Real Estate Booming In Lincoln Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Real estate agents haven't seen a market like this in five years.
Here's an example of the booming business: A new construction home averages $3.2 million in Lincoln Park. That's up more than a half million dollars from 2010.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports the reason is twofold: a lack of inventory of homes in Lincoln Park and low interest rates.
Robert Berg, the President of Foster Design Build, says new home construction is booming in Lincoln Park. He says they have nine new homes in one two block area.
Besides homes on Dayton near Armitage, Berg says he has a total of 16 new construction projects on the North Side right now, with a total resale value of $47.9 million. Two thirds of the homes are already sold. The average asking price: around $3.5 million each.
A lot of the homes didn't even go on the market, Berg says.
"They were all pocket listings," Berg said. "We had multiple offers within days of putting our sign up. We never even put them in the MLS."
Leigh-Anne Kazma recently sold her Lincoln Park home. She said she got four offers within two days.
"It was very exciting," Kazma said. "It had been on the market for like a month, and then all these offers came in, just the last day."
Kazma's realtor and Robert Berg's wife, Wendy Berg, says there's one major reason why this is a seller's market.
"The inventory right now is finally coming up a bit, but not even close to being a buyer's market yet," Wendy Berg said.
Paula Pasinski has been looking for a new home in Lincoln Park, for six months.
"Everything I am interested in, everything I like, I make an offer, above asking price and I still lose out to a bidding war," she said.
Berg says the buyers are usually people in the medical and finance fields and the majority of them pay in cash.
