List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600

The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need" />

List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600

The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need" />

List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600

The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need" />

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Sale of the Week—Oak Brook

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List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600

The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need

On the Market—Atop the Loop

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List Price: $829,900

The Property: This two-story penthouse condo at the top of the 101-year-old Mentor Building (at 39 South State Street) has three bedrooms plus an office, a stylish kitchen, and striking views of the surrounding architecture. Windows in the condo’s lower floor look out between some of the columns that give the building’s upper reaches the look of a temple-in-the-sky. (The condo’s upper level, where the three bedrooms and two full baths are, is on a floor concealed from street-level view.) Views stretch north all the way to the new Trump building; what’s more, those views can never be blocked because…

This Week on Spike—November 14 – price cuts

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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 November 14th show – Price cuts in the Chicago region:

AURORA
List Price Now: $575,000
Original List Price: $649,500		 GURNEE
List Price Now: $389,000
Original List Price: $439,000
LAKEVIEW
List Price Now: $489,000
Original List Price: $570,000 		PALOS HEIGHTS
List Price Now: $699,000
Original List Price: $759,000

Housing Bulletin—Assessing Mr. Toll’s F

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While releasing some downward-sliding sales figures last week, Robert Toll—the CEO of Toll Brothers, a national home-building company—gave an informal letter grade to each of several regional markets where it operates. Chicago got an F.

That’s not to say that the housing market here has tanked more than in other parts of the country. In fact, as I read it, that low grade suggests that buyers here might be more cautious or judicious than elsewhere. The F is Toll’s assessment of how each market is doing vis-à-vis his company’s sales performance. He reported 38.9 percent of people with contracts to…

Battle of the Ages

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For decades, the Henry B. Clarke House on South Indiana Avenue enjoyed the uncontested honor of being called the city’s oldest home. But over the past few years, a contender for that title has quietly emerged: the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House in Norwood Park.

Sale of the Week—Georgian Grandeur on the Gold Coast

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List Price: $1,395,000
Sale Price: $1,307,500

The Property: In the shadow of the John Hancock Center, this 1916 edifice by William Fugard, who also designed the Allerton Hotel and some of the buildings on East Lake Shore Drive, has a ground-level backyard, a rarity in the neighborhood. While most of the units in the seven-story brick and limestone building have three bedrooms, this one was reconfigured to have only two: a master bedroom and a guest suite, which is “completely isolated from…

On the Market—Mike Ditka’s Former Bannockburn Home

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List Price: $2.29 million

The Property: This ten-room brick house was the home of Mike Ditka and his wife, Diana, from 1989 until he left Chicago to coach the New Orleans Saints in 1997. The Ditkas had bought the house—one of about a dozen on a forested cul-de-sac—new from the builder for $1.2 million. Set on more than two densely wooded acres and surrounded by a high brick wall, the 3,500-square-foot house has four bedrooms, four-plus baths, four fireplaces, and a swimming pool. The basement has a wine room, an exercise room, and…

Housing Bulletin—Riding the Foreclosure Bus

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Housing Bulletin: Riding the Foreclosure Bus
It’s only a matter of time until some enterprising Chicagoan emulates the Stockton, California, real-estate agent who dreamed up this idea: a bus tour that takes potential buyers all over town to view the foreclosed houses for sale. It’s a long tour.

And if the real-estate forecasts play out as prognosticated by some—that is, if hundreds of thousands of over-extended U.S. homeowners have to bail out of their houses in the next 18 months as their once-cheap Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) reset at dramatically higher prices—that Stockton bus tour might become a national franchise.

Nationwide, foreclosures are spreading like a bad rash. On November 1st, the California-based Realty Trac reported that…

This Week on Spike—November 7

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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 November 7th show – Foreclosures

These representative listings were all found at foreclosure.com.
Estimated values are from zillow.com; they should not substitute for a…

Sale of the Week—Après le Déluge — Winnetka

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List price: $3,999,900
Sale Price: $3,550,000

The Property: This two-year-old, 16-room mansion with French styling sits on a secluded site within the already secluded Indian Hill Club, a 90-year-old residential enclave that winds around a golf course in Winnetka. With stone quoining on the exterior corners and a mansard roof, as well as five fireplaces (four of them made of hand-carved stone), a curving staircase, and a cherry-paneled library, this relative newcomer fits in congenially with the refined older houses in this rarefied community of about…