Prospective homebuyers with big money to burn have an unprecedented number of places to burn it these days. As this month’s New Homes Magazine notes, prices at Chicago’s most expensive developments have shot upward in the last several years:
Chicago has always had luxurious homes – after all, moguls and CEOs need to live somewhere. But recently the high-end for new homes in the city has shifted significantly higher in a surprisingly short amount of time. Developers have introduced a new crop of buildings with hot downtown locations, stunning views and price points that even a few years ago would have seemed off the charts for this Midwestern city.
Real estate types call this niche “ultra-luxury,” and these days it’s defined by prices ranging from $700 to $1,000 or more per square foot (some might include properties starting as “low” as $600 per square foot, but experts seem to agree that the threshold has passed that level). The higher prices per square foot usually translate into whole-dollar prices into the millions.
Chicago properties like these were rare just a few years ago, when the bulk of high-end homes downtown was concentrated in the $500- to $600-per-square-foot range, according to Gail Lissner, of Appraisal Research Counselors, a firm that tracks Chicago’s new-construction condo market. Now, wealthy buyers have their pick of developments with prices literally twice as high as that earlier gold standard.
In fall 2007, New Homes counted 18 ultra-luxury developments marketing condominiums downtown.
Read the full story at New Homes Magazine online.