A day after the happy news that Cameron’s house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had finally sold after five years on the market comes word that another Chicago-area piece of film history is on sale. This time, it’s the house where scary/friendly Old Man Marley lived in the 1990 classic Home Alone. [More]
real estate
After 5 Years On The Market, Someone Is Finally Buying Cameron’s House From ‘Ferris Bueller’
By 1.23.14
By the time we started covering the attempted sale of the Highland Park, IL, house made famous as the site of where Cameron kills his dad’s Ferrari in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off it had already been on sale for two years. That was in 2011. In those years, the price has dropped by more than a million dollars, but no one seemed interested in picking up this piece of ’80s cinema history, until now. [More]
On Second Thought, Advertising Your House For Sale As “Slightly Haunted” Might Backfire
By 1.17.14
Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? And do you need a new house because there’s one for sale that could be right up your alley. The owners of a Pennsylvania home advertised as “slightly haunted” thought it would be funny to mention that little detail in their for-sale ads, but despite a lot of attention from ghosthunters and thrill-seekers, the house is no closer to selling than before. [More]
How To Not Suck… At Home Inspections
By 11.19.13
You’ve finally found that perfect home. A white picket fence. A pretty flower garden. That’s what it looks like to the untrained eye. But that perfect home could be filled with all kinds of trouble — poorly installed insulation, foundation problems, sub-par electrical work, infestations of termites and mice. Even a savvy home-shopper can miss hidden problems in homes. Put away your macho. No matter how handy you may be, a home inspection isn’t something that fits in the DIY category. Spending a few hundred bucks now on a qualified home inspector can save you tens of thousands later. [More]
Buying A Home Near A Cemetery Will Cost You More Because Everyone Likes Quiet Neighbors
By 10.31.13
While we know it might be a waste of time and money to buy a famous haunted house, how about a home that just so happens to be situated near an area traditional linked to haunting? Snapping up a quiet property near a cemetery actually costs more per square foot than purchasing a home near rowdier neighbors than folks gone by. [More]
Buying A Famous Haunted House Can Be A Money Pit
By 10.8.13
Even if you’re not into specters, wraiths, revenants, and poltergeists, it might seem cool to snap up a run-down old house that everyone thinks is haunted, especially if you can get it for a deal. Aside from the fact that your sassy best friend will be impaled on the fence in Act III and your fiance(e) will be presumed dead until she/he makes a heroic gesture to save you in the final act, you might want to reconsider because having an infamous home can just be a very real pain in the rear end. [More]
Former City Councilman Warns Residents: Walmart Shoppers Will Bring Down Property Values
By 8.21.13
Everyone has an opinion on Walmart and the impact it has on a community whenever a new store is opened. But some residents of Kansas City suburb say a former city councilman went too far when he recently distributed a letter claiming that a new Walmart in the area would attract an undesirable element and ultimately result in a drop in property values. [More]
$1 Homes For Sale In Indiana, But Don’t Go Counting Quarters Just Yet
By 8.20.13
When you hear that Gary, IN, has a dozen homes for sale for $1 each, you might be inclined to dig into your wallet and ask, “Will you take a 10-spot for the whole lot of them?” But these home aren’t available to just anyone with four quarters to rub together, so nearly 94% of interested buyers have been turned away. [More]
Price Drops Again On Cameron’s House From ‘Ferris Bueller’
August 8, 2013
If you’ve ever dreamed of living out your ’80s movie fantasy of rolling a Ferrari through the glass wall of a very expensive home, that dream just got less expensive. Two years after dropping the price on the A. James Speyer-designed home (best known as Cameron’s house in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) from $2.3 million to $1.65 million, the sellers have dropped the asking price again to a mere $1.5 million. It’s a steal! [via AVclub.com] [More]
Drop In Number Of First-Time Home Buyers Is Cause For Concern
By 7.23.13
The notion of buying your first home, building equity, and eventually moving up the property ladder is still something many young Americans aspire to, but between more stringent underwriting procedures, lingering student loan debt, competition from real estate speculators and higher interest rates, first-time buyers are being squeezed out of the market. [More]
Wealthy Americans Face Catastrophic Shortage Of Mansions
By 6.13.13
As the housing market heats up, there’s one population that is truly suffering: rich people. As houses don’t stay on the market for long, houses priced at $1 million or more are in short supply. [More]
5 Signs You’re Gazing Into A Money Pit, Not Buying A House
By 6.13.13
There are responsibilities that come with the joys of home ownership, like paying property taxes and repairing things that go wrong. Some houses are pits into which you can expect to throw all of your time and money for the foreseeable future. You can’t magically predict which houses these will be, but there are some warning signs that our domesticated cousins over at Consumer Reports rounded up. [More]
Are Wall Street Investors Pumping Up The Next Housing Bubble?
By 4.22.13
Areas like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Miami — all hit pretty hard by the collapse of the last housing bubble — are now seeing home prices rise at rates above the national average. But rather than this being an indicator that these areas are finally recovering, some worry that it’s just a lot of hot air being pumped into another bubble by Wall Street investors. [More]
Real Estate Political Correctness: ‘Master Bedroom’ Becomes ‘Owner’s Suite’
By 4.17.13
Anyone can own a house. Why, women are even allowed to own property all by ourselves now! That’s why we suppose it’s good that The word “master,” with its connotations of slaveholding and maleness, is slowly fading from its intended use in the residential real estate business. [More]
Own The ‘Rocky II’ House For Only $139,000
March 15, 2013
Usually if you want to buy a house featured in a famous movie, like The Godfather or Amityville Horror, you need to pony up seven figures. But the 3-bedroom, 1.5-bath South Philly rowhouse from Rocky II (aka, the one where Rocky finally wins) is up for sale for the completely reasonable price of $139,000. [via Philly.com] [More]
Man Lives In Tiny Apartment For 15 Years So Of Course Now Authorities Kick Him Out
By 1.18.13
If you think the real estate market is bad here in the U.S., can you imagine subjecting yourself to an apartment so small you couldn’t stand up in it for 15 years? That’s a lot of years worth of stooping and otherwise being cramped as all get out. A man in Paris has been dealing with cramped quarters for years but now that authorities are on his case, he’s been booted from his tiny abode. [More]
Report: U.S. Home Prices Up 7.4% Over A Year Ago
By 1.15.13
If the price of your home took a beating when the housing bubble burst, or if you bought a home in recent years and have been waiting for prices to trend upward, the data on one new report should be good news. [More]
As Offline Retail Dies, Commercial Real Estate Apocalypse Looms
By 12.31.12 — Updated: 8.12.14
As we do more and more of our shopping while sitting on our couches in our pajamas with an Ultrabook, we’re destroying a glorious American institution: the mall. Realspace retailers large and small alike have gone bankrupt and shut down or scaled back: a process that the recession only sped up. The best case scenario? Those former malls might become community colleges or gain some condos. What’s more likely? Rotting husks of shopping centers dotting our cityscapes, dragging down property values and making everyone sad. [More]
