In 1948, Kenneth Laurent, a young man from Rockford who had lost the use of both his legs during his World War II service, wrote to Frank Lloyd Wright to ask if the architect would design a home for him and his bride, Phyllis. The couple had $15,000 to spend from federal and state grants for paralyzed veterans. By 1952, when their new home was completed, they had spent about $31,000 to build the two-bedroom house... Read more
List Price: $2.295 million
Sale Price: $2.1 million
The Property: Overlooking Lake Michigan from atop a wooded bluff, this Lake Forest home combines architectural elements from the late-19th and mid-20th centuries... Read more
Jennifer Hudson, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer and actress who got her start on American Idol, has a contract pending on a 12,000-square-foot home in Burr Ridge that was for sale at $2.795 million... Read more
List Price: $535,000
The Property: Would you like a slice of pie? How about three? This Marina City condo combines three of the buildings’ famously pie-shape studio apartments into a single two-bedroom, two-bath home. And it comes with a delicious topping: three of the distinctive semi-circular balconies, which together provide a crescent of views of the downtown skyline, as well as the Chicago River and its historic bridges... Read more
An Illinois program that has a solid track record of preventing families from becoming homeless due to temporary crises in their finances is about to run out of money. The Illinois Homeless Prevention Program provides small grants to families that help them weather short-term financial problems that threaten to force them out of their homes. In 2010, the average grant was $916—which shows just how thin the line is between being housed and being homeless for many Illinois families... Read more