We’ve all heard the stories of the Russians buying up trophy properties on the coasts. There have also been reports of the Chinese being big buyers in Vancouver. According to a survey taken in June by the National Association of Realtors, foreign national buyers made up 8.9%, or $82.5 billion, of the $928 billion spent on […]
Developers are still having trouble finding buyers for new construction condos in downtown Chicago as luxury rentals and distressed sales of cheaper, older units are proving to be tough competition. From Crain’s: Developers sold 182 downtown condos in the second quarter, up from 113 in the first quarter but down from 196 a year earlier, […]
We normally don’t chatter about the Case-Shiller updates in a regular post (just within the comments) but since Chicago topped the 20 city index in May, I thought I’d give the bears and the bulls the chance to debate their case. Chicago home prices jumped 4.5% in May, the largest one month price increase since […]
The last few weeks has seen a lot of “bottom” calls in real estate both in Chicago and nationally. Yesterday, Zillow’s market bottom call was all the rage. (Before you complain about Zillow’s “accuracy” just know that it wasn’t the first to call the market bottom in recent days. But it does have a good PR […]
The data doesn’t lie. It seemed to me that the luxury home market was hotter than the previous few years but Crain’s refuted my non-data “theory” with real data. 200 homes priced over $1.5 million sold in the first half of the year in the Chicagoland area which was the same number as sold in 2011 […]
It’s that time of the month again to evaluate just how “hot” the Chicago housing market is. From the Illinois Association of Realtors: In the city of Chicago, June 2012 home sales (single family and condominiums) totaled 2,246, up 22.0 percent from 1,841 homes sold in June 2011. The city of Chicago median home sale […]
As promised, Crain’s reported a couple of days ago that Related bought out the remaining units in three South Loop towers after the developer lost them to the bank. They are: One Museum Park West (1201 S. Prairie): 238 units 1600 Museum Park (1629 S. Prairie): 98 units Museum Park Place South (1901 S. Calumet): […]
We continue to see an improvement in the sales numbers this spring compared to 2011. From the Illinois Association of Realtors: In the city of Chicago, May 2012 home sales (single family and condominiums) totaled 2,037, up 19.6 percent from 1,703 homes sold in May 2011. The city of Chicago median home sale price for […]
We’ve already chattered, briefly, in various comments about the two multi-million dollar condos that just came on the market in Chicago. They are the most expensive condos to ever be listed- let alone to sell (IF they do so.) The first is the $32 million penthouse at Trump Tower. The second is the $18.4 million […]
Crain’s recently reported on a recent bulk buy of condos in 757 N. Orleans in River North to an investor. Not surprisingly, the investor is going to wait out the downturn by renting the units. A Florida investor with foreign capital is diving into the Chicago condominium market, paying nearly $11 million for 39 unsold […]