Historic “Race House” Still Available and Reduced Again: 3945 N. Tripp in Old Irving Park

We have chattered about the 5-bedroom home at 3945 N. Tripp, also known as the “Race House” in Old Irving Park several times since May 2009.

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See our October 2010 chatter here.

It has been on and off the market since August 2007.

Back in October, most of you were in love with the renovation done on the house.

Steve said he would be a buyer at $750,000.

The house has been reduced again is now listed at $799,000.

Built for Stephen Race, one of the members of the founding family of Irving Park, the Victorian Italianate house was designated a Chicago landmark in 1988.

According to Wikipedia, the house originally cost $12,000 to build in 1873.

It has been fully renovated and now has a chef kitchen with double oven and custom cabinets.

There is a full english basement and a 3000 bottle wine cellar.

Built on a 50×75 lot, it has central air and 2-car parking- looks like on a side driveway.

Since January 2009, it has been reduced $400,000.

Will Steve be a buyer at $750,000?

Heather Lange at Koenig & Strey Real Living still has the listing. See the pictures and floorplan here.

3945 N. Tripp: 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 half baths, 5800 square feet, 2 car parking

  • Sold in November 1997 for $285,000
  • Sold in January 2002 for $639,500
  • Originally listed in August 2007
  • Was listed in January 2009 for $1.199 million
  • Reduced
  • Was listed in October 2010 for $947,000
  • Reduced
  • Currently listed at $799,000
  • Taxes of $3881
  • Central Air
  • Bedroom #1: 30×18 (third floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 16×15 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #3: 17×14 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #4: 17×10 (second floor)

45 Responses to “Historic “Race House” Still Available and Reduced Again: 3945 N. Tripp in Old Irving Park”

  1. **homedelete hat on**

    I wouldn’t pay more than a penny above the 1873 price.

    **homedelete hat off**

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  2. I really like this place–If all I cared about was my home and not were it was located. WHat is the vibe in this area. Wonderful looking home and a good value.

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  3. “**homedelete hat on**”

    Funny, but I’m pretty sure that *even* HD would gladly pay the 1997 price for the house in it’s current condition.

    I think I could deal with the proximity to the Nugget and the Y at that price. But I’m honestly not sure.

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  4. This house is gorgeous, but I wonder if it’s not selling because of the location? Very close to the Kennedy, close to Irving Park Road, and apparently surrounded by parking lots for the Golden Nugget, YMCA, etc. Also, there doesn’t appear to be a back yard.

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  5. Icarus, is this a case of too much house for the location?

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  6. Do the taxes seem low to anyone else?

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  7. Oh that’s a parking lot! WHat a beauty wasted. Could you imagine sitting in a side yard just enjoying your home’s history and beauty? What a shame.

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  8. I like the access to the blue line. That parking lot destorys it for me though.

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  9. “Also, there doesn’t appear to be a back yard.”

    Right! Forgot about that problem, too.

    Jason–

    “vibe” of the greater general area is nice, but the *immediate* area is dominated by freeway-exit, residential-YMCA, 24-hour pancake restaurant, chic. Highway Commercial zone, with an urban twist.

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  10. “Do the taxes seem low to anyone else?”

    Without checking, reno abatement and historic preservation credit/abatement. The reno abatement expires/reduces after 7(?? I think.) years, then goes to market AV.

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  11. How much do you think the Golden Nugget lot goes for? LOL. Man, I am a little sad.

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  12. “Right! Forgot about that problem, too.”

    The main appeal of a house to me is so you can lie barefoot in your grassy yard with your flowers.

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  13. I am a big fan of the Old Irving area bound by Irving-Addison and Kostner-Pulaski. This home happens to be on the fringe of that area and has “spectacular views” of the Y and Golden Nugget parking lots. However I don’t think that is the worst part about the place. The odd short lot with no yard and no garage are the killers.

    For this area I would look for a tear down on a deeper lot. They are somewhat rare, but if you really want the best of Old Irving they are out there…

    http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3739-N-Kildare-Ave-60641/home/13457707

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  14. here is a prime example of a great house in a terrible location

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  15. Old irving is getting killed right now. Quite a few homes listed above 500k yet hardly any have sold in the last 12 months, one if I remember correctly. Prices will most assuredly drop. Look at the area on redin and see the large number of really expensive homes just sitting. Its an interesting neighborhood in a great location but it can’t support these prices. Its a great example of a neighborhood that prices will fall for years to come.

