North Shore

No homes for sale in Tower Crossing in The Glen

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That’s right.  There are no homes available in Tower Crossing, the luxury townhome development in the heart of The Glen.

The Glen is an upscale residential and retail development in Glenview, Illinois in the Chicago area’s North Shore.  It is composed of eight residential neighborhoods (not counting retirement and assisted living communities) with a total of 1,349 homes and 3912 residents.  Glen Town Center is The Glen’s “Main Street” with scores of shops and restaurants, along with a movie theatre, coffee shop, book store and Kohl Children’s Museum.

Tower Crossing borders Glen Town Center on three sides which puts its residents within a few steps of dining and shopping venues.  This is one of the key attractions of Tower Crossing.  The homes are stunning, but the lifestyle is perhaps even more important to homeowners.

Tower Crossing has 154 four-story brick townhomes, all of which were sold by the developer years ago.  There are 6 models and 8 floor plans ranging in size from 3,031 to 4,105 square feet.  Home prices currently range from the low $600’s to around $800,000.  Many have views of Battery Park, Lake Glenview and The Glen Club’s 18 hole championship golf course.

Back to my point about inventory.  2013 has been an active one for Tower Crossing homes sales.  19 homes have sold and another is under contract waiting to close, but in a development of this size to have nothing currently on the market is rare.  Winter, of course, is typically slow in real estate, but Tower Crossing since its inception in 2003 has always had homes for sale either from the developer (through 2006) or since then from homeowners.  Another reason for no listings?  Because the people who live here LOVE IT.

Undoubtedly we will see some listings after the first of the year, so if you may be interested in Tower Crossing (where I proudly live!) or anywhere in The Glen, please contact me at margaretludemann@gmail.com.

Margaret Ludemann, Tower Crossing resident and @properties Realtor

Should I list my home now or wait until spring?

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Neighbors and clients here in The Glen (the North Shore’s premier lifestyle community in Glenview) often ask me about when is the best time of year to sell their home.  Here is what I tell them, and it is generally as true everywhere as it is here in The Glen.

The winter real estate market:  Homes DO sell in the winter, though not as many as during the rest of the year.  Spring and early summer are the strongest periods for home sales.  Typically there is a late summer swoon as many buyers want to have closed on their new homes prior to the start of school.  This is especially true here in The Glen where we have 1440 children according to the 2013 Glen census.  The market picks up again in mid-to-late September and does well until Thanksgiving.  There is a precipitous decline during the holiday season through February.  If a homeowner needs to list in winter, though, sales can indeed be made.  In fact, while there are fewer buyers in the dead of winter there are also fewer homes on the market with which to compete.  I could also argue that homes in The Glen, attractive to senior corporate executives, may be less impacted by seasonal sales swings due to in-transfers from large corporate headquarters in the area such as Kraft Foods, Allstate Insurance, Baxter International, Walgreens, and AON.  These tend to have little calendar bias.

If you can wait.  Smart homeowners with some flexibility on the timing of their listings should contact their realtors after the first of the year to begin making plans for listing their homes.  Realtors can use this time to develop the home’s marketing plan, arrange for professional photography of interiors, build a home-specific website, and design brochures.  If all of this has been accomplished by mid-February, a listing date of late February or early March positions a home to be among the first to be considered by spring buyers.

If you have any questions about buying in The Glen, please contact me at margaretludemann@gmail.com.

Margaret Ludemann, Glen Resident and @properties Realtor

“New Urbanism” in The Glen

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If you didn’t see Mary Ellen Podmolik’s story, “Paving the Way for a Vibrant Downtown”, in the Chicago Tribune on November 10th, please go online and find it.  Not only is Ms. Podmolik one of the finest journalists who write about real estate, but she selected a very timely and engaging topic…”new urbanism”.  In a nutshell the term means new homes in close proximity to create a feeling of neighborhood within walking distance of restaurants, shops and public transportation…yet often in suburban communities far from city center (read downtown Chicago).

The examples used by Ms. Podmolic are the School Street homes in Libertyville and the planned development on Floral Avenue in Skokie.  She points to research by the National Association of Realtors that shows that people will trade a large yard for a shorter commute and for a short walk to schools, restaurants and businesses.  But she might as well have written about The Glen, developed with this model in mind, fully a dozen years ago before the concept even had a name.

