Michelle Lauren - Baird & Warner

09/05/2026

Details Matter ✨

09/04/2026

Yes!

The owner of a condo on Pine Grove Avenue in Lakeview hoped to sell her one-bedroom space in the $250,000s, and was chagrined when her real estate agent suggested pricing it in the high $220,000s.

“I want you to trust me,” the agent, Madeline Peterson of Engel & Voelkers Chicago, coached the seller, confident from experience in the city’s fast-paced, multiple-offer condo market that it would deliver a number closer to what the seller wanted.

The condo hit the market in late April at $228,000 and “my phone blew up,” Peterson says.

Two days and four offers later, a buyer was under contract for the unit in the Brewster Building, a familiar landmark on Pine Grove (and seen in the photo at the top of this story). On May 21, the deal closed at $275,000, a full 20% over the asking price, not to mention well above the seller’s hoped-for figure.

That’s the way it is this year in the Chicago condo market, which has seen the longest stretch on record where the average condo sale price is above the asking price.

Read more here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/real-estate/residential/ccb-chicago-condo-sales-over-asking-price-20260903/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

09/04/2026

There are around 80,000 Chicago bungalows still standing, and they make up roughly a third of the city's single-family housing stock.

They went up mostly between 1910 and 1940, filling in the bungalow belt, a ring of neighborhoods a few miles out from downtown that got built as the streetcar and el lines pushed outward. Portage Park, Jefferson Park, Beverly, Chatham, Auburn Gresham, Norwood Park, Garfield Ridge and dozens more.

The type is specific enough to be recognized instantly. One and a half stories in brick, almost always brick, with a low-pitched hipped roof, wide overhanging eaves, and the long dimension running front to back on a narrow city lot. The front has a projecting bay with a bank of windows. There is a full basement and an unfinished attic under that roof, waiting to be turned into bedrooms as the family grew.

The details are what people love. Art glass windows with geometric leading. Oak trim, built-in cabinets and a fireplace inlaid with tile. Wood floors. Solid plaster walls.

The economics were the point. A Chicago bungalow was affordable for a working family in the 1920s, built by the thousands by developers using standardized plans, sold to Polish, Irish, Italian, Czech, Swedish and later Black families as they moved out of crowded older neighborhoods.

That is why the building type carries so much weight here. It represents the moment a working family in this city could own something.

The Historic Chicago Bungalow Association runs programs for owners doing rehab work, and the type has been recognized as a distinctive American housing form.

The neighborhoods have changed. The houses mostly have not.

Drive any bungalow belt street and they run block after block, nearly identical, each one slightly different.

09/04/2026

Crain's Chicago Business is reporting another blockbuster strip mall deal. Village Crossing, a 722,457 square foot power center on the border of Skokie and Niles, Illinois has been purchased by Fairbourne Properties for $122 million.

Unlike many of the real estate deals we report on Livemalls, there are no immediate plans to redevelop this property. Village Crossing is a popular shopping center with high occupancy, showing resilience with its location and tenant mix.

08/25/2026

🤯

Homeowners in Cook County will pay the vast majority of a $770 million tax levy increase, with some north suburban communities seeing a tax rate increase more than triple the rate of inflation.

More details: https://tinyurl.com/2h8rjmzc

08/19/2026

⚠️DON’T BELIVE THE HYPE⚠️ Homeownership is STILL Affordable In Illinois‼️🤯

✨2 Bed | 2 Bath TOWNHOME In a Golf Course Community w/Garage Space 🤩⛳️🎾🏊🏽‍♀️
✨Offered @ $229,999 📍 Gurnee Illinois
✨Exclusively Listed By Greg Anderson - Real Estate Broker with Baird & Warner | Baird & Warner | Chicago Real Estate

08/19/2026

Love This 🤩

08/11/2026

🤩

WS Development said the opening marks the start of a new era in Plaza del Lago's restoration and revitalization. | Link in comments ⬇️

08/08/2026

‼️ATTENTION SELLERS‼️~ Pricing Right from the start can bring you multiple offers 💡

Chicago homebuyers and real estate agents said there’s bidding wars for the few homes hitting the market, especially in neighborhoods like Lake View, Lincoln Park and Northalsted.