Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Magellan Realty Receives 2009 Best of Chicago Award

U.S. Local Business Association’s Award Plaque Honors the Achievement

WASHINGTON D.C., March 20, 2009 — For the second consecutive year, Magellan Realty has been selected for the 2009 Best of Chicago Award in the Condominiums category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).

The USLBA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Nationwide, only 1 in 70 (1.4%) 2008 Award recipients qualified as 2009 Award Winners. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2009 USLBA Award Program focused on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USLBA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA)

U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA) is a Washington D.C. based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USLBA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USLBA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Local Business Association

CONTACT:
U.S. Local Business Association
Email: PublicRelations@USLocalBusinessAssociation.com
URL: http://www.USLocalBusinessAssociation.com

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LAKESHORE EAST DEVELOPMENT

            You are purchasing property that is within a Special Assessment District established pursuant to a court proceeding adopted by the City of

            The Assessment Confirmation authorized the levy, extension, and collection of a Special Assessment upon the Property, in connection with certain “Public Improvements” that will confer a special benefit on the Property (including, without limitation, parks, streets, storm and sanitary sewer, and a potable water system).  In connection therewith, the City of

Aug 20, 2008
Housing Bulletin—Good News for Chicago Condos
BY DENNIS RODKIN
With all the reports (including many from Deal Estate) about a vast inventory of unsold condos, it’s a surprise to learn that urban condos are the best-performing part of Chicago’s six-county real-estate market. In the latest release of local market information by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR), the median price of a home dropped in five counties and stayed flat in Cook County. The declines ranged from 1.9 percent in Lake County to 12.4 percent in McHenry County. 

But that August 13th IAR report, which compares data from the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2007, separated condo sales from single-family home sales—and the difference was dramatic.  In April, May, and June of this year, condos in Cook County sold for 9.6 percent more than they had during the same months in 2007. Single-family homes sold for 12.3 percent less. (The report does not separate Chicago condos from condos in other parts of Cook County, but by far the largest share of condos is in the city — and sales of condos in the city probably helped account for the fact that home prices in Chicago were up 5.1 percent in the second quarter.) So while there may be way too many condos for sale in the city—a report out Tuesday from Appraisal Research Counselors said that downtown Chicago neighborhoods alone had 5,867 unsold condos in the second quarter—they are, for now, the rare part of the real-estate market where the arrow points upward.

Jim Kinney, the president of Rubloff Residential, suggests that significant changes at both ends of the price ladder are making this happen. Because mortgage lending has tightened up, Kinney says, the number of first-time buyers has plummeted. “They’re not dragging down the middle of prices,” he explains. At the same time, some of the big-ticket downtown condo buildings have come online, delivering on sale contracts that were written as much as two or three years ago. That means both the lower and the upper ends of the price range are rising—leading to a higher middle.

During the second quarter, several new condo buildings had sales for $1 million or more, which exerted a strong upward pull on the median price. They included 505 McClurg Court (AKA, the Parkview); 600 North Fairbanks, a Helmut Jahn design; 310 South Michigan, the old Encyclopedia Britannica building; 600 North Lake Shore Drive; and 420 East Waterside. “Delivery of these higher-end buildings skews the [overall] price,” Kinney notes.

One building in particular—340 on the Park, which overlooks Millennium Park from the north side of Randolph Street—played a big role in lifting the area’s aggregate condo price. From April to June, there were nine sales there for $1 million or more, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. That’s down from 14 sales in the prior quarter, so the boost provided by this one building may be diminishing. (So far in the third quarter, there have been five sales over $1 million in the building.)

How long will condos maintain this upward momentum? Hard to say, but Appraisal Research Counselors’ new report provides two indicators. The report notes that 2008 will turn out to be the peak for new downtown condo deliveries, with a small drop in 2009 and very little other than the Chicago Spire set to deliver in the three years after that. But the $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers in the new federal housing stimulus package may bring back a crop of first-time, low-price condo buyers.  That would be a good thing, of course, because it would move some lower-priced inventory off the market. But on the negative side, it would lower the aggregate price of all area condos sales.