The Chicago Market Is Far From “Normal”: 2965 N. Sheridan in East Lakeview
We’ve chattered about this 4-bedroom mediterranean style home nicknamed the “Tuscan Villa” at 2965 N. Sheridan in East Lakeview several times over the years.
See our last chatter, in April 2011, here.
If you recall, the house has some unique features, including an interior atrium and a solarium.
Built on a 23×151 lot, all 4 bedrooms are on the second floor.
The kitchen has luxury appliances including Subzero and Bosch.
There is also central air and a 2-car garage.
It has been on the market since November 2007- which is almost FIVE YEARS.
Not only that, but the bank filed a lis pendens foreclosure 25 months ago.
Since we last chattered about the house in April 2011 the price still remains stuck at $2.35 million.
Anyone care to guess when the bank will actually take this house back?
And how long after that it will come back on the market at a reduced price?
How many other houses are like this one all over the city of Chicago (waiting for the bank to take it back- sometimes for years?)
Brent Rosenbower at Prudential Rubloff still has the listing. See the pictures here.
2965 N. Sheridan: 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4600 square feet, 2.5 car garage
- I couldn’t find an original sales price
- Listed in November 2007 for $2.8 million
- Reducedand re-listed
- Was listed in August 2008 for $2.28 million
- Lis Pendens filed in September 2008
- Was listed in October 2008 for $2.28 million
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in July 2010
- Was listed in April 2011 for $2.35 million
- Currently still listed for $2.35 million
- Taxes now $9931 (they were $9348)
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 43×20 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 12×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 20×10 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 23×20 (second floor)
The $2.35 mln for this little attached townhome next to a bus stop on Sheridan Road continues to make no sense. It’s a huge joke.
1 Million probably sells it, and that might be generous
Why not short sell? These people want about $1.5 million too much.
Those taxes seem relatively low for the location and square footage.
That whole row of townhouses needs to be bulldozed… no continuity of facade, half look abandonded and a couple (like this one) have horrific rehabs.
If I have to look at this pos one more time I’m gonna barf
Kinda off-topic. Curious what homedelete/sabrina and other housing bears on here think of Bill McBride at Calculated Risk calling a housing bottom. You think his numbers apply to Chicago? Yves Smith and Barry Ritholtz seem pointedly but respectfully in the opposing bear camp.
I agree these should have been demolished years ago. Some of the worst-looking townhomes around. I’d be embarrassed to live in one, and asking $1 million or more for one is crazy. I realize this is a lot of square feet, but I’m sure 1/3 of it is basement.
I’m kind of curious what the selling price of this one was back in the day. Obviously it’s been renovated (for better or worse), but I’m sure the seller would not want people to know what they bought it for, or what the buyer before them paid, because I’m sure it was in the very low six figures.
Wtf is up with those taxes? Something is definitely not right here.
“Curious what homedelete/sabrina and other housing bears on here think of Bill McBride at Calculated Risk calling a housing bottom. You think his numbers apply to Chicago?”
His data is national and it’s pretty clear from the graphs that it looks like the worst of it is over. But it varies from city to city (as the initial downturn did.) The inventories are really shrinking in many markets which is key to putting a floor under the market.
The thing about the “bottom” is that it doesn’t really help those who still find themselves 25% to 40% underwater. They’re still stuck in their homes. There is this common misperception that just because we find a bottom that the market is somehow fixed for everyone. But that will take decades.
In the Chicago suburbs, it’s a great time to buy. I recently saw a new-ish 2-bedroom townhouse on the market for $46,000 with the kitchen and baths intact in the south suburbs. What would your mortgage payment be (if you weren’t buying it in cash?) It’s an amazing time to be buying in some areas.
LOL at the 43×20 master!
Them’s some Atlanta or Dallas home dimensions, there.
It’s also fun to think that I’ve lived in appartments– entire appartments– 10-20% smaller than that bedroom.
The market is trying to revert to normalcy but the banks won’t let it, as evidenced by long squatting times of up to five years for delinquent borrowers, and fantasy prices far in excess of any reasonable valuation for houses that linger on the market for years.
People who’ve come of age since 1980 have absolutely no idea what a “normal” housing market is. We last had a truly normal market in the 70s, before inflation became rampant and we decided to run our economy on borrowing money and selling each other lattes and second and third mortgages.
A “normal” housing market is one like the one we had 1950-1978 or thereabouts. Houses appreciated in keeping with inflation, about 2% a year. You didn’t buy a house for “appreciation”, or to “make money”. You bought the place in order to have housing security and get a place paid for by the time you retired, if not before. Mortgages were conservative- the underwriting standard was no more than 2.5X your income- and you’d better not have a big car loan. FHA 3.5% down mortgages were about 5% of the market and strict underwriting guidelines for income multiples and credit ratings were applied. Most people went conventional with 20% down- my mother put 40% down and was nervous she would not get written because she was a divorcee.
We are now reverting to a truly normal market, the first time in over 3 decades, even though our pols and oligarchs are doing their level best to keep prices elevated as much as possible and hopefully reblow the bubble by throwing subsidies at the housing market.
This disaster of a townhouse is an example. There is NO WAY the lender would keep this thing on the books and not price it where it needs to be to sell, were it not for government assistance for the major financial firms. The lender would have to mark the value of this place for what it would sell for, not a fantasy price that the lender needs to get to keep from showing a huge loss.
For every house like this, there is another one that sells.
My neighbor sold his house in two months for 3 million:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Brook/3111-York-Rd-60523/home/14179702
Does this mean the market is hot? No – of course not. Just as this house being on the market for so long doesn’t mean the market is dead. As a moderator, it might be interesting to balance these properties with properties that sell fast and for a lot of money.
wow, clio….that looks like a power-center (shopping center) developer’s home, they even have their own detention pond! Hope the parking lot drains into it correctly.
I’m kinda baffled how nice the inside of this house looks. I used to live in a crappy, overpriced studio (probably half of the size of this listings living room) on Oakdale at Sheridan and even then I always thought these townhomes were a terrible eyesore. Some of them on the southern part of this row look like trailers squeezed tightly together.
This has to be most epic fail in curb appeal in the history of $1+ million homes.
“As a moderator, it might be interesting to balance these properties with properties that sell fast and for a lot of money.”
Like what?
I can give you plenty of properties that are “selling fast” (including that new construction at 2910 N. Sheffield which the agent said had multiple offers the first week on the $450,000 2/2.)
But for “a lot of money”?
That’s the hard part.
Properties that are selling “fast” are either:
1. New construction
2. Foreclosure/bank owned
3. Completely rehabbed (aka “new”)
4. Priced at 1998-2002 prices
From the outside, this place looks a little like a house I used to own in Curitiba, Brazil. Except this one is not attractive. And this one is priced about $1.7M higher. And the taxes are in another stratosphete. This listing is just nutty.
Gross! I don’t know why these are still up. A developer should buy them all out and tear it down. We tear down SO MANY beautiful buildings (like the old chicago mercantile exchange building) why not these damn ugly things. It’s a okay location so I’m sure something nice can go up. I’m no high rise person but these are just nasty and high rise would be better!
This is my favorite listing ever.
And yes, I mean that ironically.
What did these look like originally? I can’t imagine they were as hideous then.
It’s relisted yesterday as a short sale for 1.7MM