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Dennis Rodkin
Zillow Maps the Downhill Run—and the Civic Federation Finds a Silver Lining
By Dennis Rodkin
On Monday, Zillow, the online realty information service, released its report on changes in real-estate values during the second quarter of 2010. It showed that nationwide, home values were down 0.6 percent from the prior quarter and 3.2 percent from the year before. The Chicago area did better than the national average on one measure: prices were up here by 1.6 percent from the winter quarter... Read more
A Bargain Near Maxwell Street
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $836,900
Sale Price: $801,000
The Property: This 14-room house was sold new four years ago for $1.207 million, and then sold again last week as a foreclosure for $801,000—or 33 percent off the 2006 price... Read more
Lake Forest Estate is 99 Years New
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $8.499 million
The Property: A grand estate built in 1911 but allowed to run down in later years, this stately brick mansion has been brought back to its exquisite origins—but with modern conveniences... Read more
Renters Snap Up Obamas' Former Condo
By Dennis Rodkin
A four-bedroom condo that was home to Barack and Michelle Obama from 1993 to 2005 was supposed to go on the rental market this week after having some painting done—but a pair of renters grabbed it over the weekend. The first-floor condo is in Eastview Park, a gated block-long cluster of brick and limestone six-flats that run south from 53rd Street and face the lakefront park and Lake Shore Drive... Read more
Calamos Investment President Sells at a Loss in St. Charles
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.5 million
Sale Price: $2.4 million
The Property: Nick Calamos, president of investments at Calamos Investment Management, a Naperville firm with $29.9 billion in assets under its control, last week sold a 21-room pondside home in St. Charles... Read more
Hiding in Plain Sight, in Kenwood
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $1.95 million
The Property: On a Kenwood block of very substantial historical homes is one relative youngster that, on the street side at least, tries to fade from view. Three decades ago, the architect James Nagle, designed the house... Read more
A Bridgeport Surprise: Buyers Fill Up Phase One
By Dennis Rodkin
I was skeptical last March when a developer showed me around a rubble-strewn site on the north side of Bridgeport where he was planning to unveil a development of 29 new homes. The area around the site, sandwiched between the Stevenson Expressway and the South Branch of the Chicago River, is a somewhat isolated patch three blocks wide that is filled with small industrial buildings and modest, dowdy older houses... Read more
Gouletas Son Short-Sells Penthouse at the Sterling
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $899,000
Sale Price: $885,000
The Property: In 2001, when Nicholas V. Gouletas was an executive with the family-owned firm that built the Sterling at 345 North LaSalle Drive, he posed for a publicity photo slicing into a five-foot-tall cake in the shape of the 50-story building. More recently, he did some cutting of a different kind, slashing the price on his 2,700-square-foot, 47th-floor condo... Read more