The new rage in Chicago-area residential construction is the town house.
”They can`t get them in the ground fast enough,” said Jan Foody, vice president of residential sales for Draper & Kramer Inc. ”They`re sold before they`re built. They are being built in all kinds of neighborhoods where there hasn`t been building in 50 years. All of a sudden every vacant lot is becoming a town house development.”
Nowhere is that more evident than in the North Side neighborhoods west of the lakefront areas that were the seat of the 1970s condominium boom. Town houses also are proving popular in the suburbs, particularly in areas that have had major commercial developments in recent years and as fill-in projects in close-in suburbs where land is becoming more scarce.
Town houses, like condos, share common walls, but they differ by providing individual grounds and often attached garages. Town house units are not stacked above one another like condos, which are usually found in high-rises and two- and three-story buildings that formerly were apartments.
”One of the real up-and-coming areas is around Racine south of Belmont,” Foody said. ”The area between Fullerton and Diversey and Racine west to Ashland is another one.” Both areas are on the North Side.
”The South Loop area is another kind of a hot item,” Foody said.
”There is now some activity in lofts in the Greek Town area (just west of the Loop); the area around the University of Illinois Circle Campus (southwest of the Loop) has a lot of building going on. Lofts are still very popular.”
Lofts–conversions of commercial buildings into high-ceiling, multilevel condos–have been popular in the neighborhoods close to downtown, including River North, along Clybourne Avenue and in West Loop.
Another popular condo development is the manor home, which includes stacked units, usually no more than two levels, and garages. There usually are four or more in one building. Still another variation is the country condo, a combination of attached town houses, perhaps in the middle, and manor homes on each wing. The latter two developments are found almost exclusively in the suburbs.
Aside from a few recently built high-rises that were developed as condos, mainly close to downtown, virtually no apartment buildings are being converted to condos. Sales continue to be brisk, however, in the condo resale market, which came to life with falling interest rates about two years ago after several years of dormancy.
Foody, whose firm specializes in city sales, said the conventional condo market (low-, mid- and high-rises) also has benefited from the resurgence in housing sales since interest rates dipped below 10 percent at the beginning of 1985.
”The condo market has leveled off,” Foody said. ”Pricing was going down for a while and it isn`t anymore. The high-rises along the lake are popular again. But the younger buyers–and that`s what we get most of–are very interested in town houses.”
She said younger buyers eagerly purchase properties in neighborhoods that are emerging from periods of decline.
”The lakefront isn`t the big deal it used to be when everyone`s dream was to live there. Now they don`t seem to care what`s across the street or what`s down the block. They will go into an area” that previously was less popular, Foody said.
”The whole trend here is that these nice little blue-collar, ethnic neighborhoods are more solid to young people who really want a neighborhood they will be able to stay in, (where they can) raise their kids, send them to school. They like the idea of a yard, of a neighborhood grocer.”
Foody said an up-and-coming city area for town house construction is the Ravenswood neighborhood between Lawrence and Montrose Avenues.
”There is new construction in that area on every vacant lot you can find,” she said. ”If there isn`t, there will be soon.” She said another developing area is on the Near North Side south of North Avenue and west of Wells Street.
”What seems to have happened is that developers are no longer looking in specific areas. They`re looking for any place where they can find a plot of ground to build a cluster of town houses.
”The other area where things have been happening that had been dormant is in East and West Rogers Park (on the Far North Side). When some of these neighborhoods (closer to downtown) get filled up and there`s no place left to build, it moves west and north again. We`re building whole new neighborhoods. ”The trend is to build 8 or 10; they`re not building dozens in one place.”
One large town house and loft project under way in Chicago is Lakewood Commons, a three-phase development in the De Paul University area that will include 108 units.
Developer Daniel McLean of Chicago-based MCL Development Corp. said the final phase, Lakewood Commons West, is scheduled to be completed in July. The development, at Belden and Wayne Avenues, includes 52 units ranging from 1,800 to 2,600 square feet and priced from $207,000 to $264,000.
The two companion developments are the Lofts of Lakewood Commons and Lakewood Commons South on Lakewood Avenue between Webster and Belden Avenues. The loft project, in a converted factory building, features eight 4,000-square-foot units priced at $399,000.
Construction also has begun on McLean`s Sweeterville project, a 56-town house development on Lakewood just south of Belmont Avenue in the South Lake View neighborhood. That development is aimed more at first-time home buyers, with prices ranging from $139,000 to $185,000.
Throughout the metropolitan area, new town house units sell for $80 to $110 a square foot, with city projects selling at the higher end, real estate professionals say. A typical city town house is a 1,500-square-foot unit selling for $140,000 to $150,000.
In far northwest Cook County, western Du Page County and northern Lake County, where town houses are less popular, prices may drop to $70 a square foot.
Condo prices vary widely, with units available for as little as $30,000 in older apartment buildings to several hundred thousand dollars in luxury high-rises near downtown. Prices had dropped 5 to 8 percent in the condo downturn of the early 1980s but have since stabilized.
Lillian Gholson and Ruth Spiker of In-Town Properties Inc., a Near North realty firm, said a survey of recent condo sales in lakefront high-rises shows that average prices for comparable units increase dramatically the closer an apartment is to downtown.
A one-bedroom condo in the Near North Streeterville or Gold Coast areas sells for $77,000 to $93,000. In the Lincoln Park area, prices drop to $72,000 to $83,000, and in the Belmont Harbor area, prices average $68,000 to $78,000. Along Sheridan Road north of Foster Avenue, comparable units sell for $40,000 to $55,000.
The Near North and Lincoln Park areas continue to be the most popular for condo sales.
Jerome Stone, president of the downtown real estate consulting firm of Residential Planning Corp., said the hottest suburban town house markets are those aimed at older buyers such as empty-nesters, semiretired people and retired couples splitting their time between the Chicago area and winter homes in the Sun Belt.
”They are high income, with a $30,000 to $35,000 per capita income,”
Stone said. ”You have some outstanding developments that cater to that group.” He mentioned such areas as the north and northwest suburbs, including Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Inverness and Libertyville; and western suburbs such as Westchester, Hinsdale and Burr Ridge.
”Those are all very good markets because they`re mature areas. The populations are established. Libertyville is an area for the future; Arlington Heights is very strong now.”
Other popular markets include northwest suburban Palatine and Buffalo Grove, Stone said. ”When you get farther away, you`re in a true single-family market,” he said.
Stone said prices for town houses have increased 10 to 15 percent in the last year, and that trend should continue if interest rates remain low.
Most popular in suburban areas are town houses that usually include two bedrooms, at least two bathrooms and an attached garage, Stone said. They cost $120,000 and more.
A suburban developer moving heavily into town house development is the Schaumburg-based Hoffman Group. Company president Norman Hassinger Jr. predicts that the town house market will move farther from the city.
Hoffman has five town house developments in progress in the markets of Schaumburg, Palatine, Westchester, west suburban Naperville and west suburban Carol Stream.
The Carol Stream project, which includes 102 duplex units, is a lower-end development with base prices from $85,000 to $95,000. The others have prices starting at more than $120,000.
Hassinger said the market for town houses is starting to expand farther from the city, such as to Streamwood in northwest Cook County.
”That location, a couple of years ago, wouldn`t have been accepted by the marketplace,” Hassinger said. ”It seems now that the market is accepting going out that far.”
