A Bigger Backyard
Condo dwellers offered all the pleasures of home
Ad Categories: Real Estate
Sale of the Week: Field Mansion Finally Fills Up
List Price: $1,350,000
Sale Price: $1,175,000
The Property: One week ago, unidentified buyers closed on the sixth and final condo in the gigantic old Marshall Field Jr. mansion at 1919 South Prairie Avenue in Chicago’s South Loop. An eight-room unit with some 4,100 square feet of living space, the condo fills the rear half of the first floor—which includes the mansion’s original dining room and an entrance rotunda that served the rear portion of the…
On the Market: Mini-mizing a Gold Coast Flaw
List Price: $2.5 million
The Property: Elaborate carvings on its rough sandstone façade and an elegant renovation of its interior make this 19th-century Gold Coast house very appealing. But Tricia Fox, the listing agent for its seller, Joseph Aldeguer, noticed one drawback…
Housing Bulletin: Low-Income Housing Developer Hit Hard by Downturn
On Monday, February 9th, Duane Ehresman received a Chicago Neighborhood Development Award for his work preserving 153 low-cost apartments in five buildings in North Lawndale. It’s the latest project in Ehresman’s 28-year career of creating and managing affordable rental housing in Chicago; in that time, he has had a hand in the renovation of almost 1,500 housing units for low-income people…
Sale of the Week: Pool with a House Attached – Northbrook
List Price: $2.095 million
Sale Price: $1.6 million
The Property: Set on 1.6 wooded acres overlooking a private pond in Northbrook, this four-bedroom ranch house has a long, glassy second wing that contains a swimming pool. But it’s not just an indoor pool: the many windows and doors of the 1,800-square-foot…
On the Market: Majestic River View in River North
List Price: $990,000
The Property: The spectacular view is the primary attraction of this two-bedroom condo on the 13th floor of the 38-story Riverbend; it looks eastward along the main branch of the Chicago River, taking in all the soaring skyscrapers that flank its sides and the muscular bridges that cross it. From the condo balcony, the el trains on the Wells Street bridge “look like Mr. Rogers’…
Housing Bulletin: Job Cuts May Spur More Foreclosures
The foreclosure crisis continues to morph. Even as new data show that foreclosures on condos are multiplying faster than those on single-family homes, real-estate experts suggest that foreclosures, boosted by pervasive job cuts in the sagging economy, may soon aggressively climb the socioeconomic…
Sale of the Week: NBC’s Wojciechowski Moves to Lake Shore Drive
List Price: not available
Sale Price: $954,000
The Property: Charlie Wojciechowski, an anchor and reporter at NBC5 Chicago (WMAQ-TV), and his wife, Kate, a real-estate manager, have purchased a two-bedroom home on the 33rd floor of a new condo tower on Lake Shore Drive. The building is one of a pair of contemporary structures at 600 North Lake Shore Drive; in addition to the Drive, the buildings overlook…
Left Adrift
Forty condo associations, mostly on Chicago’s North Side, have found themselves floating in the backwaters of red ink after alleging they were victims of a monumental condo management fraud
On the Market: A Factory Remade in Evanston
List Price: $799,000
The Property: The downtown, urban look of this onetime metal-stamping factory, now a residence, belies its neighborhood, a charming part of Evanston where the streets are lined with neat medium-size Victorians and deep front lawns. Tucked…