Real estate news & trends
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Wicker Park
The 2-bedroom, 2 ½ bath duplex condo at 2124 W Evergreen is in a close-to-everything Wicker Park location. It’s just north of the terrific restaurant and boutique scene along Division Street and close to all of the action in Bucktown. The home has an open floor plan with large living spaces that flood with light. ...
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Posted by sponsored post on April 29, 2013
Fifield Company is best known for developing high-rise office buildings in the West Loop, the recently-opened K2 luxury tower and other high-rise apartments in the Fulton River District. A year ago, after seeing people staying longer in the city and looking for larger spaces in emerging neighborhoods, Fifield Company set out to identify neighborhood sites ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on April 22, 2013
About a year ago the inventory of MLS-listed downtown Chicago rentals reached stasis and we stopped tracking it on a weekly basis. A correspondent’s suggestion that the market for MLS-listed rentals was a lot softer this year than at the same time last year prompted us to do an updated tally. The data don’t lend ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 28, 2013
We’ve written intermittently about Ranquist Development‘s Osterhaus McCarthy-designed 2028 W Division St since it launched in 2007. In April of 2008 construction was expected to begin that summer. It did, but was stalled as of June 2009. When we checked in again, in March of 2011, construction was complete and only one unit was listed ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 20, 2013
The headline question is posed at Bucktown – Wicker Park Patch: The boundaries between Chicago’s neighborhoods can be difficult to define, and the nebulous nature of these dividing lines is particularly contested in the Bucktown-Wicker Park area. … Patch asked local leaders and longtime residents how they view the Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods. Where ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 12, 2013
East Village residents prevailed in their wish for higher-density development on the site where a Pizza Hut once stood at 1601 W Division St. The developer scrapped plans for a drive-through bank and agreed to build an 11-story tower housing two floors of commercial space and 99 apartments. As of yesterday afternoon, as pictured above, ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on March 8, 2013
The Talk section of Yelp occasionally surfaces a fun and informative discussion of Chicago neighborhoods. Several days ago Yelper Chacha M posted the headline question and the following: I just moved back after living abroad for the last ten years and this neighborhood has gone to yuppie / lulu lemon hell. I could barely walk ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 21, 2013
By the time I met Sergio & Banks‘ Demetrius Simpson at a nearly-completed Noah Properties’ home in Wicker Park late last December, it was already under contract. The 5-bedroom, 3 ½ bath home at 1524 N Wood St had been listed for sale at $1,299,999. It closed last week at $1,275,000. Noah Properties has been ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on February 18, 2013
Well, nearly two posts for every unit. It was almost exactly five years ago when we first wrote about a 9-unit project designed by Studio Dwell at 1919 W Crystal in Wicker Park, and we didn’t neglect it in the interim. We posted on it or mentioned it in 15 additional posts – not counting ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on July 2, 2012
It seems like every article about Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail contains a mandatory reference to New York’s High Line. Last Saturday I made my second visit to the High Line. I visited the initial phase two years ago, and this was my first look at the second phase. I’ve been along the path of the Bloomingdale ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on June 4, 2012
The 3-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home at 1515 N Paulina St in Wicker Park has large rooms throughout, a recently-updated kitchen / family room and an attached 2-car garage. What sets it apart from the competition is its outdoor space. There’s a private garden adjacent to the lower level, a roof deck above the garage, ...
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Posted by sponsored post on May 7, 2012
Compiling market statistics in Chicago neighborhoods has usually meant looking at a lot of jagged (and mostly downward-pointing) lines over the last few years. But in two cases, the lines have been pretty straight. The neighborhoods of West Town and Lincoln Park have had very stable condominium prices. In Lincoln Park, the quarterly median selling ...
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Posted by Jeff Baird on February 8, 2012
The ad copy at Craigslist for a Wicker Park for sale by owner condo contains these amusing assertions: Sun Filled Vintage Condo In Historical Landmark Bldg Built 1895!!! … This gracious condo is special and a piece of American History. It is listed as a Chicago Historical Landmark for Surviving the Chicago Fire! That fire ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on October 11, 2011
We’re always on the lookout for good neighborhood sites with news feeds to scan for our Chicago Real Estate News page. Today we found Our Urban Times, a site that covers Bucktown, Wicker Park and nearby neighborhoods. The first item at Our Urban Times reported on residents’ recent success in abating the decades-old practice of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on September 16, 2011
The proposed redevelopment of the former Pizza Hut site at Division and Ashland has evoked a flurry of pleas to 1st Ward Ald. Proco Joe Moreno to bar the property owners from doing what they assert they have the right to do within the current zoning – build a two-story bank building on the site. ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on August 10, 2011
The Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail has this vision for the abandoned rail line that runs through several near northwest side neighborhoods: The Bloomingdale Trail will be a linear park for walking, jogging, biking, strolling, and a greenspace for contemplation, observation, relaxation and recreation. It will be a commuter connector and refuge from daily urban ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on August 3, 2011
I have a bias about murals: I associate their creation with communities that have declined and are likely to remain in a state of decline. I see them as a classic “lipstick on a pig” move, and can’t think of a single Chicago neighborhood that’s spawned murals after it’s become healthy and stable. Because of ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on July 14, 2011
Thirteen Chicago homes at which we’ve shot video recently are open for viewing on Sunday, May 22. Preview the homes in our videos, then head out to your favorites. Check back often at YoChicago, or search our video page, for a closer look at the places, spaces and faces that make Chicago a great place ...
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Posted by Joe Zekas on May 21, 2011
After confirming that we could find plenty of homes for rent in Bucktown simply by driving the neighborhood’s streets, Joe Zekas and I drove along North Avenue, one of Bucktown’s major commercial strips, looking for commercial vacancies. The street seemed healthy, especially in the blocks closest to the six-corner intersection of North, Damen, and Milwaukee, ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on April 18, 2011
If you’ve been in the 1800 block of Division Street in recent years, you’ve surely noticed the unfinished building at the northwest corner of Division and Marion Court. Two years ago, it was marketed as a nine-unit building with two-bedroom / two-baths ranging from the $390s to $790s. By August 2009, developer Joseph Annunzio had ...
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Posted by Joseph Askins on April 8, 2011
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