Back in the days when microwaves were just science-fiction jargon, our grandparents were content simply if the oven didn’t burn the roast. Technology extinguished the glitches in yesterday’s kitchen appliances, and today’s homeowner looks for a tasteful mix of cutting-edge functionality and aesthetics in this, the most used room in the house.

No longer the place where mom disappears to make supper, today’s kitchen is the “war-room” of the modern home, and no one is more aware of this than Russ Alexander, president of AyA Kitchens of Illinois, the state’s exclusive distributor for this Toronto-based producer of fine kitchen cabinetry.

With a solid background in the homebuilding industry, Alexander created AyA of Illinois in 2002 after observing several trends in the kitchen industry.

“Function has always been important in our industry, but today’s homebuyers are equally interested in looks, and the trend has been toward the sleek, contemporary, clean Italian design,” Alexander says.

He explains that builders and buyers alike continue to be frustrated by the long delays in shipping and the regulations involved in obtaining the foreign product.

“AyA, on the other hand, being based in Toronto, is just 10 hours away,” he says. “So it makes sense to produce a product that is competitive, even superior, to what can be obtained overseas because the shipping delays don’t exist, and the orders can be filled overnight.”

The result was a rush to his door, particularly by builders who were enjoying the benefits of a housing boom and needed the product in a hurry.

“We began by doing a landslide business with contractors,” says Alexander. “But we quickly realized the fast turnaround was equally beneficial to the homeowner who wanted to install a new kitchen as opposed to buying a new home.”

As a result, Alexander has opened his first showroom at 6400 W. Touhy Ave. in Niles, where a broad spectrum of the AyA products and a knowledgeable sales team literally allow customers to redesign their kitchens on the spot.

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By Gail Lissner

Home pricing in the Chicago market has been holding up well through November 2007, based on the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks changes in values of existing homes in 20 major markets throughout the United States.

According to this study, existing home prices in Chicago have been growing annually at a rate of 6.9 percent per year since 2000 and have lost only 4.1 percent in value from their peak. This is a far different story from what is occurring in many other parts of the United States, where pricing climbed quickly and then fell fast. Thus, the prognosis is rather good for Chicago in comparison to many other markets across the nation.

Locally, a survey of resale prices in 10 major high-rise condominiums developed in downtown Chicago during the last five to seven years indicated that prices have been generally flat for the past three years, with one building outperforming the market and one building underperforming the market. Stable pricing is certainly preferable to declining pricing, and the market is weathering the changes in market conditions relatively well. Buildings with strong views or great locations can often outperform the more generic product that is also available in the market. In addition, buildings with lots of investors may perform poorly, particularly when large numbers of owners have short holding periods and offer large numbers of units for resale at the same time. These buildings can be more prone to fluctuations in price.

The volume of 2007 sales in new developments in downtown Chicago decreased 36 percent from 2006 levels. Historically low interest rates have been strong drivers for demand along with hopes of future price appreciation; however, the recent problems in the subprime market, diminished expectations for immediate price appreciation and surplus inventory of housing units are affecting sales levels both nationally and locally.

This visible shift in buyer confidence and less speculator activity taking place has moderated the sales levels for 2007. Buyers have been more hesitant about making decisions, sitting on the sidelines and waiting out the market. Thus, discretionary buyers have not been making purchases, and contributing to the slower sales velocities.

At the same time, large numbers of new construction units are being completed and will be delivered in 2008, adding nearly 6,000 new units to the market. At the present time, nearly 80 percent of these units are already under contract. In addition, nearly 5,000 units are also expected to be completed in 2009, making 2008 and 2009 a record period for deliveries of new condominium units in the downtown market.

Despite the slowing in sales, approximately 4,300 new units started marketing programs during 2007, including new construction units and a small number of conversions. These new projects are situated throughout the downtown market, with price levels ranging from approximately $300 per square foot to more than $900 per square foot. Unlike 2006, where the majority of the newly announced projects were situated in the South Loop, the development activity in 2007 was much more diverse, both in terms of location and price level.

