Only time will tell whether buyers who overspent to purchase their homes will recoup their investments

A: You never know what is in store for housing prices in a particular neighborhood. Until quite recently, on the tiny North Shore of Chicago, houses have been selling for about what the owners paid some 25 years ago. Factor in the money spent for renovations, additions, or just simple maintenance and upkeep, and homeowners lost anywhere from hundreds of thousands of dollars to, in the case of at least several sellers we know, more than $1 million dollars.