Chicago Illinois Real Estate Blog

The arrest last week of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich revived the old image of Chicago as a city sullied by graft at a time when the city’s mayor has been traveling the world to project a clean new one.
As U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald closed in last month on the governor’s alleged plan to sell off [...]

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Many home fires are preventable. The National Fire Protection Association offers these suggestions:
•Keep space heaters three feet from anything that can burn.
•Ask smokers to smoke outside.
•Keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children.

•Install smoke alarms.
•Don’t leave cooking food on the stovetop unattended.
•Inspect electrical cords and replace or repair loose or frayed cords.
•Extinguish candles [...]

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It has been reported that builder confidence has dropped again, now to the lowest reported levels in over 5 years.
As a recessed overall economy has let to cut backs in markets across the board this should come as no surprise.

The Chief Economist of the National Association of Home Builder(NAHB) was quoted saying:
“We have a serious [...]

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Sellers of the world’s priciest properties aren’nt happy with the real estate market.
Last month, investor Marty Zweig pulled the plug on his $70 million Pierre Hotel penthouse listing after four years on the market. Financier Leonard Ross, who had asked $165 million for the Hearst Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., de-listed it in September.
Late last [...]

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Donald Trump would like to announce that he is a thoughtful guy.
The Chicago real-estate mogul has been housing Jennifer Hudson and some of her relatives at the Trump International Hotel & Tower downtown at no charge.
"She’s a great girl. And we’re protecting them well," Trump told People.com at a benefit honoring Australian director Baz Luhrmann [...]

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If Mark Cuban sidles up to fellow Cubs fans at future Wrigley Field games, apparently he’ll have to do so as a ticket buyer.
His bid to buy the team from owner Sam Zell? According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cuban won’t even make the final cut if commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball owners have [...]

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Moody’s Investors Service cut its ratings on General Growth Properties Inc., citing the mall owner’s “strained financial flexibility” as it tries to pay off $1.7 billion in loans coming due in the next six months.
The New York-based ratings agency said it lowered its rating on the Chicago-based company’s senior secured bank debt to Ba3 from [...]

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LinkedIn Corp., a fast-growing networking Web site for professionals, opened an office in downtown Chicago early this month with a six-person sales staff.
The internet firm is leasing a suite from shared office space provider Regus Group PLC at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange complex, 10-30 S. Wacker Drive.
LinkedIn is opening its office here while other large [...]

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A small, long-vacant office building in the Loop has done what many thought impossible in today’s market: Flip.
The top seven floors in the eight-story brick building at 180 W. Adams St. sold last month for $2.15 million, just days after two Chicago developers bought the property from McDonald’s Corp. — which has a restaurant on [...]

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Until recently, home builders have focused on crafting incentive packages that made their properties more desirable to buy than the development down the street, and that’s fine for the first-time buyer.
But what about the customer who needs to sell an existing home?
Pulling out some marketing strategies they haven’t had to employ for a decade or [...]

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