Corcoran Urban Real Estate

Monday Real Estate Round-Up

Monday Real Estate Round-Up

A condo proposal for River North has recently sought approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the first step in the approval process before construction can begin.

Planned for 360-66 W. Superior, developer Ascend Real Estate Group is seeking approval for a 34-unit condo building in 12 stories with 63 parking spaces. Designed by FitzGerald Associates Architects, it would replace a pair of low-rise retail buildings.

Read more at Curbed Chicago here.

The latest numbers are in and the top-selling suburb for the month of January 2017 is Naperville, with 131 sales.

The perennial favorite in the Western Suburbs beat out its competitors of Aurora, placing second with 119, and Joliet, which beat out Plainfield for third place with a total of 111 sales.

Check out the full list at Chicago Agent Magazine here.

The latest numbers confirm it; buying is still better than renting in most areas of Chicago.

In the most densely populated county, Cook County, it's better to buy - it takes just over 30 percent of the average wage to afford a house, but just over 31 percent to rent the average home.

In Lake County, however, it's cheaper to rent than to buy - it takes about 34 percent of the average salary to buy but about 28 percent to rent.

Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here.

Two new reports show that Chicago's rental affordability is somewhere in the middle of the pack both nationally and globally.

Nationally, Chicago is 8th in overall rental affordability - rental costs average $2.49 a square foot, with the median individual apartment for a single month renting right around $1,200. An individual needs to make just over $43,000 to afford such an apartment and families that need larger apartments need an average of just over $82,000 in annual income.

Internationally, Chicago came in 13th.

You can read more on the studies at Curbed Chicago here.

The latest numbers show that fully one third of Chicago-metro area home buyers in 2015 were single, a large surge that has been growing over the last ten years.

The 2015 figure, which shows single buyers aged 25 to 34 made up 33.8 percent of buyers in the Chicago area, is a 9.2 increase from 2005. Part of the reason the number is so high in Chicago is that the city is among the most affordable places in the nation to buy and it runs counter to the national trend.

Read more at Crain's here.