The Chicago 77

30 September 2009 ? Today?s big cliffhanger: Will the old Chicago Main Post Office actually close today or not? Inquiring real estate minds want to know. With an opening bid of a measly $300,000, everyone is waiting to see if wealthy would-be buyer Bill Davies (the high bidder who pledged $40 million for the property [...]

30 September 2009 ? The monthly ADP Report, which gives us a look at the private sector job market showed private employers cut 254,000 jobs in September, worse than the 200,000 which was expected. This release, as I have mentioned in the past, does not always match up with the Labor Department?s official Jobs Report, [...]

Upon a mixed bag of numbers released last week by the National Association of Realtors, Standard & Poor?s Case-Shiller Housing Numbers released this morning show continued movement upwards making July the sixth month in a row with slight gain. ?The rate of annual decline in home price values continues to decelerate and we now seem [...]

29 September 2009 ? With the final location announcement looming, Chicagoans are both excited and apprehensive. But little has been said of the long term impact of the enormous venues needed to host the 2016 games. Will we have a “Bird’s Nest” that only tourists visit, similar to Beijing? Not necessarily, according to the plans. [...]

28 September 2009 ? The mortgage bonds were down 12bps this morning, but are currently up 12bps. Trading has been light today because of the high Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. There are no economic reports today and there are no Treasury auctions scheduled for this week. Friday the Jobs Report will be released [...]

28 September 2009 ? With today?s announcement that President Obama will be going to Copenhagen for the final pitch on Friday to the International Olympic Committee on Friday, October 2, 2009 Chicagoans are feeling confident that we will be getting the 2016 Olympics. Plans for much needed work on replacing infrastructure, expanding public transportation, and [...]

25 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened up 3bps and continued to improve and is currently at 15bps. Durable Goods Orders for August unexpectedly fell 2.4% for the largest decline since January. This was a big miss from projections, as mentioned in previous updates, the increase in orders may have been inventories falling [...]

25 September 2009 ? With a mixed bag a housing numbers released yesterday, the Chicago condominium market appears to continue to face challenges while the single family market continues to gain momentum. There still continues to be a glut of condo inventory with increasingly difficult lending guidelines facing buyers. Lenders are scrutinizing the financial health [...]

24 September 2009 ? Mortgage bonds are higher this morning after the bonds had an extremely volatile day yesterday. The overall effect on bonds for yesterday were a light drop, which was a result of the poor treasury auction as I mentioned in Monday?s update. The bonds recovered when the Fed statement was released and [...]

24 September 2009 ? While the City of Chicago boasts miles and miles of lakefront, very few single family homes grace the shoreline, especially on the north side. But now you too can own a private slice of beach – 56 feet of private shoreline to be precise. The home owned by the family of [...]

23 September 2009 ? As reported in today?s Crain?s Real Estate: The famous Chicago building on the corner of Monroe and Clark, referred to as ?Weather Bell Corner,? may be acquired by the city if Daley?s administration can get the okay from City Council. The 14-story building, at 79 W. Monroe, once was the headquarters [...]

For the last several months I have been writing for the Chicago 77 Real Estate Blog. The title came from the 77 communities that make up the City. Some of my posts have been brief market updates and other longer and more substantive. In thinking of a new post to write, I realized I had [...]

21 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened up 16 bps and we are currently up 22 bps. Stocks are down 50 points, which is giving the bond market a lift today. Further weighing on stocks is the increasing tension in the Middle East. If fighting were to break out between Israel and Iran, [...]