Downtown condo!

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by tonesdef

YET tuna every one else has assumed the same other than you

There is only one thing that happens when you assume...

Google it.

Oscar Wilde

[tonesdef]

tonythesalmon always swimming up stream

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

My advice is not to buy a condo in the south or west Loop neighborhoods. Values are still tanking and there seems to be a new trend of developers of unfilled condo buildings renting the empty units en masse. This is evidently causing trouble with the condo owners in the big building at Roosevelt and Prairie.

How would you like to own a condo and half the building goes rental?

However it's great renting in those areas as many would be flippers bought condos and now need to rent them out. But before renting check out the owners credit; you don't want to sign a lease and then the owner of the condo goes belly up and walks away. And this is becoming common as the market continues to tank.

My wife and I are retired; we sold our last house (which we owned outright) and have been renting in the South Loop for 2 years now and like it a great deal. But I'd NEVER buy a condo in this city, not anywhere not just south or west Loop.

Expect to pay $1800 and up a month rent for a nice 2-2.

The trends I see for condo prices in the whole refgion are like a horror movie -- "when will the cuts stop" or maybe "attack of the zombie landlords", even people in buildings that ought to be solid are running into issues with financing. I would be extremelyc cautious

The difficulty for landlords too is that with so much competition the abilitynto raise rents should assessments increase is nil-- owners may end up subsidizing tenants!

Several things would have to happen before prices climb, and all of those things are outiside the control of individual unit owners.

Be very very very cautious...

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by sunsoul

We are planning to buy a condo in west side/south side in downtown chicago as our plan is to settle down there after retirement and we think this is the right time to buy (could be wrong and wild guess, who knows). However, that means we'll have to rent it out once bought. In that regard, i was wondering how difficult/easy would be to rent a 2 bed 2 bath condo and how much approx would be the rent for it? The condo, if bought would be on south des plains street or nearby. Please give some suggestions.

I think the comments on here reflect the fact the housing market downtown has been brutal the past few years. The result is prices are way down, and acquiring financing has become in an issue in a number of buildings.

However, as you are looking to buy longterm, and help diffuse the cost with a rental for the time being, I don't think its a bad idea. Prices have fallen considerably, interest rates are still low. While prices may still fall a bit, and may not rise for quite a bit longer, yours seems like a good situation to buy to me. Obviously, you will need to spend time researching the health of the association and the building overall - but depending on the size/quality of the unit, you should be able to get a minimum of 1500 for rent - possibly quite a bit more.

[gobearsgo]

Why not buy a foreclosure?

Here's one for example:

833 W 15TH Pl #406, CHICAGO, IL 60608 | MLS# 07700315

[cump]

All three of the condos I have purchased in 2009 and 2010 were foreclosures. Short sales may offer opportunities but I prefer to have some control over whether the deal closes and in what time frame.

Like anything else you invest in you have to know what you are doing. On the one hand the real estate market is a mess. On the other hand prices have come down a lot. People know that the idea is to buy low and sell high. But they prefer to buy high and sell low.

If you bought a condo for investment before prices softened in 2006 the conventional wisdom was that while prices had risen there was room to run. Now the same people who liked 'em in 2006 would tell you that this is no time to buy.

[sunsoul]

Originally Posted by tonythetuna

No, she said south des plains. I have never heard of it.

Anyway, the longest portion of Des Plaines Street runs from Ohio to Roosevelt, which is surely more than a few blocks, it is more like 2 miles.

By the way, Des Plaines Street also runs between 16th and 21st. I would not consider that to be downtown and it is certainly not in South Loop or West Loop between those streets.

So, since the OP did not provide a cross street,you are jumping to conclusions thinking the unnamed address is for sure to be in South Loop (I always thought South Loop did not go west of the river anyway) or West Loop.

Thanks everybody for your replies.

Sorry, if it wasn't clear enough....i was actually referring to a property @South Desplaines street..between W Adams st and W Jackson Blvd. Is that area not part of west loop? Is south loop better than west loop?

[emathias]

Originally Posted by sunsoul

Thanks everybody for your replies.

Sorry, if it wasn't clear enough....i was actually referring to a property @South Desplaines street..between W Adams st and W Jackson Blvd. Is that area not part of west loop? Is south loop better than west loop?

That's part of the West Loop.

The West Loop and South Loop are just different. They have some similarities, but they're different. I wouldn't say that one is definitively better than the other, although I'd probably prefer the South Loop over the West Loop in general, personally, although it would depend a lot on where exactly I was going to be in each area. They're similar enough that I don't think you can make a blanket statement that one is better than the other overall - it would come down to personal preference and comparing two precise properties.