Neighborhood: Gold Coast, ChicagoList price: $12 millionSale price: $11 million The Property: This imposing stone mansion-23 rooms in all-is a relic of Lake Shore Drive’s early days as an avenue dotted with opulent single-family homes. Built in 1890 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the house declined in the 20th century. When he bought it in … Read more
List price: $11.495 million The Property: What used to be a contemporary flat-roofed house is now a sophisticated French château with a gracious mansard roof sheltering a new second story. The makeover is the work of Don and Jan Zordani, the husband-and-wife team behind Milestone Development. They began, says Don, with an “extremely dark” 40-year-old … Read more
The real-estate market has been giving off conflicting signs for months. That’s making anybody who has a property to sell eager to get rid of it, just in case the signals go from confusing to bad. Most expert observers agree that the worst-case scenario-the bottom dropping completely out of the local housing market-is not going … Read more
Neighborhood: Lake View, ChicagoList price: $1.399 millionSale price: $1.312 million The Property: Built in 2004 by Pat Heneghan, this nine-room wood-frame home has four bedrooms, three-plus baths, three fireplaces, two wet bars, and a deck atop the two-car garage. The homey front porch belies the elegance of the interior, which has numerous windows and skylights. … Read more
List price: $1.85 million / $1.65 million The Property: When the Northbrook developer Greg Weissman built on these two neighboring lots in Highland Park, he decided to go as green as he could while still building houses that would appeal to the upper-end North Shore market. Designed by Nate Kipnis (see “A Place in the … Read more
For some time now, homeowners in Chicago have realized that they are more insulated from volatility on the real-estate scene than other U.S. markets. There are two main reasons for that relative stability. Prices here don’t go up as fast as in the big cities on the coast; that means they don’t have as far … Read more
Suburb: Hinsdale List price: $3.1999 million Sale Price: $2.65 million The Property: Designed and built in 1929 by the Buurma Brothers-the two Dutch immigrants who put up several of River Forest’s best-looking mansions-this lavishly restored, 13-room Spanish Revival–style mansion has many of its original details, including wood-inlay interior doors, a backyard allée of trees leading … Read more
A few years ago, the Bridgeport Village subdivision was the lead horse on the team pulling forward the housing stock in Bridgeport, the onetime blue-collar South Side neighborhood that has given Chicago five of its mayors (including, of course, Richard M. Daley). Now a significant piece of the plan is on hold because the development … Read more
List price: $8.2 million The Property: Built in 1966, this 12-room house overlooking Lake Michigan has five bedrooms, approximately 9,500 square feet of living space, and a three-car garage. Bruce and Betsy D’Alba have lived there since 1991 and transformed the place from its simpler early incarnation. Today the stucco exterior has shapes and textures … Read more
Neighborhood: University Village, ChicagoList price: $1.4 millionSale price: $1.35 million The Property: This new 4,299-square-foot, eight-room house has four bedrooms, three-plus baths, and a detached three-car garage. Situated in the fast-growing neighborhood that was once home to the ragtag Maxwell Street market, the house is close to a children’s park, a pretty, public rose garden, … Read more
