Chicago deals: Buy a condo for a one-in-five chance of winning a Jetta

The final five buyers of two- and three-bedroom condos at 1447-1455 West Irving Park will enter a draw to win a 2007 model Volkswagen Jetta valued at $17,500. That’s one of a fair number of incentives and deals that developers are offering in early 2007 to jumpstart the flagging condo market.

Developer Paul Brown will kick off the deal at an on-site brokers’ open this Thursday at 6 pm.

The mid-rise development has been on the market for about a year, and the promotion was inspired partly by the slow pace of sales in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to Patrice Lorenzo, director of marketing for Century 21 Sussex & Reilly, which is promoting the broker’s open. Initially, units were “selling like hot cakes,” but by about September, the market was “nonexistent,” Lorenzo says. She notes that citywide, deals have become “the norm” in recent months.

“It’s no longer just a matter of someone looking for a home based on the number of bedrooms, baths, square footage and neighborhood,” Lorenzo says. “It’s now, ‘What else can I get?’ because there is much more inventory, and the consumer has more choice and can be more flexible.”

Real estate agents are, by nature, an optimistic bunch, and Lorenzo, like many of her competitors, believes that the market is showing signs of a revival in early 2007.