A panel of real estate developers convened to discuss some wide-ranging topics last week for an industry event. The panel, which featured McCaffery Interests' Dan McCaffery, Belgravia Group's CEO Alan Lev, Magellan Development's Co-CEO Joel Carlins and Fifield Companies Vice Chair Randy Fifield. They addressed topics including the housing recovery, construction of rentals versus condos and the new affordable housing ordinance in Chicago...
If you're packing your bags and heading out of the city, it's good to know which suburbs will be the most competitive from a housing perspective. Bigger towns like Naperville and Aurora often top lists of most popular suburbs for the outwardly-bound but that doesn't necessarily make them the most competitive. Chicago Agent Magazine delved into the numbers to determine which 'burbs were hardest to buy into and the results are in: #1: Buffalo Grove, with 4...
Reports from us and from media outlets here and around the country trumpet the fact that prices are up and inventory is down. All around Chicago in many markets the advantage is with sellers...
Conventional wisdom says that as rents rise, home ownership become more affordable and renters turn into buyers, but new data says that isn't happening in large numbers, which could have the effect of buoying rents even as more supply is constructed. A new survey from Gallup sampling home-buying expectations of non-homeowners nationwide found that 41 percent do not plan on buying a home in the "foreseeable future." That percentage is a big increase from 31 percent in 2013.
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New construction is way up in Chicago, an increase of 85 percent over one year ago , according to recent reports. Chicago vaulted ahead of Seattle and Los Angeles last month, with a total of $507 million in new construction. It was only $274 million in March of 2014. Chicago still trails four other cities, all in the south. Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Miami in order. For more information, head over to Chicago Agent Magazine here ...
One of the factors that have been important in skewing the housing market over the last eight to nine years has been the persistent presence of distressed sales (short sales, bank-owned properties). Historically only 2 percent of sales in the housing market have been distressed but in February distressed sales accounted for 13.5 percent of all sales. That number, however, represents a .8 percent drop from January and a 9.7 percent drop from the previous year...
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While Chicago home prices aren't in a runaway climb, economists think that the steady growth in prices for the city's housing market is a sign of a healthy marketplace. According to the latest Cast-Shiller Home Price Indices, home prices in Chicagoland were flat from January to February of this year, but rose year-over-year by a modest 3.4 percent...
The sweet spot in home pricing may be right around $500,000 and Chicago Magazine has a quick feature that illustrates some options for buyers in that price category. The feature shows off photos and highlights of each home. It profiles two listings in city neighborhoods (Lake View and Avondale) and two listings in the suburbs (Barrington and La Grange). For more, head over to Chicago Magazine here .
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Say goodbye to Ed Debevic's. The famously rude 1950s-themed restaurant located at 640 N. Wells St. will make way for a redevelopment from JDL that would include a residential tower. No other information has been released as yet and JDL has declined any comment but it will join two other large tower developments within blocks. For more, such as it is, head over to Crain's here ...
Ranquist, the developer behind townhouses and rowhouses like Logan Square's Flexhouse and Flexhouse 2 is bringing a development of 48 single family houses to the Northwest Side's Irving Park neighborhood. The project, Basecamp Irving Park, is a bit of a sequel to the developer's Basecamp River North project. Ranquist is working with Stocking Urban LLC and architects Pappageorge Haymes Partners on the new project. Their developments have often sold out before delivery...
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Chicago is already in the midst of a seller's market and the spring doesn't necessarily look to be bringing much relief. Multiple media reports this week note that the city's inventory is down to about 38 percent of its peak in 2007 and dropped in volume since 2014 year over year. Sales prices are up as a result; the March average was 22 percent higher than the previous year. The suburbs are seeing similar price increases, around 19 percent...
Another real estate developer has piled into the West Loop. Crain's reported this week that Chicago architect Patrick FitzGerald has designed an apartment project for one of the neighborhood's hottest areas, adjacent to the new Morgan CTA stop. FitzGerald is planning the 81-unit building at Lake and Sangamon streets just to the west of his family's Lake Street Lofts, a vintage building they converted to condos about 15 years ago...
Chicago Agent Magazine is optimistic about housing this year and they've got three reason: • Pending home sales are at their highest level since June of 2013 and have risen four months in a row. Add to that an increase in mortgage applications and home sales could reach the highest level since 2007. • Mortgage rates are expected to stay low. While the Federal Reserve has discussed raising the interest rate, recent reports on employment have moderated the bank's stance. •
A San Francisco writer recently visited Chicago and, on returning home, posted photos with captions extolling the city's architecture. John King, a writer at SFGate.com, praised the city's combination of old and new; glass skyscrapers coexisting with brick and masonry vintage buildings and all loved by the city. Chicago, King wrote, is "the one American city that takes pride in all types of buildings, the old and new and short and tall...
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Last night Alderman Brendan Reilly held a meeting at the Radisson Blu Aqua in the New East Side to unveil the neighborhood's next great building, the Wanda Vista Tower. The name and the plans for the building are still in flux but it will rise to 1,200 feet and 93 stories and include a mixture of hotel and 405 new condominiums in the popular neighborhood. It will also, when completed in a few years, be Chicago's third tallest building and change the skyline forever...
