By Dennis Rodkin
After several years of homes sitting for sale on the market, there’s been a sharp turnaround. Is this as good as the buyer's market will get? Read more
Tag: Housing Bulletin
By Dennis Rodkin
Illinois lawmakers are dogpiling on a situation that seems paradoxical: property taxes going up when home values are down. As a result, they have introduced five different pieces of legislation calling for property tax freezes... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Three South Loop condo buildings, left with so many unsold units in the bust years that they were vertical ghost towns, are being brought back to life together by a company that bought 504 units from their original developer in a “deed in lieu of foreclosure” deal... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Vacant foreclosed properties dot the map of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. So think of the new Cook County land bank as housing’s Georges Seurat; it’s trying to arrange all those individual dots into something new and better... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Last August, David McClain and Sanaa Hachem paid $475,000 for a 106-year-old house in Beverly. They knew the place was in bad condition, but they expected to spend about $175,000 and six months restoring the home. “We were excited to do this renovation,” Hachem said.... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
If your Twitter feed is anything like mine, it seemed to be in two moods on Tuesday morning. Shortly after the release of the latest monthly data from the S&P/Case Shiller Index, the tweeting started—“Home Prices Continue to Rise: Housing is Now Economic ‘Bright Spot’” was the tone of the national news... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
The year-end real-estate data has been rolling in for the past week or so, and much of it is encouraging. But there’s something that bugs me—and, I believe, a lot of sellers or potential sellers... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Last year, Chris Thompson, a 29-year-old IT consultant based in the south suburbs, told his grandfather, Don Clinkert, he was thinking of getting in on the foreclosure-to-rental investment scene. Clinkert said he’d been considering doing the same... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Chicago’s Pilsen and Bronzeville neighborhoods have a lot in common. They are both near the Loop, have lots of public transportation, and, after decades of disinvestment, offer plenty of residential and commercial buildings ripe for renewal... Read more
By Dennis Rodkin
Houses and condos that lenders take over in foreclosure often need a lot of help getting turned around into habitable places again. For one Skokie-based not-for-profit, cleaning those homes provides an opportunity to repair something else at the same time: the lives of its employees... Read more