While the local housing market is struggling to survive in 2010, wealthy would-be homeowners are plunking down sky-high sums for lofty, luxurious homes in the various newly built downtown condo towers in Chicago’s trendiest spots. What’s driving those sales? Timing, timing and timing.
Consider these numbers: From the beginning of the year until the middle of May, about 40 Chicago downtown condos have been sold for $2 million or more—and most of those condos were in buildings that opened in the last two years.
Many of these new elite homeowners made their decision to buy several years ago, while buildings were under construction or still in the planning phase, and before the recession punctured the real-estate boom. With those condo towers now ready for residents, the folks who agreed years ago to buy are finally inking the deals.
That’s generally what’s been happening at the Elysian, according to Caryl Dillon, who was the tower’s sales agent at the time. Since January 1st, at least 16 buyers there closed on condos priced at $2 million or more, 1 buyer purchased a condo at $8.182-million and another one went for $7.25 million. That’s on top of a first round of December 2009 closings at $2 million and up. Meanwhile, at The Legacy (which recently opened at 60 East Monroe Street), 3 units priced at more than $2 million were among the first closings in the building—and usually the earliest buyers sign off on the earliest closings. (Since condos on a building’s bottom floors are often finished first, some lower-level, lower-priced units bought during construction can also be among the earliest closings.)
With all this talk of pricey purchases, don’t get the idea that the market’s doldrums haven’t affected luxury condo sales. Look at 50 East Chestnut, where prices start at $2 million. Tucked into a prime Gold Coast location with a full-floor layout for each of its 34 condos, the building notched 17 sales from its opening in late 2007 through the end of 2008. Since then, there have been only two sales, one in 2009 and another in the first four months of 2010. The condo that sold this year did go for $3,335,875, but a unit of the same size one floor up went for $3.964 million in late 2008.
Read full article at: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2010/Luxury-Condos-in-Downtown-Chicago/
