Bowmanville, Northcenter street and yard sales June 2nd, 2012

Details for the The 16th Annual Bowmanville Street and Yard Saturday June 2nd, 2012
They have an after-party too!

Details and map for the Northcenter neighborhood garage/yard sale  With all those $1 million dollar homes sales you might find some good stuff!

Seen in Ravenswood

This beauty was locked up in front of a million dollar home on North Paulina. I could use one of these to haul the kids' stuff around.

Sold! Andersonville condo in great building

We'll be closing our Andersonville condo listing at 5027 N Hermitage #3 tomorrow.  This is a great location to stroll over to the Clark street mecca of dining and retail.  The condo looks great but almost more importantly...it's a well run building and condo association. The new owner will love it!

 The two bedrooms, one bath top floor corner unit was listed at $239,000.  Here are a few more details about the condo at our past post

Under contract! Cool Loop loft sold in a week

Photo YoChicago.com

Not even the NATO summit could stop us from selling 1020 S Wabash 3E in the Loop... just over a week on the market. You could not even park in front of the unit a few days after we listed due to NATO restrictions.  However, savvy buyers were out and nabbed this unique city home in a fantastic location.  The contract is currently contingent (asking price was $339,000+$25,000 deeded garage parking)... more details after closing.

Check out our video of the condo and the location!


More of our property and neighborhood videos HERE

Predicting big numbers for North Center single family home sales

Bob and I have been writing for a couple years on the uptick in single family homes sales in popular North Side neighborhoods. This year is almost half over and it certainly feels like sales are going to increase again in North Center. Improved schools (Bell, Coonley, Jahn, Audubon to name several), crazy low mortgage rates, lower listing prices and an increase in gut renovations and new construction homes have fueled the sales.

One of the retail strips along North Lincoln Avenue in popular North Center, Chicago

North Center single family home sales, median price, under contract...
Currently in 2012, 54 single family homes closed in North Center from January 1st to May 29th. That's on pace with the 55 single family home closings during the same time period in 2011. Another 59 single family homes are currently under contract this year at the time of writing. The jury is still out, but the pace at which homes are going under contract leads me to believe we'll have a bigger year in North Center than last years 177 closed homes (a tall order).

The median price in 2011 during the same time period was about $780,000 in North Center with 18 of those homes closing over $1 million.  This year in 2012, the median price of a sold home is about $725,000 with 17 homes closing over $1 million.

More North Center posts HERE
All photos and analysis Eric Rojas, Real Estate Broker. Market statistics gathered from MREDLLC.com, our member MLS

Chappell in the News! Principal heads to Japan

Read: Chappell school principal travels to Japan to aid and learn from tsunami survivors.

Contact Chappell School for ways you can donate and support 

Mr. Peila and his group from Chicago heading to Japan!

 773-534-2390

Chappell school is located in a great Ravenswood neighborhood on the Winnemac Park campus in greater Lincoln Square.  In your search for quality homes and schools make Chappell's school district a terrific option.  Median price for houses in Chappell's district is about $450,000.  It's a great place to live!

 

Video! Achitects' South Side custom renovation for sale

Take a short tour of a move-in ready renovated home in a great Bridgeport location. You'll be surprised how easy you can get to downtown, city institutions, parks, the lake and more from this house!

3134 S Union Avenue, Chicago IL 60616

For sale now for $429,000

More of my real estate videos HERE

Amundsen High School Principal Candidate Forum!

 Tuesday June 5th 2012, 6:00PM 

Amundsen High School Auditorium

5110 N Damen Avenue, Chicago

Amundsen High School is selecting a new principal.  You may attend a public forum to meet the candidates. Amundsen High School is a terrific facility at Winnemac Park offering the rigorous IB Program, sports, arts and several learning communities for our community.  Amundsen is the key to quality public education in and around North Center and Lincoln Square.

View more information at Winnemac Park Neighbors blog site!

Football practice at the Amundsen High School campus: Photo Eric Rojas

Also check out the newly formed Friends of Amundsen...the place for community members to support local education and fund-raising.

Tribune quotes Eric Rojas on improving home sales in Chicago

The Chicago Tribune and other media outlets call us from time to time on trends in the Chicago real estate market.  We work with buyers and sellers in several segments of the market and Bob and I are happy to share what we are seeing on the ground.

Read my comments in Mary Ellen Podmolik's column on recent home sales here at the Chicago Tribune business section.

Can you buy a single family house in the Loop?

Are there many free standing single family home sales downtown in the Loop and Near South Side Community Areas of Chicago? I thought this was a good question from a client, so let's see how many.

Is there a single family home sale down there... somewhere?

A quick look at the MLS (MREDLLC.com) shows about 11 total free standing home sales over the last two years  in the Near South Side (excluding row houses with attached side walls). The homes ranged from $657,000 for a frame house on a 24'x100' lot at 1242 S State (a planned single family home development built in 1995) to about $1.5M for a five bedrooms brick home in Dearborn Park II development (now under contract).

You can get one just to the south of Roosevelt though...see them back there?

All the closed, free standing homes are located south of Roosevelt Road in the Near South Side Community Area (the South Loop neighborhood) located between the 1200 and 1500 blocks of south State (basically). Of the closed homes, all were on smaller Chicago lots in planned developments built in the 1990s and have small association fees. 

Interesting

No free standing single family homes (or even row homes) were found closed or for sale on our MLS in the official Loop area (downtown) bounded on west and north by the Chicago River, east by Lake Michigan and south by Roosevelt Road. Looking back at least 4 years, there are NO detached home sales recorded in the MLS for the Loop Community Area. So, no you cannot buy a single family home in the Loop.

All photos Eric Rojas, Real Estate Broker
For more downtown posts, click HERE