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| A "non-tear down" on unique North Bomanville Avenue in the Lincoln Square community area |
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| 11 acres for sale adjacent to the Rosehill Cemetery |
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| Bomanville community green space (all photos |
With premium gas near $5.00 a gallon, I might pick you up with this bike for our showing appointments!
Down go gas stations and up go PNC Bank green branches... like the one above in Lincoln Park at Halsted and Wrightwood that was a Shell gas station. Another branch shown below at the corner of Ashland and Addison in Lake View was formerly a Shell gas station. Will green branches be enough to switch your bank?
If you walk around the North Side of Chicago, you probably have noticed PNC Bank's green branches. It's an impressive green branding initiative that goes back to 2002. The company now has over 97 LEED certified buildings.
This Northcenter green branch location is on the site of a former independent gas station at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Berteau. It was most recently marketed to be a condo building prior to PNC acquiring the land.
I spotted this free standing solar panel powering the music outside the DePaul University Concert Hall at 800 West Belden Avenue in Lincoln Park. Could one of these power my house? How much to install this in my front yard?
Check out more of the Green scene in our daily dealings around Chicago.
What I learn about prefab, I learn from Dwell Magazine. Unfortunately, I live in Chicago and don't have any of my own photos of a modern prefab homes installed in the city. Anyone know of any other modern prefab homes in Chicago other than this one at the 1400 block of West Ohio?
Click on the link for more posts on modern architecture in Chicago
The luxury new construction home on an over sized lot featured signs promoting LEED certification and the City of Chicago's Green building permit process.
Below we see the progress from photos we took last month. North Hermitage Avenue in Ravenswood features many newer construction luxury homes built on over sized and tree lined lots. Most fit well amongst the existing Victorian style vintage homes that are a pleasure to view.
Looking back over a couple years, median price of single family homes and land sales for the four block stretch of Hermitage between West Montrose and West Lawrence has been $650,000. Market times have been very fast, most properties under contract within two weeks.
Click the link to view more Chicago Local Green posts from our daily dealings.
In a LEED effort, the "green vehicle" preferred parking sign at my new Dominick's reads "We've reserved parking spots for low-emission and fuel-efficient vehicles."
I see a Ford F150, GMC Denali, a V8 Dodge Durango, a Pontiac Grand Am and I think that's a Lincoln Town Car parked over the sidewalk.
Here's a few shots of the Lakewood Balmoral Historic District in Edgewater I took on a bike ride this summer. The neighborhood is distinct for many reasons including wearing their "green" ways on their sleeves. Not my best photo work, but you can imagine how beautiful this neighborhood is.
The district boundaries are roughly West Foster Avenue to West Bryn Mawr going north and North Wayne to North Magnolia going east towards the lake. For this market data, I've expanded the "district" west to Clark Street as this overall distinct neighborhood really goes to Clark Street (it's pretty prime real estate as it's closer to the popular Andersonville commercial strip).
Median price for a single family home was about $750,000 over the last 12 months. There were eleven closed homes recorded in our MLS data. This includes a smaller fixer-upper for $445,000 at the bottom (1450 W Berwyn...not in the Historic District) and $1,075,000 for 5437 N Wayne at the top for a renovated five bedroom brick beauty on a 33'x 123' lot (oh, and you get to build the garage!).
We've had clients buy just a half-mile north in Edgewater Glen to get completely updated homes for a good 15-20% savings off comparable homes in the actual Lakewood Balmoral Historic District.
Bob took some photos of Wrightwood Crossing last weekend ( a "green" new construction development at 1307 W Wrightwood) just around the corner from his house in Lincoln Park. We continually see Chicago buyers pay top dollar per square foot for over-the-top new construction finishes... period. These are not a comparable to your re-sale. I'm not talking cheap vanilla finishes either... but nice stuff. We also see people spending more for LEED envy developments that seem to walk the walk.
This is about driving off the lot in a NEW car. It does not matter to these buyers that they are usually far outpacing the median price per square foot for the market. They are the market.
At nineteen total units, Wrightwood Crossing has had five closings ranging from $575,000 to $1,171,000, the latter a four bedrooms, three bathrooms penthouse home including sizable great room, media room and two car garage parking. That means these folks have moved in to the construction zone already.
My son Ryne and I caught some kickball games earlier this evening at Winnemac Park in Ravenswood across from my house. It's rare to see so many bikes locked up at a park in Chicago (outside maybe the lakefront). This row wrapped around the whole southeast corner of the fence. Ravenswood certainly has "green" street cred!
Chicagoans love their green spaces and Waters school knocks it out of the park. The school has gained lots of "parent buzz" in the real estate world as a terrific place to send your kids. Getting into a well ranked Chicago Public School attendance boundary is not a piece of cake for Chicago families. The best school attendance districts command the highest single family home prices on average. Although, what qualifies as a quality school for individual families is a personal choice, there's no doubt Waters has a very unique "green" culture.
Another significant new "green" construction single family home is progressing on the 4500 block of North Hermitage in the Ravenswood neighborhood. This looks to be a double lot (50' wide) house, but it's not clear if it will be for market sale or if it's a custom build. The development is a participant in the City of Chicago Green Permit Program.
What's this look like to you? Maybe prairie style?
Check the Wrightwood Crossing link above for pricing and floor plans. And, bring some greenbacks... you're gonna need them.
Above is the south wall of windows looking into the interior courtyard of the home.
The Metra Union Pacific District North line is just to the west. These tracks are not much of a deterent for home seekers and owners as the train passes infrequently... and moves by quickly. Not to mention the station is about a block away.... downtown in 15 minutes from boarding the train.
