Events Newsletters Subscribe

Dennis Rodkin
Builder Raves On in East Ravenswood
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price:$2.3 million
Sale Price: $2.3 million
The Property: This newly built 15-room house scored the record price for a residence in East Ravenswood, the Chicago neighborhood that is home to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The house, two blocks south of Emanuel’s house, is the third on its block built by the developer Christopher Olson... Read more
A Roomy Beauty in the Villa
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $1.19 million
The Property: In the early 20th century, the Villa neighborhood was advertised as “The Beauty Spot of the Northwest Side.” Its Arts and Crafts houses are still there, as are the landscaped parkways and the stone light posts (although those are now used as planters), and only a few out-of-character buildings have been added... Read more
Real Estate 2011: Home Prices
By Dennis Rodkin
Five years into the steady decline of Chicago-area home prices, the gloom is pervasive. It’s evident in the faded signs hanging on long-unsold foreclosures, in the half-empty condo towers with their swaths of darkened windows, and here in the columns of Chicago’s annual real-estate charts, which were prepared with information provided by Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED)... Read more
Real Estate 2011: House Prices in Chicago and the Suburbs
By Dennis Rodkin
THE NEW NEW RULES OF REAL ESTATE: Eleven years ago, Chicago offered a guide to making the most of the sizzling-hot housing market. What a difference a decade makes. Now, confronting the realities of today’s pinched economy, local real-estate pros weigh in with the best strategies for buying or selling a home. PLUS: Our annual survey of housing prices in nearly 300 neighborhoods and towns Read more
Chicago’s Clogged Foreclosure Process—and a Cusack Sells in Lincoln Park
By Dennis Rodkin
In Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit and Indianapolis, the rate of homes going into foreclosure is about the same. But according to a new study by analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, distressed homes here stay in foreclosure longer than they do in those other markets—which means they are likely to drag down our local housing market longer than the distressed homes in those other cities... Read more
Mike Royko’s Widow Sells Historical Graystone
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $1.995 million
Sale Price: $1.8 million
The Property: Judy Royko, the widow of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, last Monday sold the 116-year-old Lincoln Park graystone she bought in 2003, six years after her husband’s death... Read more
Less Is Moor on the Gold Coast
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $899,000
The Property: Among the many well-preserved historical homes in the Gold Coast, the one at 1325 North Dearborn Street stands out for its façade, which is graced with 17 Moorish arches, most of them trimmed with blue mosaic glass. Known as the Lucius Mantonya Flats and dating to 1887, the building, designed by Curd Gottig, was originally the single-family home of L. B. Mantonya, a prominent Chicago shoe and boot wholesaler... Read more
Are We Still Looking for the Bottom?
By Dennis Rodkin
Last week, while I was on vacation, the release of the latest monthly Case-Shiller home price index brought a glimmer of good news: in July, for the third month in a row, local home prices were up. Could this be a sign that the Chicago real-estate market has finally bottomed out?... Read more
Missed It By That Much
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $1.2 million
Sale Price: $1.05 million
The Property: When this hilltop mansion in Beverly was last sold (in 1995), it was the first home in the neighborhood to sell for more than $500,000, recalls its latest selling agent, Sandra Bianciotto... Read more
A Timeless Manor in Wheaton
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.35 million
The Property: At the end of a long private drive through an enclave of notable Wheaton homes stands this columned, ivy-covered manor. Although it looks as if it might have been picked up from some historical setting, it’s just 20 years old. It borrows, however, from the traditions of country homes in the United Kingdom and some of the grand Georgians in Virginia... Read more