Another way developers are trying to distract Chicagoans from Da Bears is by offering mortgage deals on new homes. Anchor General is offering a 1 percent mortgage buy-down for two years through April 1 at Cornelia Court, its collection of two- to four-bedroom townhouses at 3002 W Cornelia Ave. “The buy-down lowers the rate on the loan to 5.25 percent for two years,” says Gale Goldstick of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “After that, the rate is locked at 6.25 percent for the life of the loan.” (Rates are subject to change.) The townhomes are priced from the $490s to the $650s.
At Catalpa Gardens Condominiums in Edgewater, Catalpa Partners, LLC is offering a 2-1 mortgage buy-down that lowers the introductory interest rate on an adjustable-rate loan to a below-market 3.875 percent for two years. Prices on remaining two-bedroom corner units start in the $280s.
At the Lincoln Center condominium development, 2472 W Foster Ave, buyers are offered a 2-1 mortgage buy-down with interest rates 2 percentage points under market rates for the first year and 1 percentage point under market in the second year.
“Another option is a quarter of 1 percentage point buy down on any adjustable-rate or 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the life of the loan if the developer’s preferred lender finances the condominium purchase,” says George Schultz of @properties.
A number of developers are offering mortgage deals contingent on buyers securing financing with a preferred lender, which is sometimes part of the same corporation as the developer.
“You have to weigh the pros of the incentive against what you might get from someone else as an interest rate,” says Erik Doersching of housing analyst Tracy Cross & Associates.