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Weekend links and reading

11/13/2009 5:25 PM

By Micah Maidenberg
Editor

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Chicago Journal file line art: Lake and Halsted.

A few notes as the weekend looms closer and nearer ...

A group photo show debuts in Pilsen tonight. "Juvenile Development" features black-and-white shots taken by students of Jonathan Michael Johnson, a Printers Row resident who runs Planck Studio in the neighborhood. All of the photos were taken using traditional techniques and development in a darkroom sponsored by After School Matters. An opening receptions runs from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. tonight at 1915 S. Halsted.
As noted a couple weeks ago, real estate auctions will be held Sunday afternoon for unsold South Loop condominiums at the Michigan Avenue Tower II and the Motor Row Lofts. The firms running each of the auctions both declined to allow me to live blog the auctions; no press allowed. Are any readers planning to attend? Send a report via email to mm@chicagojournal.com if so.
I've started to read through Appraisal Research Counselor's third quarter report on residential real estate in downtown Chicago. Here's one nugget that illustrates the down housing market: in 2006, 10,214 units were sold downtown, an area defined by Appraisal as stretching from North Avenue to Cermak Road, bordered on the west by the expressway, except for the West Loop. The number of units sold through October 2009? 4,259. On the bright side, the number of developer-own new and converted condos that sold and closed in the third quarter of this year increased to 545 from 325 in the second quarter. But supply side issues remain. "Unsold delivered inventory levels are already at a record high level," the report notes.
I am also reading the Urban Land Institute's "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010" report. As noted on the Switchboard blog at the Natural Resources Defense Council (via) Web site, ULI - a group backed by developers and other real estate workers - sees urban living as beating the suburbs. That's the trend. A quote: "The lifestyle cost-of-living equation starts to swing away more dramatically from bigger houses on bigger lots at the suburban edge to greater convenience and efficiencies gained from infill housing closer to work. These homes may be more expensive on a price-per-pound basis, but reduced driving costs and lower heating/cooling bills provide offsets . . . 'near-in suburbs will do well especially if they link to business cores by mass transportation." Elsewhere on the Journal Web site, readers are debating what's going on in the real estate market.
A boutique near Madison and Western was burglarized recently, and the Near West Side Community Development Corporation has the video.
Faculty, students and staff at Jones College Prep are remembering the school's theater instructor, who passed away earlier this month. Robin Bennett last taught at the school in the 2008-2009 school year. Jones has set up a Web site to gather memories.
Finally, the remaining candidates running for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners will be debating all things county Sunday at DePaul, starting at 1 p.m. at the school's student center, 2250 N. Sheffield. President/incumbent Todd Stroger, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, Clerk Dorothy Brown and water district President Terrence O'Brien are scheduled to be there.