Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=119123
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Kate Shellnutt/MEDILL 

Roger Lautt, of Re/Max Vision II in Chicago, brings the tour to one property in Lincoln Park, a unit at 2000 Lincoln Park West that's been on the market for over a year.  Unlike newer condos in River North, this property was built by the Wrigley family in 1931.


A new Chicago bus tour: Real estate firm markets foreclosed condos to first-time buyers

by Kate Shellnutt
March 01, 2009


Related Links

Chicago Foreclosure Tours
Distressed properties sold at discount used to be primarily bought by investors. But in today’s market, where first-time buyers are looking for bargains, real estate agents have begun to introduce their clients to foreclosures.

Chicago saw more than 77,000 housing units file for foreclosure last year, a 53 percent increase over 2007, property-listing site RealtyTrac reported. And properties listed now for less than the amount due on their mortgage loans, so-called short sales, add even more to this buyer's market.

Chicago Re/Max agents, like others around the country, are showing off available properties on weekend bus tours.

One recent tour in Chicago's River North neighborhood attracted about a dozen shoppers, most of them 20-somethings, a few with parents in tow, looking to “see what’s out there” before buying their first homes. As an added impetus, a new federal tax benefit of up to $8,000 is available to the first-time buyers.

Click here to follow real estate agent Roger Lautt's tour of foreclosed condos.