Chicago Real Estate News & Neighborhood Notes

The current housing market is on fire, but should you wait it out or jump into the mix? After all, at the end of 2021 the number of unsold homes on the market hit an all-time low nationwide. There are still more buyers than sellers out there, and that has homes going fast.  

There’s a lot of pressure on buyers with fewer homes to choose from and more competition. Of course, there are both pros and cons if you’re thinking about joining the red-hot housing market. Here are a few things to consider: 

Pros:

• Different markets

It could depend on where you’re looking at buying. There are lots of real estate submarkets, and some are hotter than others right now. They also change on a weekly or monthly basis. 

• Price increase gamble 

Chicago home prices continue to climb. According to recently released figures, single-family home values in the Chicago area rose more than 12-percent in January of this year compared to a year earlier.

That makes the ninth straight month of double-digit increases in home prices and the longest string in about 30 years. The data from Case-Shiller goes back to the late 1980s, and since that time there’s never been this long of a string of double-digit price increases.

Even in late 2013 and early 2014, prices only rose by the double digits for seven consecutive months. During the housing boom of the early 2000s, prices hovered around a nine percent increase for 13 months. Only once during that time did it top 10-percent.  

The news, of course, is

The nation’s housing market just hit a level it hasn’t seen in about 15 years, and that’s not exactly a good thing for borrowers. This past December, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.11-percent. 

Recently, the average rate went up to 4.72-percent. That can make a real difference when it comes to monthly payments.

It could mean hundreds of extra dollars each month, or even more than an extra $100,000 over the course of a 30-year loan, depending on the size of the mortgage. The recent mortgage rate hike has some experts saying buyers are in a similar situation as they were in 2007. 

That’s the last time the mortgage-payment-to-income ratio topped 29-percent, but it appears we’re now seeing the same thing. According to recently

Hundreds of new apartments could be coming to the West Loop. Two local developers have proposed a new 36-story apartment building, which could mean 362 more apartments for the area. 

The site sits on South Green Street, close to the Jane Byrne Interchange. It’s currently home to low-rise buildings and a parking lot. 

If all goes through, the new apartment tower will be one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood. The architect for the 404-foot building is locally based Goettsch Partners.

Plans call for the building to rise up from a three-story podium, which includes some parking spaces. One of the developers, Golub & Co, already has projects in the Loop, South Loop and Streeterville.

The other developer, GSP Development, has ties to Glen

If you’re in the market for a new home, you may get a better rate for a more expensive home. According to newly released figures, the rate for a 30-year fixed jumbo mortgage last week averaged 4.48-percent.

That’s much less than the average 4.95-percent for a conventional loan. It’s also quite different from the early days of the pandemic when jumbo rates were about a half a percentage point higher than smaller mortgages.

Jumbo mortgages aren’t tied to secondary market as much as conventional loans. According to Bankrate.com data collected over the years, the recent gap between the two makes for the widest advantage high-end borrowers have seen since 1998. 

In most places, a jumbo loan is a mortgage for an amount over $647,200. It’s above

There’s a new entry into the US real estate market, and this one involves NFTs, or rather non-fungible tokens. Cryptocurrencies are nothing new, but they are starting to gain some attention when it comes to the nation’s real estate market.

In one recent example, A Florida home hit auction earlier this year with around 1,500 bidders on an online platform hosted by Propy. The Blockchain startup says it developed the legal framework and smart contracts to make tokenizing doable for real estate in the US.

The deal supposedly cuts down on closing time. The NFT owner is able to own the property through an LLC that actually houses the NFT.  

With traditional real estate sales, the process takes longer and there are some risks. Some say it’s a dated

Chicago’s luxury market is quietly heating up as three property listings recently sold for just under $9 million without even hitting the market, according to a recent report from Crain’s.

Over at the ultra-high-profile 9 W. Walton, a 30th floor condo sold for $8.96 million back in February, upholding the building’s undeniable reputation of being one of the city’s most luxurious places to call home.

Also in February, a mansion on Orchard Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood moved for $8.65 million before officially hitting the market, while just down the street a home on Mohawk Street also went under contact in late January for just under $9 million as well.

The Orchard Street home features 6 bedrooms, 8,400 square feet, and a classic brick

If you’re in search of a classic Lincoln Park mansion with lots of charm and character but also wouldn’t mind some fresh modern updates mixed in between, LG Development’s latest project might be worth keeping an eye on.

According to Crain’s, LG  purchased a beautiful Tuscan-inspired estate along Dayton Street back in September 2020 and are currently working to makeover the home with some truly spectacular updates.

Plans for the makeover were recently unveiled and detailed by Crain’s, and apparently potential buyers also have the option to include a stunning backyard swimming pool, which would bump up the asking price to more than $10 million.

Specific interior finishes are still unknown but the home does sit on a rare triple lot, and two homes

One of Winnetka’s most beautiful lakefront estates hit the market earlier this year and has now officially sold and closed for $6.3 million.

Edgar Jannotta, chairman emeritus of investment bank William Blair, first listed the blufftop home in January, asking $6.25 million. Built in 1955, the stunning estate features 4 bedrooms. 3,400 square feet, and a charming Cape Cod architectural style with red brick, white trim, and and shingled roof.

Behind the home is a fabulous lawn with sprawling views of Lake Michigan and a winding stairway down the bluff that leads to a private beach.

Records indicate Jannottas paid just over $3.2 million for the property back in 2000, and the new buyer closed on the home on March 1st of this year for over-asking.

Looking

The office market in Chicago is still struggling due to the COVID-19 fallout, according to recent analysis from Crain’s.

Expiring leases are still crushing revenues all through downtown Chicago, and even though more companies are starting to sign new leases as we continue to recover from the pandemic, the rate at which they’re being signed isn’t fast enough for many landlords.

A couple high-profile foreclosure lawsuits at the Civic Opera Building and 208 S. LaSalle were made public last year, and a number of other office property owners downtown simply handed over their property deeds to lenders to avoid on-going legal battles.

On the bright side of things, now is a great time to get a deal on office space for any company looking to make a