By Julie Morse
Realty Insites
December 2, 2011 11:18AM
Updated: December 2, 2011 1:27PM
If you’re looking for a great buy on a mansion, you might want to put in a bid.
There have been a remarkable number of sales in the $3 million-$7 million range recently, heralding what could well be a season of change for a long-challenged market segment. Multiple Listing Service closed and pending statistics show a positive, sustained sales trend emerging in Chicagoland’s toniest suburbs, especially on the North Shore.
Lake Forest leads
Lake Forest leads with nine big sales in six months. They range from a $3.2 million newer construction home on Anna Lane in west Lake Forest to $5.625 million for an expansive east-side renovation on Green Bay. Also, one Lake Forest seller simultaneously sold a lakefront house and adjacent lot to different title-holders, for a combined sale of $7.125 million. There’s a pending contract, too, on a Howard van Doren Shaw mansion on Lake Road, reduced from $14.5 million in 2009 to $6.9 million currently. That’s a big drop — but not without good company.
Veteran luxury home agent Deb Fischer of Koenig Strey recently closed 500 Stable Lane in Lake Forest for $3.5 million. The list price was reduced from $5.9 million to $3.9 million last summer, after about 1,000 days on market, including the time it took to design and build the new construction home.
“Historically, top markets correct in a relatively short period of time, but this market wasn’t correcting in timely fashion. So astute and able owners lowered prices this year, often dramatically, to appeal to the very small buyer pool,” said Fischer.
She continued, “Today’s high-end buyers are just as astute and knowledgeable, so they are acting fast when they see value and stabilization … For my seller, once we suddenly dropped the price by $2 million, the sale came quickly.”
Winnetka also strong
Top-flight sales in Winnetka are also strong, with five closed recently. The highest, a new 12,000-square-foot home on Prospect by Heritage Builders, sold for $5.15 million. Tiny Kenilworth made a big impression with three homes sold between $3 million-$4 million. Lake Bluff recorded a $5.5 million lakefront sale, and Glencoe had a $3.1 million close in November. Highland Park has the highest pending sale at 1141 Sheridan, an 11,000-square-foot home listed for about $7.3 million.
Hinsdale had two sales in the 3s, one new construction, pending just under $4 million. St. Charles had a lightning-quick two-day sale on Ware Woods for $3.1 million, and a similarly-priced Park Ridge home also sold rapidly.
At the other end of the time spectrum, a twenty-acre estate in Barrington Hills sold for $3 million after almost nine hundred days, having started at $6.2 million. An Oak Brook home sold over-ask at $3.1 million — after eight hundred-plus days, down from $4.8 million.
Clearly, high-end movement is good news for market-watchers, including home-buying connoisseurs — as long as the choice inventory lasts. To that end, perhaps it’s not time that’s of the essence in real estate this year — but rather, timing.
Julie Morse is a licensed Realtor.