05/15/08

On The Market—Two-Bedroom Plus Library at the Palmolive

List Price: $2,495,000
The Property: This two-bedroom condo at the landmark Palmolive Building has been sumptuously finished with extensive millwork, gracious chandeliers, and a home automation system that controls everything from the indoor temperature to the blackout shades on the...

Posted at 07:17 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/14/08

Housing Bulletin— Melissa Bean and Mortgage-Aid Legislation

On May 8th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a mortgage rescue plan that, although threatened by a veto from President Bush, could help homeowners facing foreclosure stay in their homes with lower-cost loans.

Congresswoman Melissa Bean, who represents Illinois’ 8th District (Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs), authored three parts of the package that were expressly designed to keep the bill from rewarding irresponsible borrowers with government funds. “There’s an implication from opponents that this is somehow gifting taxpayer money to...

Posted at 05:50 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/12/08

Sale of the Week—At a Loss in Wilmette

List Price: $1,199,900
Sale Price: $1,103,500
The Property: This large four-year-old house resides in a Wilmette neighborhood where new construction has replaced about one-third of the older ranch houses that still characterize the area. It has 13 rooms, five of them bedrooms (one is in the basement, where it would commonly be used for a nanny or guests), a pillared foyer, and a spacious kitchen lined with cherry cabinets. From the family room, French doors open onto a nice patio—but that’s about all there is to...

Posted at 07:43 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/08/08

On The Market—Throwing Bucktown a Curve

List Price: $1.9 million
The Property: The architect John Hanna threw the rigidly rectilinear street grid in Bucktown a curve when he designed this contemporary home for a corner lot. The house appears impossibly slender when viewed from the west (looking at its front door), but then broadens in a sweeping, glassy curve as you walk around its north side.
Inside, the floor plan doesn’t feel pinched at the narrow ends because Hanna and the property’s developer, Chris Angelou, tucked balconies, closets, and bathrooms into those spaces. Stacked from the basement to the top floor within the house’s big bend are a...

Posted at 08:01 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (2)

05/07/08

Housing Bulletin— Neighborhood Info @ Your Service

Two weeks ago, the Chicago real-estate agency @properties rolled out a cool tool for house hunters and sellers on its Web site. The @Report, as they call it, is built on the idea that real-estate markets are very, very local.

The eight-year-old agency has offices or agents working in 21 Chicago neighborhoods (most of the lakefront from Rogers Park to South Shore, plus a layer or two of inland neighborhoods for much of that stretch); this new tool puts the details on...

Posted at 06:48 AM in Housing Bulletin | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/05/08

Sale of the Week—Breaking the Mold in Glen Ellyn

List price: $600,000
Sale Price: $545,000
The Property: When a homeowner owes more than a house is worth, that’s called being “under water.” In the case of this house, the term took on a double meaning.

The sellers of this house had bought the place in July 2006 for $800,000. The next year they moved to New York before they were able to sell the home, says their agent, RE/Max’s Christopher Kouros. Eventually the sellers, whose names do not appear in public records, dropped their asking price to...

Posted at 07:27 AM in Sale of the Week | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/01/08

On The Market—A Tudor Manor in Highland Park

List Price: $2.9 million
The Property: This grand old home 75 yards from the Lake Michigan blufftop in Highland Park evokes the early 20th-century age of big North Shore country houses. With its peacock fan of gable beams above a cozy inglenook entry, it would have been a happy place to arrive after a long...

Posted at 11:22 AM in On the Market | Permalink | Comments (0)