The Glen is a residential and retail community in the North Shore village of Glenview, Illinois.  The Glen has several neighborhoods, most within an easy walk to the retail hub called Glen Town Center which has scores of restaurants and shops along with a movie theater, coffee house, book store, and Kohl Children’s Museum.  Attea Middle School is also located in The Glen.

I live in a townhome development called Tower Crossing with 154 spectacular homes which border Glen Town Center.  We know our neighbors and see them constantly.  Our favorite activity is what we call “mailbox parties”, informal Sunday night cook outs in the common area by our mailboxes.  All homes are within a few STEPS of dining and shopping, and a few blocks from a Metra train station.  The Cambridge neighborhood with single family homes, townhomes, two-flats, and duplexes is just across Patriot Blvd from Glen Town Center.  Chapel Crossing’s many single family homes are a short walk as well.

If you may be interested in living in a “new urbanism” environment, please contact me.  I would love to show you what it’s like to live in The Glen.

Margaret Ludemann, Glen resident and @properties Realtor

Margaret.Ludemann@gmail.com   847-401-1802

The Chapel in The Glen

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Back in the day…47 chapels were built on naval air stations throughout the United States.  These houses of worship were used for non-denominational services.  So over the course of the many years of their service, particularly during World War II, hundreds of thousands of naval airmen and base staff worshiped in these simple yet beautiful structures.

One is left.

The last remaining naval chapel resides in The Glen, the North Shore’s premier lifestyle community in Glenview, Illinois.  The Glen was built on the former Naval Air Station Glenview after the base was decommissioned and sold to the village.  It consists of over 2,000 homes, nearly 5,000 residents, scores of shops and restaurants, two golf courses, the Kohl Children’s Museum, Gallery Park, Lake Glenview, and numerous beautiful neighborhoods each built by a different developer.

The Glen’s chapel, now called Schram Memorial Chapel, was moved from its original location, and rebuilt at the corner of Patriot Blvd and Chestnut Drive; it is across the street from the highly regarded Attea Middle School.  It is the cornerstone of a housing development called – appropriately – Chapel Crossing which houses 676 residents living in 167 single family homes.

Today the chapel is available for rent for a variety of events.  It is particularly popular as a venue for weddings, but it is also used extensively for baptisms, christenings, memorial services, Eagle Court of Honor ceremonies, and Bar & Bat Mitzvahs.  The main chapel has pew seating for 150; and on the lower level there is auditorium-style seating for 140 or banquet-style seating for 90.  To make reservations or to gain additional information you can call the Glenview Park District at 847-521-2562.

There is a lot to love about The Glen.  For information about homes for sale, please contact Glen resident Margaret Ludemann who is a Realtor with @properties Residential Brokerage, 847-401-1802 or by email margaretludemann@gmail.com.

Halloween in The Glen

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There’s no better place for a kid on Halloween than The Glen which is the North Shore’s premier lifestyle community, in Glenview Illinois.  This place is packed with kids of all ages, and the community goes all out to make Halloween fun and safe.

The heart of The Glen is our “downtown” called Glen Town Center, a three block long stretch of restaurants, shops, and a movie theater.  Every year Glen Town Center organizes activities for Halloween.  This year is no exception. Sunday October 27 there was a Pet Costume Parade which was huge fun.  It was followed by a Zombie Run for the Heart, a 5k run or 1 mile walk around Lake Glenview, across Patriot Blvd from Glen Town Center in Gallery Park.  The first 100 zombie participants received makeup and hair to make them as scary as possible!  On Monday the 28th a Halloween Film Festival is planned which includes dinner and a movie 5 screens of new releases and at midnight the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Another Halloween tradition is the party at Vi (formerly Hyatt), a beautiful retirement community in The Glen.  Children 8 and under are welcome to enjoy a clown band, ballroom art, face painting, carnival games, lots of cookies, and an airbrush tattoo artist.

Trick or treating is, of course, the highlight of The Glen’s Halloween week.  Many kids start their trick or treating in Glen Town Center where all of the merchants provide candy starting right after school.  The 1,420 children who live in The Glen are then off into the neighborhoods.  It’s quite a sight!  The Chapel Crossing, Landings and Southgate neighborhoods get the most trick or treaters; and many of their residents report having 500 or more kids come by.

The Glen is a great place for families.  My son loves it here, and he can’t imagine living anywhere else.  Neither can I.  If you might be interested in living in The Glen please contact me at 847-401-1802 or by email margaretludemann@gmail.com.

Margaret Ludemann, Resident of The Glen and @properties Realtor