed. That’s 37.5 percent.

It turns out my casual count was a little sunnier than reality. Last week, California-based ZipRealty released figures showing that in the Chicago area, 40.8 percent of all homes listed in September had markdowns from their original asking price. Not all houses whose prices have been cut will have a sign out front saying so…

Sale of the Week—Lakefront Colonial in Kenilworth

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List Price: $4.59 million

Sale Price: $3.9 million

The Property: This elongated 12-room colonial built in the 1960s on a secluded site in Kenilworth has 125 feet of private Lake Michigan beach. The house has six bedrooms (all on the second floor), lots of custom millwork, and a comfortable family room on its east side, overlooking the lake. Situated on a six-home cul-de-sac off Sheridan Road, it is close to the Joseph Sears School and New Trier High School…

New on the Market—Gold Coast Townhouse Waiting for Its Close-up

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The Property: This 15-room Gold Coast townhouse has an ornate limestone façade, though not much vintage detail left inside. But what the interior lacks in period finishes, it makes up for with lots of room (8,100 square feet) and natural light—the latter courtesy of the driveway-wide private space that separates this place from its neighbor to the immediate south. There are also lovely old plaster moldings (now painted over), high ceilings, five fireplaces—and, half a block away, the lawns and gardens at the south end of Lincoln Park…

This Week on Spike—October 10

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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 10/10/07 show:

Glencoe – $364,900

MLS # 06672448

Agent: Valeria Levitin, New Century Realty

847 920 9000

No online contact given
Lake Forest – $399,000

MLS # 06516836

Agent: Liz Bulf, Prairie Shore Properties, 847 733 2826; lizbulf@prairieshore.com

http://www.prairieshoreproperties.com/search/search.cfm

Type in listing #06516836

Housing Bulletin—Beyond ARMs’ Length

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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

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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

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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