Dollar Homes Lack Buyers

No bids in Barrington

By STEVE RHODES

Updated 1:55 PM CST, Sat, Oct 31, 2009

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The housing market is so bad you can't even give away homes these days.

Officials in suburban Barrington put three homes up for a sale at just a dollar a piece - a dollar! - and didn't get a single bidder.

A dollar!

Let's review: For less than the price of a CTA ride, a Starbuck's coffee, or the typical tip slipped under a stripper's G-string, you could have bought a home in Barrington.

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Sure, buying a house means assuming the future costs of upkeep, but a dollar!

"Even if you're offering a house for a dollar, sometimes all those logistics can make it difficult, especially in this market," Lisa DiChiera of the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois told the Daily Herald.

Though the homes aren't officially designated landmarks, they are believed to have some historic value; that's why Barrington officials want to sell the homes - which are located in the suburb's downtown - rather than just demolish them to make way for development, which is the alternative.

Buyers would be required to relocate the homes, but still. All three could be had for less than the cost of a Subway footlong. And your purchase would last a lot longer.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.

Copyright NBC Local Media

First Published: Oct 30, 2009 8:11 AM CST

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0 Comments

{"totSize":36,"payload_type":"json","status":"1","results":[{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_67566177","adminTags":null,"views":2271,"createdBy":13994193,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Dollar Homes Lack Buyers","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":2600286,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"31 Oct 2009 15:25:04 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"BillKonrad","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"1161323","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"No wonder nobody wants these houses for one dollar. You are buying one large headache, the cost of moving a house in Chicago must be astronomical. I must admit it's a good grab your reader headline."},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_67566177","adminTags":null,"views":2271,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Dollar Homes Lack Buyers","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":2600286,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"31 Oct 2009 16:03:20 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"1161476","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"I like how at the very end there's this little tidbit: "Buyers would be required to relocate the homes, but still." UHH DUH no wonder nobody wants these homes! You'd have the HUGE expense of physically moving these old broken down homes... I mean "historic" homes. What idiot wrote this article?"},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_67566177","adminTags":null,"views":2271,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Dollar Homes Lack Buyers","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":2600286,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"31 Oct 2009 16:57:07 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"1161620","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Chicago. Talk about the most f'd up and corrupt place on the planet! Even if these houses DIDN'T have to be moved, it's no wonder they can't even be given away. Thanks for dumping the illegal Kenyan Muslim Marxist Racist Usurping White House squatter and his Commie comrades on the whole country!"},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_67566177","adminTags":null,"views":2271,"createdBy":7918844,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Dollar Homes Lack Buyers","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":2600286,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"31 Oct 2009 16:57:17 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"anonymous_user","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"1161623","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Interesting that more info was not provided in article! I would think there would be developers in Chicago that could afford to more these homes, fix them up and still make a profit. However, as I said, a lot of info is missing. I suppose not having any pictures was a deliberate move."},{"anonName":null,"pathToMedia":"388834_67566177","adminTags":null,"views":2271,"createdBy":13996117,"createdByPathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","assocMediaId":null,"mediaName":"Dollar Homes Lack Buyers","parentThreadId":null,"mediaId":2600286,"tags":null,"anonSiteUrl":null,"assocMediaType":null,"createdAt":"31 Oct 2009 17:21:58 GMT","anonEmail":null,"isVisible":true,"approved":true,"numComments":5,"reviewed":true,"createdByUsername":"TomHennessy","pathToPreview":"","mediaType":"EXTERNALMEDIA","commentId":"1161689","subject":"","averageRating":0,"body":"Just imagine what it's going to cost to move the White House to Chicago in three years when Barack, Rahm, Valerie et al come back home and bring it and anything else not nailed down with them."}],"error":"","totPages":8}