It's been several months since Lennar declared 469 W Huron St a "no Parc-ing" zone, but the sales trailer remains on the site.
As shuttered sales trailers become a more common sight, we're soliciting suggestions for adaptive reuse. Shelters for homeless Realtors? Or?
Normally we don't post about properties in other states. But this one, from a San Diego developer, really stands out from the pack of incentives.
Last week I spent several days in Rogers Park conducting an extensive field survey of new construction and rehab projects – more than 80 of them, only a handful of which surface in a search for new construction on popular broker Web sites!
There were a number of scenes like the one above, reflecting the more than 1,200 properties currently for sale in Rogers Park.
Builders often consult knowledgeable real estate brokers about what and where they should build, so we asked David Hanna what he's saying to Chicago builders today.
Hanna is a partner in Prudential SourceOne and the president-elect of the 16,000-member Chicago Association of Realtors.
David Hanna is a partner in Prudential SourceOne and the president-elect of the 16,000-member Chicago Association of Realtors.
We sat down with David recently for a wide-ranging discussion on a variety of topics. Topic A, of course, is the state of the real estate market in Chicago. We hope you'll enjoy David's candid and nuanced take on the subject.
Stay tuned for more of our sit-down with David Hanna.
As the weather gets warmer, will our local Realtors also be standing on street corners hawking property?
Hat tip to Calculated Risk for the video link.
An earlier post on rent-to-own programs triggered a discussion on whether median home prices in Chicago have outpaced median income levels.
That discussion echoes the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Housing Affordability Index (HAI) – a single number that stands as a proxy for progress toward the NAR's goal of universal homeownership.
The NAR HAI "measures whether or not a typical family could qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home. A typical home is defined as the national median-priced, existing single-family home as calculated by NAR. The typical family is defined as one earning the median family income as reported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census."
The HAI concept has great explanatory power when applied to the state of the national single-family market for existing homes, but tells us nothing useful when translated to new construction at the city level – YoChicago's coverage area.
New construction in the city is a niche product, and much of it is calculated to draw buyers from beyond the city's boundaries. Let's put an end to the discussion of median family incomes vs median prices.
Although the sales center is shut down and the building has been in delivery since November, a handful of homes still remains at 600 North Fairbanks in Streeterville.
Among them are five condos whose buyers defaulted during the closing process. The units (all two-bedroom models) are back on the market, according to a sales agent, starting around $575,000.
The Helmut Jahn-designed high-rise also has four two-bedroom penthouses still available; pricing for those homes starts at just over $1 million.
Over the past few months, tidibits have been accumulating about the fate of Rokas International and the developer's South Loop projects. Lawsuits, foreclosures and a potential immigration hangup have resulted to several moribund projects and a local development firm in disarray, according to David Roeder in today's Sun-Times.
"He's a very nice guy and doesn't come off as a crook, but his situation got much worse," said Patrick Fitzgerald, an architect who designed Augunas' Motor Row Condominium project that was started at 2300 S. Michigan. "Desperate people do desperate things."
Records show several mortgages and lines of credit are attached to Augunas' home in Winnetka. Calls to his home weren't answered, and Augunas has set his cell phone to block incoming calls.
His immigration status is unknown. In 2006, Augunas sued the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of himself and his family, saying it hadn't acted on their applications for permanent residency. The case was later settled.
YoChicago has kept tabs on Rokas International's South Loop projects, including Motor Row Condominiums at 2300 S Michigan Ave and 2100 (still a bare patch of ground) at 2100 S Indiana Ave.
The sign for Rokas International's 2100 development was still on display last week in the South Loop, even though indications are that the firm is no longer a cohesive business entity.
It's important to approach these sorts of news items with an objective eye, but these tantalizing comments from Yo readers are hard to ignore. I emailed with a buyer last week who confirmed the pending legal nightmare for folks trying to recoup their losses at 2100.
