Real estate news & trends
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West Southwest
Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago is “a nonprofit neighborhood revitalization organization committed to helping homeowners and strengthening neighborhoods.” It concentrates its efforts on West Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, West Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Roseland. NHS recently launched a series of videos at YouTube spotlighting its focus neighborhoods as “Neighborhood ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 19, 2013
Austin has the largest population of Chicago’s 77 Community Areas, and suffered the largest population drop of the 77 between 2000 and 2010. The community is home to the leafy Austin Historic District, which you can visit in the above video, and to the historic devastation wrought during the riots that followed the death of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 4, 2013
Storkline Furniture was once one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of infant and child furniture, but its sprawling factory at the bleak western edge of the Little Village / South Lawndale neighborhood has been vacant for years. FitzGerald Associates Architects, on behalf of Mercy Housing Lakefront, has developed a plan to transform the 218,000 square ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 26, 2012
The Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side is home to one of the city’s most beautiful parks. Columbus Park was conceived 100 years ago, and landscape architect Jens Jensen began its design on a 150-acre parcel in 1915. The park has had its ups and downs over the years, including the loss of acreage for ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on November 19, 2012
West / Southwest
If you haven’t seen it already, you should watch the inspiring story of David Muhammed, above, and the appalling videos that he’s posted to his YouTube channel. One of the apparent drug buys Muhammed captured on video was by a Chicago police officer in his personal vehicle: Muhammed lives at Van Buren and Kilbourn in ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on July 10, 2012
The Vittum Park neighborhood spans the area from Cicero Ave (4800 W) to Laramie Ave (5200 W), from Archer Ave north to 47th St. The neighborhood, a part of the Garfield Ridge community, takes its name from the park at its center. The park, in turn, is named after Harriet Vittum, who was the head ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on June 18, 2012
The demographics of Chicago’s Garfield Ridge neighborhood have been changing rapidly. From 2000 to 2010 Garfield Ridge lost nearly 20% of its White population and nearly a third of its Black population, while the Hispanic population of the neighborhood more than doubled. Although the overall population of Garfield Ridge is approximately 8% Black, the population ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on June 11, 2012
The 4,000 square foot, 4-5 bedroom, 3 ½ bath home at 2550 W Huron St faces south on Smith Park. The sprawling first floor is open from front to back, punctuated by an open, floating stainless steel staircase. The second-floor master suite is unlike anything you’ve seen. The large master bedroom has natural woods and ...
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Posted by sponsored post on April 11, 2012
It’s been nearly six years since we first looked in at The Enclave at Galewood Crossings, the 15-acre residential portion of a 50-acre mixed-use development on a former railroad site in Austin. The site is nearly a mile east of the Galewood neighborhood. When we checked in for an update two years ago one of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 5, 2012
Yesterday’s travels found me shooting video at a rental high-rise in the South Loop, viewing lofts in University Village, and checking out the outdoor art scene on the streets of Lawndale after a tour of 26th Street shops (video). My first stop in Lawndale was just east of Kedzie on 27th Street, a must-visit location ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 4, 2012
It isn’t often that you’ll find a quote from the King James Version of the Bible on a real estate development sign. Almost every real estate agent in Chicago is smart enough to avoid risking a fair housing violation. Most of the few that aren’t would avoid giving a development the same name as a ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 3, 2012
There’s a part of Bridgeport east of Halsted that some of the locals mockingly refer to as Bridgeport Heights in light of the area’s supersized homes. I’d never heard of “Humboldt Heights” before spying the above sign on the 3200 block of Potomac Ave, just off Humboldt Park. There are few references to Humboldt Heights ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 30, 2012
Four years ago Yo was being told that sales had been “incredible” and prices were “fantastic” at Heritage Homes of West Village on the “new revitalized West Side.” New West Realty, auteur of the washout on Wabash and other failed developments, was acquiring additional land in anticipation of continued demand. We were hearing similar tales ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 27, 2012
According to the sign in the 3100 block of West Lexington, the quoted price, $250,000,000, is sincere and non-negotiable, and only capable buyers should apply. Before rushing out to your mortgage lender for a pre-qualification letter, you might want to consider the seller’s disclosure statements, which follow. I recommend clicking on the images and reading ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 26, 2012
Noah Properties’ homes have been selling almost as quickly as they’re completed – if not before. As a result, we’ve begun walking through the homes before completion to give more buyers an opportunity at owning one. This 4-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home, at 2423 W Erie St, is approximately 2,700 square feet. It has a ...
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Posted by sponsored post on March 9, 2012
The middle of the last decade surfaced a number of ambitious new residential developments on or near Western Avenue in Chicago’s heavily Latino Brighton Park neighborhood. The developments typically took their names from the nearby McKinley Park neighborhood and park, and they all turned out to be failures to a greater or lesser degree. Join ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 6, 2012
If you have a near-insatiable hunger for graffiti, the walls of Crawford Steel might satisfy it. Hundreds of graffiti artists have painted the walls and surroundings of this factory at 31st Pl and Albany Pl in the Brighton Park neighborhood. It’s Chicago’s Sistine Chapel of graffiti. Join me for a leisurely drive around Chicago’s most ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 6, 2012
Five years ago today we were writing about a 3-bedroom raised ranch with a back yard hot tub pavilion in Clearing. The recently remodeled home, at 6504 W 60th St, was listed for sale at the time in the $350s. The hot tub apparently wasn’t enough of a draw, and the home went into foreclosure ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 15, 2012
Chicagoans love their two- to four-unit buildings, with the three-flat being one of the more popular configurations. According to the US Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, nearly half a million metro Chicago housing units are in two- to four-unit properties, and one in five of those units is owner-occupied. The flexibility of 3-flats is a ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on January 26, 2012
The January 2012 issue of Chicago Magazine features an important article for anyone interested in Chicago’s neighborhoods – Gangs and Politicians: An Unholy Alliance. David Bernstein and Noah Isackson paint a frightening picture of the influence of street gangs on Chicago politics and politicians and the extent to which Chicago’s law enforcement agencies tolerate the ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on December 15, 2011
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