215 West Washington Street is only the second rental residential high-rise built in the Loop. The first, 200 North Dearborn, was completed in 1989 and later..." /> 215 West Washington Street is only the second rental residential high-rise built in the Loop. The first, 200 North Dearborn, was completed in 1989 and later..." /> 215 West Washington Street is only the second rental residential high-rise built in the Loop. The first, 200 North Dearborn, was completed in 1989 and later..." />
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Tag: Housing Bulletin
The Moral Dilemma of "Strategic Defaults"
By Dennis Rodkin
Last Wednesday on WGN Radio, John Williams and I were talking about “strategic defaults.” That’s the current term for the situation where people walk away from their mortgaged home, figuring that its value has dropped so far that they will never make anything on it. Williams and I both opposed the practice. Here is how some other people feel. Read more
Condos Get a New Lease on Life
By Dennis Rodkin
The beneficiaries of the condo bust now include apartment-hunters in West Rogers Park. Apartments in a classic Chicago building—a massive edifice of salmon-colored brick and limestone on the corner of Morse and Oakley avenues—that was being converted to condos in the waning days... Read more
The Takeover Artists
By Dennis Rodkin
By sifting through builders’ projects that went bust in the Chicago suburbs, Ohio-based M/I Homes is hoping to make its name here as a company that successfully picked up where others left off—and handed off the savings to homebuyers. Read more
The Remains of the Heyday
By Dennis Rodkin
In the wake of the bust that followed the glory days of the condo boom, a number of projects ground to a halt. One of the most striking is this unfinished structure at 2609 West Belmont Avenue, where gaping windows, rusting steel, and scattered construction materials give the impression of a six-story-tall ghost town. Read more
Sportscaster Tom Waddle Buys House at Below Half Price
By Dennis Rodkin
The former Chicago Bears wide receiver Tom Waddle, now a sports anchor at Fox Chicago, ESPN 1000, and other media, bought a new 12-room house in an estate section of Lake Forest on February 12th. The $3.25 million that Waddle and his wife, Cara, paid was just 48 percent of the $6.7 million that the home’s builder, Lynch Construction, initially asked for the place in October 2008. Read more
Chicago’s Real-Estate Forecast
By Dennis Rodkin
“Realtors cannot change economic reality,” insisted Genie Birch, a Koenig & Strey GMAC agent and the president of the Chicago Association of Realtors (CAR). Birch’s remarks opened CAR’s economic forecast panel for 2010, which met on January 28th at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza. Here are ten other things that Chicago real-estate agents heard from the panel: Read more