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  16. That deep lot on kildare went under contract in a matter of day. Teardowns wwith deep lots at the peak were in the 400’s and now they’re in the 200’s.

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  17. James ruffled a few feathers on this site but I must say that I agree with these parting words.

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  18. This house isn’t this house once it was finished is it?

    http://chicagomoneypit.com/index-old.htm

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  19. Icarus:

    no, but awfully similar:

    http://chicagomoneypit.com/CMP/History/House%20History%20Main.htm

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  20. Jeez would it kill these agents to proofread their listings once in a while?

    I think it’s such a shame that there aren’t enough buyers out there for all these beautiful old historic places. I do fear for what might happen to some of them.

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  21. “here is a prime example of a great house in a terrible location”

    if it had the same crappy golden nugget next to it and ymca out the front door but was located in ELP it would be listed at 2.5mil and bought at 2.1mil

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  22. “Icarus, is this a case of too much house for the location?”

    Not exactly. I think a lot of the homes in OIP are as nice or nicer. Unfortunately, this home had the bad fortune of a few heavy traffic commerical properties being built in too close proximity. You could live with the Y but the Denny’s does impact it negatively.

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  23. “Funny, but I’m pretty sure that *even* HD would gladly pay the 1997 price for the house in it’s current condition.
    I think I could deal with the proximity to the Nugget and the Y at that price. But I’m honestly not sure.”

    IDK but that 2002 price isnt that shabby considering. and list price is almost there.

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  24. According to Wikipedia, the house originally cost $12,000 to build in 1873.

    And from the Crib Chatter archives from 1873:

    “I’m not familiar with the area, but maybe as investment property” Clio’s Great Grandfather

    “Only enough stables for 4 horses, price must come down” Sonies

    “Not a halfpence more than $10,000” HD

    “I dated a girl who worked as a maid at this place, man the stories she could tell” Great-Grand-Daddy Groove1873

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  25. This house used to face irving park road when it was bulit and it was modified to face tripp. The people who renovated the house was it was a vagrant boarding house and in terrible condition until the late 90’s

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  26. “You could live with the Y but the Denny’s does impact it negatively.”

    You do realize it is a residential Y, right?

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  27. That would change it’s location a bit Groove.

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  28. Nice synopsis icarus. It my ancestors from england thought it coat at least 2 shillings too much.

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  29. you just have stables space for at least 4 horses and your buggy, no buggy port = epic fail

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  30. Gee – all the comments and nobody’s talked about the school district yet!

    Only one I know about is St. Viator’s.

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  31. 11 SFH/Condo sold over $400,000 in the last 6 months
    27 SFH/Condo listed over $400,000 currently.

    Old Irivng has a long way to go and buyers are waiting.

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  32. Homedelete- I took some pictures of homes there over a year ago and all of them except 1 are still on the market today.

    To these sellers- this is a “bad” market (that’s what I hear from sellers all the time.)

    When in reality- they are just priced completely wrong.

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  33. But Sabrina – they can’t just give it away!

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  34. ha! Exactly.

    So it sits and sits and we chatter about the small or non-existant price reductions or they withdraw the house only to relist it 6 months later at nearly the same price- to “try again.” But, by then, the market has fallen even more.

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  35. The neighborhood cannot support the large number of million dollars homes that were built during the boom. IMHO most will eventually sell for far less than than a million – probably in $600,000’s or $700,000’s, see 3700 N. Keeler that was a nearly completely finished new construction brick home with an original builder ask over a million that sold for $655,00 as a foreclosure.

    The Race home should sell in the low $700’s or maybe even the $600’s – and at the end of the day, that’s still a tremendous amount of money; that’s still a large mortgage payment even with a large down payment, purchased by a household with an income far above the Chicago median.

    This in turn will push down the prices on the coveted typical renovated chicago Victorians in the area into the high $300’s, or low $400’s, from the mid $400’s they are now. And the rest of the homes in the area will probably stay in the 100’s to the 200’s for ‘needs work’ to the $300’s for ‘recently rehabbed’ (See 4055 N. Kenneth as a foreclosure for $120k to $350k rehabbed and under contract in days). The problem is the ability of the current homeowners to take a loss to sell – many of whom cannot – and that’s why so few properties are listed and most of them are very very stale and most are very high end. Nevertheless, homes in the area still sell for a significant premium to home of the surrounding neighborhoods (mayfair, portgage park, avondale & albany park) and will continue to do so.

    “#Sabrina on June 12th, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Homedelete- I took some pictures of homes there over a year ago and all of them except 1 are still on the market today.

