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Tag: Housing Bulletin
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
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
REO Investors Jump on the Speedwagon
By Dennis Rodkin
How did the principals of Speedwagon Properties, a Northbrook real estate investment firm, come up with a corporate moniker that riffs on the name of a classic-rock act? In real estate parlance, foreclosed property that is in the hands of a bank is often called REO, for Real Estate [Department] Owned. So it was probably inevitable... Read more
An Uptown Gem, Restored and For Rent
By Dennis Rodkin
Ninety years after it opened as one Chicago’s most lavish apartment hotels, the Sheridan Plaza, at Sheridan Road and Wilson Avenue, is getting back its Jazz Age luster... Read more
Before and After in the South Suburbs
By Dennis Rodkin
Jim McClelland, the CEO of the Tinley Park–based Mack Industries, is helping some hard-hit south suburbs recover from the foreclosure crisis by creating some well-equipped and well-managed rental housing for residents of those towns. A longtime builder, McClelland began the project about five years ago... Read more
Open House at Lake Forest Home Owned by Vince Vaughn’s Mother
By Dennis Rodkin
An open house is scheduled for Sunday, June 27th, at the Lake Forest home of Sharon Vaughn, the mother of the movie star Vince Vaughn. Priced at $2.395 million, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom house has about 6,000 square feet of living space and stands on a two-acre site that overlooks the Lake Forest Open Lands Association’s Mellody Farm Nature Preserve... Read more
Incorruptibly Wisconsin
By Dennis Rodkin
Sellers of homes typically tout a location’s best qualities: its excellent schools, quaint shopping areas, or easy access to major commuting routes. But the owner of one southern Wisconsin property opted to extol a very unusual advantage of his location—buy there and you can get away from the corrupt politicians of Illinois... Read more
Prairie Avenue’s Unlikely Survivor
By Dennis Rodkin
A 125-year-old brick and sandstone Queen Anne–style mansion at 28th Street and Prairie Avenue is on the market for the first time ever. As you will see in the video, the 24-room house—which withstood white flight, as well as the construction (and subsequent demolition) of a public... Read more