Crain's Confused on Direction of Real Estate in Chicago

First,here's part of a story from August 18, 2014 from Crain's Chicago Business.

The metastasizing problem of unfunded pension obligations hasn't prevented real estate investors from plunking down big sums — even record-breaking ones — to snap up property in the Chicago area.

Photo by Jaysin Trevino via Flickr.com

The possibility of substantial tax increases to pay for the city's and state's unfunded pension obligations hasn't prevented real estate investors from plunking down big sums—even record-breaking ones—to snap up property in the area.
“I think it's an issue, but I don't think it's stopping anyone from investing in Chicago,” says Mark Stern, senior vice president of acquisitions at Waterton Associates LLC, a Chicago-based hotel and apartment investor whose local properties include Presidential Towers in the West Loop.

In February, for example, a New York financial services firm snapped up a small retail building on Oak Street for about $19 million, or nearly $3,000 per square foot. In May, a California company announced it would pay a record $850 million for a River North office tower. And last month, a Los Angeles apartment firm dropped $78 million for an apartment complex in Arlington Heights, the highest price for a multifamily property in suburban Chicago since February 2013. 

Here's another story from November 2013, 

Real estate investors are slightly warming up to Chicago, but they still think a host of other cities are hotter.

The Chicago market's score inched up to 6.11 this year from 6.05 in 2012, according to the annual “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report published by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Yet the local market remains stuck in place when compared to other large metropolitan areas, ranking 12th out of 15, the same as last year.

In Chicago, “the investment and development outlook remained virtually unchanged from 2013 to 2014,” with many respondents indicating they think next year will be one to simply stand pat on their assets in the region, the report says.

Looks like two very different messages in the span of nine months from the same news organization with no explanation of the sudden shift.

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