Category: Housing trends
Trends affecting prices, architecture, locations, financing and other elements of Chicago houses, townhomes, condominiums, high-rises and single-family homes.
Nearly 75% of South Side subsidized units in jeapordy
At the same time that public housing is being dismantled and the cost of renting and buying is on the rise, nearly 75 percent of the 12,400 low-income [...]
Signs of a buyers' market in Chicago
Gone are the days when buyers fought over coveted condos, bidding themselves well above asking prices and snatching up homes the week they went to m [...]
Chicago's best and worst balconies
This balcony, at Belmont and Sheffield, has to be our favorite. Why? Oh, there are almost too many reasons to list. For one thing, it's the only bal [...]
Renters in condo buildings: how many are too many?
Investors buying new condos to later rent or "flip" (sell quickly for a profit) provided serious fuel for the housing boom of the last decade, but as [...]
Prison condos: New York housing trend coming to Chicago?
The almost criminal rise in prices during the last decade of Chicago's booming real estate market has resulted in the conversion ("adaptive reuse" is [...]
More green for green roofs in downtown Chicago buildings
The Mayor has a very green approach to residential recycling: reroute cash to friends with ties to organized crime rather than wasting it on a progr [...]
As talk of bubble rises, Chicago Mercantile Exchange trades housing futures
Are you pretty certain the much feared housing bubble is ready to burst? Think the whole idea of a bubble is misguided? Well, now you can put your mon [...]
Another condo with interesting but flawed design and moronic name
At YoChicago, redundancy isn't our raison d'etre. But sometimes we just can't help it, as with the disturbing proliferation of condo projects with s [...]
Talking urban planning in Garfield Park
The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, and the Neghborhood Writing Alliance are hosting a discussion Saturday, May 20 on how urban plan [...]
Illinois has steady increase in mortgage fraud
That's the Midwest for you. Steady.
According to a study recently released by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Illinois now ranks fifth in the natio [...]
New riverwalk, museum opening downtown
The Chicago River, once treated as an open sewer, has become a catalyst for development, including the construction of riverfront housing, but it will [...]
Condo conversion boom continues to boost rents in top downtown buildings
In a quick follow-up to our rising Chicago rents post, Ron De Vries, of Appraisal Research Counselors, points out that one key reason rents in Class B [...]
South Loop dominates new construction downtown
Hard to believe that 10 years ago the flavor of South Loop came from transient hotels, storage buildings and old railroad tracks. Today, it comes from [...]
1st quarter condo sales hit record in downtown Chicago
Bubble Schmubble. Gail Lissner, of Appraisal Research Counselors, acknowledges that resales have softened and other major real estate markets have slo [...]
As Joliet develops, is Nine Eleven Avenue next?
Don't quote me on this, but I've read that according to area, Joliet is the second-largest city in Illinois. In the population race Joliet lands somew [...]
More than you ever wanted to know about Bridgeport
We usually can't stomach much of New City's content, but there's some entertaining insight into Da Mayor's old stomping grounds of Bridgeport in thi [...]
Why own when you can rent?
Brokers have had an extremely effective sales pitch for first-time buyers for more than a decade now, as interest rates have remained at historic lows [...]
Fairbanks at Cityfront selling half its condos as 2nd homes
With interest rates on the rise and talk of a housing bubble rampant, the speculation has been that investors - a category that includes purchasers [...]
Trib says it's official: Chicago is a buyer's market
The Trib led its Sunday edition this week with the news that Chicagoland is officially experiencing a buyer's market. Unofficially, most people - buye [...]
Is Gang's Aqua condo tower the start of a 3rd Chicago School?
Someone should give Lynn Becker , the architecture critic, who has his own Web site and writes for the Reader and other print publications, a civic aw [...]