Is Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey on the right track when he suggests merging the offices of recorder of deeds and county clerk?

In Downstate McLean County they evidently think so. Last week, the county board there voted to send the same issue to referendum on the November ballot.

John Fritchey (John H. White~Sun-Times)

Fritchey already has introduced an ordinance backing a Cook County merger, which he thinks will save the county $1 million a year.

Why, an experienced real estate lawyer asked, are Chicago condominium buildings turning away buyers for units that banks have foreclosed on?

The lawyer cited a condo complex with hundreds of units in Edgewater, where the board turned down a young woman who was ready to close Thursday on a foreclosed unit for $63,000. Instead, the building manager said, the board decided to exercise its right of first refusal and purchase the unit itself, as it had already done with two other units in the past 18 months.

The reason, the building manager told the lawyer, was the board was afraid such a low sales price would reduce the value of all the other units in the complex.

The unit in question would have gone for between $100,000 and $140,000 before the market crash, the lawyer said.

It sounded like a deal gone sour for the young buyer, who had good credentials and had already jumped through numerous hoops just to get as far as a scheduled closing.