Chicago Luxury Condominium

Oh, to own a Chicago luxury condominium.  Aren’t they incredible looking?  Sleek, tall, new constructed glass high rises with breathtaking views.  All the amenities at your door step.  Grocery shopping, hair and nails and the dry cleaner’s literally just steps from the elevator opening.  The pool and spa area, the restaurants and the magnificent open lobby entrance await you after a hard days work. 

How is it possible to own such a piece of Chicago condo real estate? The word luxury means proving great comfort, expensive.  What is expensive? We’re going to start with anything that is priced over $1,000,000.  There are eight hundred and five Chicago luxury condos on the market priced between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000.  Most of these are in Chicago’s River North, Chicago’s Downtown Loop, Chicago’s South Loop, Chicago’s West Loop, Chicago’s Gold Coast and Chicago’s Streeterville area.

To finance a luxury condo, most banks will require that you put down at least 25%-30% of the purchase price.  For that one million dollar condo that you want to buy, you may need $300,000 for your down payment.  That leaves a $700,000 mortgage.  With today’s interest rate of 5.5%, it will cost you roughly $4,000 per month for your mortgage.  Then there are the monthly taxes and association fees.  You can predict the taxes to be about $1,000 per month, and depending on the property and its amenities, we’ll predict the association fees to be around $500 per month. 

So, if you have $300,000 and can afford a monthly payment of $5,500 you are in the game.  The choices for Chicago luxury condos are immense.  There are so many developers that need to move product that the prices on these gems is at an all-time low.  There are people that originally bought the units as speculators, wanting to flip the units for a profit, but got stuck with them when the market came down in value.  Now they own these condos and cannot afford the $5,500 per month themselves.  People are walking away from these units, being foreclosed on.  Banks have a huge array of condos in their portfolio that they want to get rid of.  It goes, on and on and on. 

There’s so much opportunity to pick up a Chicago luxury condo at bargain basement prices today. The best way to start is get in front of local realtors that have knowledge in the area and pick their brains for all the possibilities.  They work the market everyday and know about deals because they’re in the business. Study all the sale prices of condos to see if you’re really getting a good deal.  When you finally find that Chicago luxury condo that you’ve always wanted, don’t hesitate.  Treat yourself to the good life.