Historic houses humbled by downturn

Well, the US housing market is currently collapsing faster than Gov. Eliot Spitzers career, but apparently there is a thin silver lining amidst all this lending turmoil in the form of historic architecturally-significant buildings suddenly becoming affordable to all of us five-figure making schlubs. While the banks scramble to save their butts and low-interest rates remain in the air, many previous unfordable historic properties have now hit a rock bottom low (California and Nevada especially) and are waiting to be snatched up.

This small Keck & Keck house in Chicago Heights, a property that would easily fetch over $1 million, was recently purchased for a mere $213,000 thanks to the tumbling markets and some keen craigslisting. An even more impressive Frank Lloyd Wright (well, Wright himself didn’t design it, but it’s still impressive) Prairie style house just went for $585,000 in Los Angeles, an already ultra-inflated housing market. This trend is probably going to get worse before it gets any better, but consider this economic downturn as a time to make some wise investments.

Portfolio.com