While there is still a large pipeline of potential development sites in the downtown area, we do not expect 2008 to be a major year for new project announcements. Rather, this will be a year to sell out projects currently under development. Once the pace of sales picks up, we anticipate that 2009 could be the year for renewed activity in terms of new project announcements.

Gail Lissner is co-author of Appraisal Research Counselors’ Downtown Chicago Residential Benchmark Report, an in-depth quarterly publication that tracks development and sales activity in downtown Chicago.

After more than a decade of unprecedented growth, the Chicago housing market is showing signs of a slowdown. The low interest rates that helped fuel the boom are inching upwards, buyers are growing more cautious and market times are lengthening. The days of wild appreciation, of home shoppers bidding each other above asking prices and houses selling in a day, are over, at least for now.

Why compile a list of "hot" neighborhoods as the raging fire is dying down? Is it even possible to make such a list in a cooling market?

We think so. Despite the cooling off, Chicago's real estate market, especially for new homes, is still healthy. Homeowners in most city neighborhoods should see the values of their condos and houses continue to rise, and, of course, some will rise faster than others. (more…)

Buyers have high hopes, little experience with new housing hybrid

Businessman Steve Snyder bought two hotel condos at the Solis Chicago Condominiums downtown because the concept, a relatively new one for Chicago, made perfect sense to him personally and professionally. (more…)

Developer launches tony new hotel brand with Elysian hotel and condos

Take one look at drawings for The Elysian Hotel and Private Residences, a 60-story ultra-luxury hotel and condominium development breaking ground this summer, and it's easy to guess who the architect is. Take a look at the address, 11 E. Walton St., in the heart of the Gold Coast, and you can be almost certain.

Parisian-born architect Lucien Lagrange, the vision behind some of Chicago's toniest towers, has blended Chicago and French architectural traditions in his signature style to design The Elysian. (more…)

They're growing rare, but deals remain for those in the know

Wouldn't it be nice to turn back the clock to that golden age, just six months ago, when interest rates sat obediently under 6 percent? What a party that was. Chicagoans dived gleefully into the housing market, spurred by the kind of interest rates posted in February 2005, when the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at a mere 5.14 percent, according to Freddie Mac. (more…)

Hidden gems make Loop livable for those with the inside track

Dr. Maria Gracias already had the inside scoop on just how great the Loop could be when she decided to trade her Lincoln Park home for a condo at The Heritage at Millennium Park. (more…)

Buyers embrace hotel condos but struggle with options, projections

From beach houses to timeshares, Americans are always looking for new means of escape, and one of the newest – the hotel condominium – is proving a smash hit in the Second City.

A couple of years ago, few Chicagoans knew what a hotel condo was. Today, more than 1,500 hotel condos are scheduled to open during the next three years at seven highrise developments.

The Falor Companies, an early player in the local hotel condominium market, recently announced the conversion of Hotel 71, at 71 E. Wacker Drive, into 454 hotel condos. That's in addition to the 260 Falor already has in development at the Aldens Hotel and Hotel Blake, in the South Loop. (more…)

Highrise condo conversion boom is biggest since '79

Rob and Linda Williams spent a year and a half scouring Chicago for the perfect condominium, but when in late 2003 the suburban empty nesters still hadn't settled on a unit, they decided to rent at 400 N. LaSalle, a brand new highrise. Eighteen months later they were nudged into homeownership when the building's new landlord, DK/Equity, informed tenants that it was converting the 45-story tower to condos. (more…)

Something good is happening to highrise design in Chicago

It must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line, that it is the new, the unexpected, the eloquent peroration of most bald, most sinister, most forbidding conditions.
—Louis Sullivan

What would Louis Sullivan, one of the world's greatest architects and the genius behind many of Chicago's greatest buildings, think of the city's skyline today? Given his quote above and his quest for an original American architecture, to say that many of our newest tall buildings would disappoint is probably gross understatement. (more…)