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Dennis Rodkin
Did a $1 Million Foreclosure Help the Glenview Market?
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $999,000
Sale Price:  $1 million
The Property: The agent who sold this foreclosed 12-room house in a very desirable east neighborhood in Glenview thinks that the sale helped nudge the town’s real-estate market upward a smidge, rather than hurt nearby sellers, as many foreclosures have been shown to do... Read more
East Lake Shore Drive’s Marshall Plan
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.595 million
The Property: Designed by the architect Benjamin Marshall and completed in 1912, the brick and limestone confection that is 999 North Lake Shore Drive set the tone for what would become one of Chicago’s most elegant neighborhoods: East Lake Shore Drive... Read more
Chicago’s Haunted Real Estate
By Dennis Rodkin
These are scary times in real estate, with the ghosts of our homes’ lost value spreading gloom. But a few houses around Chicago are rumored to be truly haunted. Here’s a look at four of them, only one of which is still a residence... Read more
Aloft Armour Square
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $525,000
The Property: Set in a small tower atop a five-story loft building in Armour Square, this three-story loft sits among some of the Near  South Side’s most interesting neighborhoods. The dining, shopping, and culture of Chinatown, Pilsen, and Bridgeport are all in easy reach—and they can all be seen from the loft’s four different balconies... Read more
US99’s Drew Walker Puzzled by His Cook County Property Taxes
By Dennis Rodkin
Late this summer, when Drew Walker and his wife, Jill, got the latest installment of the bill for their 2011 property taxes, they noticed that the assessment on their house had gone up 17 percent from the year before. “I don’t get it,” says Walker, the afternoon host at US99. “My home’s value has done nothing but nose-dive since ’07...” Read more
A Record-Setting House Sale for Park Ridge
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $3.95 million
Sale Price: $3.19 million
The Property: Frank Calabrese, a longtime owner of thoroughbred horses with impressive records at Arlington Park and in Florida, has sold his custom-built 15-room house in Park Ridge for $3.192 million. According to Midwest Real Estate Data, that’s the highest sale price on record for that northwest suburb—and Calabrese’s agent, Danny McGovern, says that the buyers paid cash... Read more
At the Heart of the Woods, in Oak Brook
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.999 million
The Property: Today’s house is named Woods End, but given its sylvan setting, it really ought to be called Woods Heart. It’s a series of steep-roofed pavilions, each containing a major part of the living space and topped with huge skylights. The rear of the house is walled with windows and wrapped with an elevated 175-foot-long deck... Read more
Why Do You Keep Paying Your Mortgage?
By Dennis Rodkin
We’re five years out from the beginning of the housing market’s crash, and home values are lingering at about where they were in early 2002. Many forecasts predict the dark clouds will stay put, both because of the huge overhang of foreclosures and because the federal government has been slow to do anything effective about stopping the decline... Read more