10/31/07

Housing Bulletin—On the Block — North Center, Chicago

Yesterday afternoon, the day before Halloween, several real-estate agents and their children went on a special trick-or-treating route on the 4100 block of North Bell Avenue in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. Stopping at five of the six houses that are for sale on the block, the kids picked up treats—but what their parents saw was pretty scary.

On this block alone, there are four new replacement houses in the $1.2-million to $1.4-million price range, all finished (or nearly finished) and unsold. Also listed for sale are...

Posted at 08:19 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/31/07

This Week on Spike—October 31

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 - Elmhurst Homes...

Posted at 08:19 AM in This Week on Spike | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/29/07

Sale of the Week—Libertyville’s Two-Time Market Beater

List Price: $1,149,000
Sale Price: $1,113,000

The Property: This shingle-sided house on a tree-shaded street has sold twice this year, and very quickly, flouting the slow market that has irked so many sellers. Built five years ago by the prolific Nick Lazzaretto, the house is far larger than it looks, extending way back into its lot; that allowed the façade to fit comfortably among the neighboring, mostly mid-size older homes. The house has five bedrooms and four-plus baths, a big third-floor family room, and lots of old-style millwork, including wainscoting, mantels, and cabinetry...

Posted at 07:46 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/25/07

New on the Market—Breezy Hill-Hugger in St. Charles

List Price: $1.299 million

The Property: Perched on a hilltop in St. Charles, this 16-room house was built in the mid-1960s for a psychiatrist who didn’t care for air conditioning. That and the oak woods all around prompted the architect Robert Cantrell to create a series of rooms that jut out from one another, thus maximizing both the natural ventilation and the views. Energetic and angular, the all-white house appears to sprout from its hillside site...

Posted at 06:04 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/23/07

Housing Bulletin—A New Owner for Pickell’s Lakefront Property in Highland Park

Wendy and Jim Abrams are the new owners of a coveted parcel of land on Lake Michigan in Highland Park. Last week, the developer Orren Pickell announced that he had sold the A. G. Becker estate (better known lately as the Mickey Segal estate) to a buyer who intends to keep intact the 17.5-acre parcel—with its Jens Jensen landscaping—rather than subdivide it as Pickell had planned. “[The estate] dodged a bullet and is now out of the hands of developers for at least another generation,” says Daniel Kahn, head of Highland Park’s historic preservation commission.

Pickell would not identify by name the buyer, who bought the property through a land trust. But a source told Deal Estate...

Posted at 05:10 PM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/22/07

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

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...

Posted at 07:47 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/18/07

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

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."...

Posted at 08:26 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (4)

10/17/07

Housing Bulletin—Signs of the Times

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...

Posted at 08:47 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/15/07

Sale of the Week—Lakefront Colonial in Kenilworth

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...

Posted at 07:09 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/11/07

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

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...

Posted at 05:47 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (1)

10/10/07

This Week on Spike—October 10

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

Posted at 09:04 AM in This Week on Spike | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/10/07

Housing Bulletin—Beyond ARMs’ Length

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...

Posted at 08:29 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/08/07

Sale of the Week—Glenview’s Glen

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,...

Posted at 07:42 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/04/07

New on the Market—A Lake Forest Villa Still Looking for a Buyer

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, where a pair of limestone...

Posted at 05:58 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/03/07

Housing Bulletin—The Link Between Housing and Schools

As a real-estate agent in a family of real-estate agents, state representative Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) knows all about the close connection between house values and school quality. “When I work with [homebuyers],” she says, “the single most important thing they always ask is, ‘How are the schools?’ You could show them a Frank Lloyd Wright house with all kinds of architectural amenities, but if the community’s schools aren’t good, they will pass it by. There are two basic building blocks of healthy communities: good schools and good housing.” 

That’s why Yarbrough took the lead with state senator Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) in sponsoring the Good Housing Good Schools bill (SB 220) that both houses of the state legislature passed last spring and that...

Posted at 07:16 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (1)

10/01/07

Sale of the Week—Shingles and Shade in Lake Bluff

List Price: $1.25 million
Sale Price: $1.17 million

The Property: With its shingle siding and crisp white trim, this 11-room house—built in 1998 and surrounded by tall trees—contributes to the feel of a small New England village that characterizes the east side of Lake Bluff. The welcoming arch over the front steps is repeated in several interior doorways, the ceilings are nine...

Posted at 05:25 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)