The developer who paid $1.2 million for a Northfield lot where he plans to build six condos could have had the old house there demolished in two days, at a cost of about $15,000. Instead, he’s paying twice that—and the...

" /> The developer who paid $1.2 million for a Northfield lot where he plans to build six condos could have had the old house there demolished in two days, at a cost of about $15,000. Instead, he’s paying twice that—and the...

" /> The developer who paid $1.2 million for a Northfield lot where he plans to build six condos could have had the old house there demolished in two days, at a cost of about $15,000. Instead, he’s paying twice that—and the...

" />
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Tag: Housing Bulletin
Housing Bulletin—Victory Gardens’ Real-Estate Reality Check
By Dennis Rodkin

In Relatively Close, the new James Sherman comedy that opened at Victory Gardens Theater last week, three adult sisters and their families gather at their late parents’ longtime summer home in Union Pier, Michigan. One of the sisters wants to sell the place, and she’s planning to spend the week convincing her sisters it’s a ...

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Housing Bulletin— A Foreclosure and its Neighbor, In Glenview
By Dennis Rodkin

The latest reports show that the tide of foreclosures keeps rising. Last week, Realty Trac reported that one of every 538 mortgaged homes in Illinois is in some stage of foreclosure. (In the Chicago metropolitan area, Kane County had the highest concentration—1 in 415 mortgages—and DuPage County had the lowest: 1 in 734.) The week before, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that 2.5 percent of all mortgages were...

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Housing Bulletin— Affordable and Green in Highland Park
By Dennis Rodkin

In Highland Park, where the average home sale price is $769,000, there is a development of ten townhouses being built right now with price tags ranging from $165,000 to $239,000. The complex, which will also have four rental apartments and several important green features, is a good example of what can happen when a municipal government throws its ...

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Housing Bulletin— Neumann Bankruptcy Spurs House Auction
By Dennis Rodkin
Before Neumann Homes went into bankruptcy last November, it was the ninth-largest builder in the Chicago area, with subdivisions going up in a string of towns along the outer edge of the suburbs. The company’s tumble, which its CEO, Ken Neumann, acknowledged was due to over-exuberant expansion, sent yet another shockwave through...

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Housing Bulletin— Chicago’s Condo Market: Sheltered from the Fallout
By Dennis Rodkin

The latest report from Appraisal Research Counselors (ARC), whose finger is always on the pulse of Chicago’s downtown condominium market, indicates that even if the shine is gone from condos as investment vehicles, the overwhelming majority of people who bought a few years ago in buildings now being finished are sticking with their contracts.

Why is that news? Well, a spike in the number of buyers opting to back out of their deals—leaving their upfront cash deposits in the hands of...

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Housing Bulletin— Melissa Bean and Mortgage-Aid Legislation
By Dennis Rodkin

On May 8th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a mortgage rescue plan that, although threatened by a veto from President Bush, could help homeowners facing foreclosure stay in their homes with lower-cost loans.

Congresswoman Melissa Bean, who represents Illinois’ 8th District (Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs), authored three parts of the package that were expressly designed to keep the bill from rewarding irresponsible borrowers with government funds. “There’s an implication from opponents that this is somehow gifting taxpayer money to...

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Housing Bulletin— Neighborhood Info @ Your Service
By Dennis Rodkin

Two weeks ago, the Chicago real-estate agency @properties rolled out a cool tool for house hunters and sellers on its Web site. The @Report, as they call it, is built on the idea that real-estate markets are very, very local.

The eight-year-old agency has offices or agents working in 21 Chicago neighborhoods (most of the lakefront from Rogers Park to South Shore, plus a layer or two of inland neighborhoods for much of that stretch); this new tool puts the details on...

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