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Tag: Housing Bulletin
How Foreclosures and Land Banking Could Transform Midwestern Cities
By Dennis Rodkin
We’ve known for a few years that the foreclosure crisis has led banks to offer some seized homes at bargain-basement prices. Now an executive with a real-estate company that focuses on foreclosures has predicted that this sales trend could have an upside for hard-hit Midwestern cities, transforming them into some of the most desirable places to live in the country... Read more
Finding an Affordable Home Near a Good School
By Dennis Rodkin
There are many nice homes for sale or rent in Chicago, and there are some high-performing schools. But finding a home in the district of a good CPS school was a little like playing chess on two different boards at once—that is, until the introduction of SchoolSparrow... Read more
Protecting Renters in Foreclosed Buildings
By Dennis Rodkin
Between 2009 and 2011, about 10 percent of Chicago’s rental housing passed through some stage of foreclosure, often leaving paid-up tenants in a gray area when a building’s foreclosing lender didn’t resell the place to a new landlord quickly. That’s where Nancy Enopena found herself this past winter after the Albany Park house where she rents a bedroom was without heat or hot water for five months—and without any water at all for several weeks... Read more
Summer Homes Harbor Hope for Change
By Dennis Rodkin
As the warmth and ease of this sunny season kick in, many people dream of owning a summer home. In Benton Harbor, Michigan, an ambitious residential development around a golf course, also comes freighted with dreams of healing entrenched poverty and racial division and of restoring spoiled industrial land... Read more
Trump Tower’s “Ridiculist” $32 Million Condo
By Dennis Rodkin
A 14,000-square-foot penthouse atop the Trump International Hotel and Tower snagged lots of media coverage last week for being the loftiest home in the western hemisphere and, at $32 million, Chicago’s highest-priced home. But will it sell for that much?... Read more
Where Homeowners Are Underwater and Behind on Their Mortgage
By Dennis Rodkin
The new data from Case-Shiller released Tuesday showed that local home prices in March 2012 were down 39 percent from their October 2006 peak. That drop likely means even more homeowners are being pushed underwater—that is, they owe more on the mortgage than their homes are worth... Read more
Two Prairie Homes Go Green—and One Is for Sale
By Dennis Rodkin
Two Prairie-style homes about 25 miles apart have undergone significant green upgrades in the past few years. This month, the owners of the Highland Park house, a Frank Lloyd Wright design from 1905, moved in after a year of renovations... Read more
In the Loop, All That Jazz Is Now For Rent
By Dennis Rodkin
A 1929 Loop skyscraper threatened with demolition just over a decade ago has come roaring back in the hands of new owners. It’s now nearing the end of its transition from underused office building to stylish apartment tower... Read more