Uptown emerging as hot market for homes

Uptown is emerging as the hottest area on Chicago’s north lakefront for condominium and single-family home sales, according to Sudler’s Lakefront Market Survey.

The quarterly report on residential resale property values noted that Uptown currently is the strongest neighborhood in the city for condo and co-operative apartment sales. Condo and co-op sales volume rose 30.2 percent, to $87.5 million, during the second quarter of 2003, and transaction volume was up 29 percent, to 373 units, Sudler reported. The average Uptown condo or co-op sold for $234,584.

Uptown also recorded an 80 percent increase in single-family home sales volume and a 33 percent rise in the number of homes sold. The average home sold in Uptown in the first half of 2003 was priced at $686,187.

“This shows that the Uptown neighborhood is an emerging alternative for lakefront housing,” said Jeanine McShea, president of Sudler’s residential brokerage division.

Although Uptown may not yet be “Yuptown,” revitalization of the neighborhood, bounded roughly by Irving, Foster, Lake Michigan and Clark, has been in progress for more than a decade, real estate sources say.

“Home shoppers looking for everything from affordable condos and rental apartments to posh lofts and a Queen Anne mansion can take their pick from the diverse housing stock in the Uptown neighborhood,” said developer Mark Baumgarten, senior vice president and director of operations for Joseph Freed Homes, which currently is developing the $24.3 million Phoenix at Uptown Square, a new 37-unit condominium and retail development in Uptown.

“Today, Uptown is a safe and affordable community,” said Harold W. Lichterman, president of Kenard Corp., a veteran developer who, with his wife, Gerry Lichterman, spearheaded the landmark movement in Uptown’s Buena Park historic district and rehabbed more than 250 rental apartments in the area. Kenard now is one of the key developers involved in Wilson Yards, a mixed-use development planned for a five-acre parcel between Montrose and Wilson avenues just west of Broadway, in the heart of Uptown.

Despite the continuing economic slowdown, gradually rising interest rates, and longer market time for homes and condos, the Sudler report noted that the overall Chicago housing market “remains a strong and stable force.” Prices for single-family homes, co-ops and condominiums rose modestly during the second quarter, while the length of time required to sell residential properties increased.

The Sudler survey looks at all resale transactions reported by the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI) involving single-family homes, condominiums and cooperatives in six Chicago neighborhoods: the Loop, Near North, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Uptown and Edgewater.

Resales of co-ops and condos during the first six months of 2003 totaled $1.389 billion, an increase of 5.2 percent over the comparable period last year, while the number of units changing hands rose 0.8 percent, to 4,277 this year from 4,242 last year.

The average lakefront condo / co-op was priced at $324,770, 4.3 percent more than the average for the January-to-June period last year. The average market time needed to sell a condo or co-op rose to 111 days during the first half of the year, up from 44 days during the same period last year.

“Demand for condo and co-ops was strong throughout the first half of the year, but buyers don’t feel as rushed to make a decision this year as in prior years,” said McShea. “…Buyers are showing caution in response to the relatively high price of residential real estate on the lakefront. Also, there is a larger inventory of units from which to select, so there is less sense of urgency.” The number of lakefront single-family homes changing hands declined 13 percent, to 205 from 236 sold during the first six months of 2002. The average price of $951,366 was up 6.4 percent from the same period in 2002.

The average lakefront condo price during the second quarter was $325,059, up slightly from the first-quarter 2003 average price of $324,301. However, the average price rose 5.1 percent compared to the same quarter in 2002. The number of units changing hands held steady at 1,631 this year compared to 1,643 in 2002.

The average price of a single-family home stayed relatively stable at $961,777 during the quarter, up 1.2 percent from the same quarter last year and 2.9 percent from an average of $934,415 recorded during the first quarter of this year.

Real estate columnist and media consultant Don DeBat has written about Chicago-area housing and mortgage markets since 1968. He is president of Don DeBat and Associates, www.dondebat.net.

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