New Home Notebook – New homes & condos in Chicago & suburbs

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Looking for affordable homes? Look in Zion.

Zion, Illinois

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 29, 2010 at 2:41pm — No Comments

Checking in at Bryn Mawr in Crystal Lake

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 28, 2010 at 2:59pm — No Comments

4 bedrooms, 3 ½ baths for under $400K? A pre-foreclosure in Glencoe

1010 Skokie Ridge, Glencoe, Illinois

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 27, 2010 at 2:40pm — No Comments

An attractive home in Riverwoods with an indoor pool

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 26, 2010 at 3:55pm — No Comments

A look at Flossmoor's mid-century modern homes

1310 Brassie Ave, Flossmoor, Illinois

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

1310 Brassie Ave. 4 be

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 25, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Lancaster Falls in Volo showing lots of construction activity

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 24, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Exploring Hubbard Woods in Winnetka

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 22, 2010 at 2:23pm — No Comments

Checking out Forest Park

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.

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 21, 2010 at 1:53pm — No Comments

Looking in Northbrook? This is what $280k will get you.

2220 Valencia Dr, Northbrook, Illinois

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

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 20, 2010 at 3:11pm — No Comments

Looking in Plainfield? Here's what $300k will get you.

22604 Reserve Cir, Plainfield, Illinois

In today's market $300,000 will get you a lot of home with a lot of extras in Plainfield, and that's one of the main reasons that Plainfield has grown so explosively over the past 10 years.

The 4 bedroom, 2 ½ bath, 3-car garage home at 22604 Reserve C

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 19, 2010 at 4:06pm — No Comments

Arlington Heights named one of America's 100 best places to live

You can tell that the folks at CNN Money don't get out to many of the places they tout - and apparently have difficulty reading a map. According to the squib about Arlington Heights, number 59 on CNN Money's 100 Best Places to Live list, the village is "an hour west of downtown Chicago."

You'll get a better feel for the

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 18, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Setting the price of this townhome at Northfield's Fox Meadow

I stopped in to visit with local correspondent Maureen Mohling at an open house she was hosting at 422 Fox Meadow Dr in Northfield. The home featur

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 17, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Thinking about Skokie? Rent or rent-to-own this 6 bedroom home

8548 Gross Point Rd, Skokie, Illinois

The 6-bedroom, 3-bath newer home at 8548 Gross Point Rd in Skokie is offered for rent at $3,200 a month or for purchase at $599,000. The home also has a

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 14, 2010 at 2:37pm — No Comments

Lincolnshire Place new furnished model ready for viewing

One of the reasons I enjoy visiting with Weiss Development's Helen Weiss is that I learn a bit about consumers' changing perception of their needs and how builders are responding to them. You'll see some of that in the above video walk-through of a new furnished model, and in the video linked below.

Lincolnshire Place's current offerings are priced from the $370s to just shy

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 12, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Number of homes for sale shrinking in Northfield and Winnetka, in an unexpected manner

Fox Meadow, Northfield, Illinois

I reached out to local correspondent Maureen Mohling this afternoon for an update on the Winnetka / Northfield market. Maureen reports that the i

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 11, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

The jewel of Romeoville: Misty Ridge. Do you agree?

Beechen & Dill's Misty Ridge community in Romeoville, Illinois, features a park area, a playground, and soccer fields, and is complemented by new elementary and middle schools. Misty Ridge's custom-built homes start in the $230s, says Jon Krueger of Beechen & Dill.

Watch Jon tick off the advantages he sees in Misty Ridge and in Romeoville and see whether you agre

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 10, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

You can live in a former chapel: Mallinckrodt in the Park in Wilmette

The 180,000 square-foot Mallinckrodt College building has been a fixture in Wilmette and the North Shore for almost a century. It stands on 14 acres of park space near Lake Michigan and is just a short walk or bus ride away from Wilmette's shops and restaurants and the Metra's rail line into Chicago. In 2005, the building was converted to a condo and senior (62-plus) living development, but many of its historic details and spaces remain intact.

If you've alway

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 9, 2010 at 2:53pm — No Comments

Revisiting Cypress Park by Pulte Homes in Zion

My assistant - and son - Jordan visited Cypress Park last week for an updated look at a new home development he'd last visited a year earlier.

The development has seen a few changes in the past year. The landscaping is more mature, improving the curb appeal of many of the homes. A few homes are under construction, and a few mo

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 8, 2010 at 3:32pm — No Comments

Better than a foreclosure sale at Lemont Lofts? You be the judge.

The headline "better than a foreclosure sale" dominates the home page of the Web site for The Front Street Lofts of Lemont, Lemont Lofts for short. There's little doubt that a sale at any price is a better result for the developer than a foreclosure sale. You'll have to head on out to Lemont to decide whether it's better than a foreclosure sale for you.

The home page of the Web site also announces price cuts ranging up to

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Added by New Home Notebook on July 7, 2010 at 2:24pm — No Comments

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