What's Going On With South Loop Real Estate?

We're doing this post with the intention of starting a dialog about Sloopers thoughts on real estate in the neighborhood.

Throughout the past decade (probably longer), it has been well documented that Sloop real estate was hot.  Then it was not.   Now it's warming up again?

We like to monitor the pulse of the real estate market and it does seem like there has been an uptick.  After perusing some real estate listing sites, we noticed that some of the 2bd/2bth condos we were looking at back in 2007 and 2008 are around the same price now.  We also noticed that a condo (with the exact same floor plan) in our building sold for the same amount that we bought our condo back around this time.

There was a recent Q&A on Chicago Magazine's real estate blog asking a similar question:

Q. Dennis, we own a 2 BD/2 BA, condo in a loft building in the South Loop. We bought a home in the western burbs [and rented the condo out]. We’ve had issues with our renters, so we want to move quickly to sell the condo. 

The market has been so wacky and there are no real comps. Our real estate agent is using another home that’s for sale on our floor as a comp. Next to a different layout, better view, and indoor parking (we have outdoor parking), it’s roughly the same square footage, is well-maintained, and has some nice upgrades like our home does. 

This “comp” on our floor went on the market in July for $358k. They have since lowered the price to $348k. Our agent is suggesting we price our unit at $336k.  

Has the market really improved that much to be asking this price? I originally thought the fair market value of our home was around $280k! We paid $350k in April 2006. That included $30k for parking. 

The short answer that Dennis Rodkin, the real estate agent said was "no, the market hasn't improved that much."  Although it has improved some.

Anyway, we're curious to hear what you're thoughts are on this topic.