A large development planned for Wicker Park just received its first permit for construction.
The permit was issued for the Wicker Park Connection's first building, a 15-story rental tower to be built at 1640 W. Division which will ultimately include new first floor retail, 140 residential units and 52 parking spaces.
The full plan calls for a seven-story condo building and 17 townhouses on nearby lots.
Read more at Curbed Chicago here.
The latest numbers show that Americans have a lot to be happy about as the year winds to a close - $1.02 trillion to be exact.
That's the increase in American's home equity revealed by new quarterly data released by the Federal Reserve for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30. Breaking it down, the average home owner saw a gain of $12,500. In hotter markets like the West Coast, that number was double.
Read more about the news and some advice on what you should do at the Chicago Tribune here.
Chicago-area home sales climbed dramatically in November, according to the latest data from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®.
The Chicagoland nine-county market had just under 7,000 sales in the month, up 16 percent from the year earlier. Median sale price rose to $215,000, a 10.3 percent increase from the previous year.
Inventory meanwhile, continued to decline. The area's inventory was down 17.5 percent from the previous year.
Urban Real Estate Partner Matt Silver, also president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, had a few thoughts on the numbers.
“The sharp uptick in both single family and condo home sales reflects consumers’ desire to enter the homeownership marketplace as opportunities present themselves, with the anticipated rise in rates and declining inventory boosting activity,” he said.
Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.
Each month that goes by seems to bring a new low in the level of housing inventory for sale. Buildings have received an out-sized amount of blame but a new study points to another reason that recent home price gains have obscured.
According to new research from Zillow, the percentage of houses that are underwater or in negative equity is still high. In Chicago, they calculate that number is 17 percent of all houses, or more than a quarter of a million houses.
Those owners often cannot afford to take a loss on their homes and therefore cannot sell them and move, exacerbating the inventory situation.
Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.