    To these sellers- this is a “bad” market (that’s what I hear from sellers all the time.)

    When in reality- they are just priced completely wrong.”

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  36. “The problem is the ability of the current homeowners to take a loss to sell – many of whom cannot – and that’s why so few properties are listed and most of them are very very stale and most are very high end.’

    Sure. This is true of the entire city and the Chicagoland metro area.

    Unless they short sell it- most can’t price it low enough to actually sell it. So you have this stand-off between buyers and sellers with all these unrealistically priced properties sitting on the market for years.

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  37. For sure sabrina, and yet, people still continue to say that we are at the bottom, or that housing is affordable, or that bc in some alternate universe there is rent parity then everything is ok. Yet so many buyers look att the stale overriced propertiies on the market and think “what I want is too expensive and what I can afford is crap so ill just wait. ”

    And sales volumes continue to drop.

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  38. homedelete, I agree we are not yet at the bottom, as land prices need to deflate more and older homes need to have a more true, depreciated value that reflects the costs of upgrades and renovation. Condo prices in older buildings should be much lower than they are presently.

    Real estate selling will also experience a paradigm shift, as an entire generation seems to have different expectations….

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  39. “Yet so many buyers look att the stale overriced propertiies on the market and think “what I want is too expensive and what I can afford is crap so ill just wait. ”

    I think you severely over-estimate the acumen of the typical consumer, even home buyer. Most buyers probably look at overpriced stale properties and think: “why won’t the bank give me a mortgage for it?” or “I really need 40k in cold hard cash to put down? What is this communist Russia? I want! I want!.”

    “and yet, people still continue to say that we are at the bottom, or that housing is affordable,”

    And yet this is true, too. Ran into someone in the legal profession recently who was sure we are at the bottom because “they deal with it on a day to day basis”. I thought the entire conversation was humorous because this person wasn’t even a lawyer and we have at least a legit lawyer on here to counter their perception.

    It does solidify my belief that people under 40 do not know or remember anything but rising or stable real estate prices. Think about it: today’s 40 year olds were what 10 years old when the fed caused the last real estate recession? And this one is _much_ bigger (and wasn’t induced by government intervention but a bubble collapsing under it’s own weight).

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  40. “today’s 40 year olds were what 10 years old when the fed caused the last real estate recession?”

    The last real estate recession was late 80s to early 90s. If you don’t think that was a big real estate recession, ask someone who actually worked in the industry then. I know plenty of people who had an involuntary change of career plans because of that real estate recession.

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  41. “today’s 40 year olds were what 10 years old when the fed caused the last real estate recession?”

    I guess that refers to me. Can someone provide the Reader’s Digest version of what happened, what caused it and how it finally recovered?

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  42. Icarus. I loved your post.

    Icarus on June 10th, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    And from the Crib Chatter archives from 1873:
    “I’m not familiar with the area, but maybe as investment property” Clio’s Great Grandfather
    “Only enough stables for 4 horses, price must come down” Sonies
    “Not a halfpence more than $10,000? HD
    “I dated a girl who worked as a maid at this place, man the stories she could tell” Great-Grand-Daddy Groove1873

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  43. “This in turn will push down the prices on the coveted typical renovated chicago Victorians in the area into the high $300’s, or low $400’s, from the mid $400’s they are now. And the rest of the homes in the area will probably stay in the 100’s to the 200’s for ‘needs work’ to the $300’s for ‘recently rehabbed’ (See 4055 N. Kenneth as a foreclosure for $120k to $350k rehabbed and under contract in days)”

    homedelete: was wondering what you thought a rehab like 4055 N Kenneth was worth today (not at the bottom, as you believe we are going lower, but today).

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  44. $779,000. Price keeps dropping.

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  45. Financedoc:

    4055 N Kenneth, listed at $350,000. OK rehab from what was an REO (with $500k plus in mortgages). Under K, probably close at $325, $330.

    THe problem with teh OIP market is that there are so few of these reasonable rehabs available at all, only this and that house next to the highway; and everything else is pretty much in the $500’s or higher (none of it selling BTW); so prices are elevated like this when stuff is selling. I think it’s probably worth, today, what it sells for, because quite frankly, there isn’t much else like it on the market.

    I’m more interested in the standard victorian that is all over the hood. One sold for $425 the other day, and a few months ago another for $445 IIRC>

    there’s just no inventory in this price range that’s reasonable. It’s in my opinion really bad for the neighborhood when no one can sell and eveyrthign is overpriced.

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