Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/732891
The kitchen at 455 W. Deming Pl. in Lincoln Park, where new construction single-family homes are selling fast and furious. Buying or selling? either way, it's important to make sense of the crazy-quilt sales figures of chicago's luxury real estate scene to reach your goal. By Lisa skoLnik PRICE CONFUSION Some luxury residences are lingering on the market while others sell in a blink, like a 4200-square-foot Park Tower condo that went for almost $4.5 million the day it was listed this past summer. What does price have to do with it? KoenigRubloff's Sandra Bercovitz (312-545- 4585; sbercovitz@koenig rubloff.com) and Baird & Warner's Kimberly Gleeson (312-961-7576; kimberly.gleeson@baird warner.com) tell us the rhyme and reason behind this crazy-quilt luxury market. Luxury properties were in short supply last year, but now there's a glut? KG: The existing inven- tory of Chicago condos in the $2–5 million range will take a year to sell, and that's if nothing else comes on the market. The sweet spot is $1–2 million, where they fly off the shelves. SB: In the $2–5 million range in Lincoln Park it takes a year to move properties through the market. Seventy-four single-family homes were listed and 70 sold in the last 12 months. But the new construction Lincoln Park single-family home absorption rate used to be a year or two; now it's a little over two months. I sold one of the 11 new large row houses on the 400 block of West Deming Place for $3.5 million in a few days— from plans. So it's a buyers market for condos and a seller's market for single-family homes? KG: Not necessarily. The luxury market is fair for buyers and sellers at the moment and fairly priced properties sell. But Illinois has the second-highest property taxes in the nation, so high taxes coupled with luxury assessments can make a big dent in income. Even for wealthy buyers it can be hard to get a loan. SB: High condo assess- ments are one reason why single-family homes are desirable right now. But in general, luxury buyers want completed, upgraded properties, even in vintage, 134 michiganavemag.com photography by Jim tschetter/ic360 images space brokers' round table