New Home Notebook's Page

You can find homes priced upwards of a million dollars in Zion, but the median price of a single-family home there hovers around $130K, and dozens of homes are available for less than $100K, some far less.

What does the median-priced home in Zion look like? More often than not it's a 3-bedroom, 2-bath ranch-style home. Less typically it's the

Our roving reporter Jordan visited scores of north and northwest suburban new home sites a year ago and he's recently been checking back to see how much development has taken place in the interim.

Jordan didn't see much change at Ryland Homes' Bryn Mawr in Crystal Lake since his last visit, and noted only one home under construction.

One change Jordan does note is that a

The 4-bedroom, 3 ½ bath contemporary home at 1010 Skokie Ridge in Glencoe sold for $615,000 in 2002. It's currently listed for sale at $399,900. The listing notes it as a pre-foreclosure "as is" sale with third-party approval required.

Based on

In this part of our tour of Riverwoods we arrive by car at a 10,500 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 ½ bath home for sale at $2,950,000. We take a brief look at the living areas and indoor pool.

In separate video segments we tour the basement ballroom and karaoke stage and an

Two more mid-century modern homes spotlighted by my colleague, the architecture buff, with his comments:

1310 Brassie Ave. 4 be

Our roving reporter Jordan has been making the rounds of new home developments in Chicago's north and northwest suburbs, taking a fresh look at places he visited a year ago.

Ryland Homes Lancaster Falls development in Volo appears to be doing better than some other developments, with a number of homes being built in the Landmark Series portion of the deve

Hubbard Woods in Winnetka is as interesting and walkable a neighborhood as almost any in Chicago. Its eclectic mix of mostly local shops and restaurants stretches from the Village of Glencoe border south to Tower Road.

At the center of the neighborhood are a park and a Metra station. And just south of the Metra station is a surprise - a classic loft building, the Packard Lofts, one of only a few loft b

Is Forest Park Oak Park for people who don't have kids?

That meme is hinted at in the Tribune's recent community profile of Forest Park. In the video above I drive along Madison St in Forest Park and muse about the current look of what was once known as a place for binge boozing and late-night partying.

If you're shopping for a single-family home in Northbrook in the $250-$300K range you'll find several dozen choices available. What you'll typically get in that price range is a 2 or 3 bedroom, 1 or 2 bath well-maintained ranch with an attached two-car garage and a basement. And, of course, you'll get Northbrook's sought-after publ