Living In Chicago’s Loop Has Its Benefits

The buildings that occupy Chicago’s Loop are the structures that occupy Chicago’s famous skyline. Perhaps Chicago’s most famous building, The Sears Tower, with its sky deck, is located on South Wacker Drive in the heart of the Loop.

Other famous buildings in the heart of Chicago-Loop, includes the Chicago Board of Trade (Jackson Blvd), the Auditorium Building (Congress Pkwy), and one of Chicago’s most visited attractions, the Art Institute of Chicago (Michigan Ave).

The Loop neigborhood of Chicago, Illinois, is also famous for its sculptures that occupy prominent locations on the streets of downtown Chicago. It is said that the 162-ton sculpture in Daley Center, designed by Pablo Picasso, is either Picasso’s wife or his pet Afghan hound. It makes you wonder if Picasso thought his wife was “dog ugly”.

Near Federal Center Plaza on Dearborn Street, you can also find a 53-foot tall sculpture of a flamingo, designed by Alexander Calder.

If you stay to the walking routes of Chicago-Loop, you will find Millennium Park on North Columbus, along the shores of Lake Michigan. Grant Park is to the south of Millennium Park. Just half a mile south of the Chicago-Loop neighborhood and to the south of Grant Park, you will find the home of the Chicago Bears – Soldier Field (formerly Municipal Grant Park Stadium).

Bounded on the north by the Chicago River, Lake Michigan to the east, Congress Parkway to the south, and Interstate 90 and 94 on the west side, Chicago’s Loop is the heart of Chicago’s transportation network.

View of Metra from Grant Park

With 5 rail lines rolling through the Chicago-Loop, it is a good point from which to travel to any location in the Greater Chicago Metropolitan.

For fine dining, Aria is a favorite spot on Columbus Drive, with its blend of American cuisine with some Asian influences. Although it is a bit upscale, it provides a very relaxing dining experience for anyone who chooses to feast at this popular Chicago eatery.

Another restaurant in the Chicago-Loop that gets a lot of attention is Nick’s Fishmarket and Grill on Clark Street. Also a fine dining restaurant, it is a favorite for those visiting the nearby theater district. Nick’s offers dining downstairs, and a less formal atmosphere upstairs in the bar.

The nearby theater district offers the 3,600-seat Chicago Theater on State Street, with three levels of seating, which primarily treats audiences with live music and comedy-theater. The 3,563-seat Civic Opera House presents – you guessed it – opera, as well as musical groups and artists, and famous Broadway shows.

The Auditorium Theatre on Congress offers a variety of concerts, musicals, dance, and plays. The Gene Siskel Film Center, of Siskel and Ebert fame, on State Street plays a wide selection of international, independent and classic films.

The Chicago-Loop offers a lot to its residents, who occupy residential skyscrapers, condominiums in the Loop , studio apartments and lofts.

Condo prices range from $120,000 at the low-end to nearly $6 million at the high end. Residential buildings in The

Chicago's Loop neighborhood real estate

Loop neighborhood offer a great number of amenities such as exercise facilities, saunas, hot tubs, whirlpools, swimming pools, storage, and laundry services. Some condos even offer heated parking for its upscale residents.

According to the MLS of Northern Illinois, residential units in the Loop increased in value by 15% between 1994 and 2005. In 2009, the median sales price of a condominium in Chicago-Loop was $300,250. While home prices in the rest of the country have tanked in the last couple years, residential units in Chicago’s Loop District are only off by about 14% on a per square foot basis. While the median price seems to indicate a weaker real estate market in the Chicago-Loop, the average listing price is still in the range of $480,000.

In many parts of the country, the real estate market is showing signs of recovery. While we are not seeing a rebound in the Chicago market just yet, prices have steadied at the mid-2007 price point, which had only shown better performance once in early 2005.

For singles or families looking for one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom residential units in the Loop area of downtown Chicago, there remains a nice selection of properties to choose from. Some units where built in decades past, but there are many residential skyscrapers that have been built in just the past few years.

The Loop provides a nice mix of new buildings and historic landmarks, where residents can found housing, with awesome views of the Chicago skyline and nearby Lake Michigan.

No matter where you might choose to live in the Chicago-Loop, you will find that you are less than 20 blocks from Lake Michigan and Millennium Park. Getting back to nature is made much easier for the residents of the Loop, even in this sea of steel towers and abstract sculptures. For More information about Chicago real estate stop by

www.seechicagorealestate.com or Call Ted Guarnero @ Baird and Warner 312-810-6693