Live in the Hottest Neighborhood: The Shoemaker Lofts at 3963 W. Belmont in Avondale

3963 w belmont approved

This 2-bedroom penthouse loft in The Shoemaker Lofts at 3963 W. Belmont in Avondale came on the market in May 2015 and is already under contract and pending.

Out of 175 units, there are 4 units currently on the market in the building and all 4 are under contract.

5 units have already closed so far this year.

This is an old Florsheim shoe factory that was converted at the height of the bubble in 2007.

We’ve chattered about foreclosures and short sales in the building before.

But that was then, and this is now.

Avondale is now considered one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city as buyers move north from the more expensive Logan Square.

This penthouse unit with south and east city views has concrete ceilings and exposed brick with floor to ceiling factory windows.

The kitchen has cherry cabinets with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

The master suite bathroom has a double vanity.

It has all the features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking.

Prices aren’t quite back to peak however.

This loft was listed about $55,000 under its 2007 purchase price.

Will this building ultimately be a gold mine for buyers?

Michael Shenfeld at Berkshire Hathaway KoenigRubloff has the listing. You can still see the pictures here.

Unit #508: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed

  • Sold in May 2007 for $325,500
  • Listed in May 2015 for $270,000 (included the parking)
  • Under contract and pending
  • Assessments of $330 a month (includes doorman)
  • Taxes of $2256
  • Central Air
  • Washer/Dryer in the unit
  • Bedroom #1: 12×12
  • Bedroom #2: 11×10

 

22 Responses to “Live in the Hottest Neighborhood: The Shoemaker Lofts at 3963 W. Belmont in Avondale”

  1. I don’t understand the appeal of living in a condo in a far flung neighborhood. You may as well move a bit further out and get a house.

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  2. Not only that, Jenny, but the blue line is having severe congestion & overcrowding issues (much worse than red line), I commute through both off and on (I live in Andersonville, gf lives in Portage), and there’s no way I’m ever buying a place where I have to rely on using the blue line to get to work.

    That being said, this is a nice corner unit, although the bedrooms are really small. If you have to buy a loft, a concrete one is the way to go. Taxes & assessments are great.

    If I were buying in Avondale I would avoid condos all together and try my hardest to save/leverage up and get a SFH or multi-family while they’re still cheap there. The day I hear “Avondale is one of the hottest neighborhoods” is the day I know I missed the boat in 2011/2012. Looks like that day has come.

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  3. I lived down the block from these condos for years. Avondale is definitely changing, but, it’s still a little sketchy. It’s attracting the hipsters who can’t afford logan. west of Pulaski is particularly sketchy and south of belmont is too. the commercial store fronts in the area haven’t quite caught up to the changing demographics so expect a lot of cell phone stores and rim shops. the neighborhood houses are smaller and the lots are too unlike north of addison four blocks away which becomes full blown Old Irving. The elementary school is Scammon and the school is undesirable for a lakeshore liberal. 95% low income, 89% hispanic and the students barely meet IL standards.

    IIRC the corner lot across the street was supposed to be a grocery store; haven’t sure if there’s been any progress on this, although I was just in the area a few weeks ago. This particular development was a bubble project that was a little ahead of the curve but unfortunately had bubble pricing.

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  4. I think this place is quite small to be asking that price, no surprise the realtor left the square footage off the listing as to not have a ridiculous $/sqft smacking potential buyers right in the face… that 2007 price though, OUCH!

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  5. I like the big windows and it looks like it has some good views of downtown from the balcony. The “Avondale is one of the hottest neighborhoods” comment made my day, though having bought there at the peak. I don’t think we’re quite back yet, as the 2007 price shows.

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  6. 1) it seems old Florsheim buildings were rip for conversion

    2) search Everyblock for this building and you will get an idea of the condo association and the nearby area

    3) it is right next door to an emergency pet hospital so Jenny’s dog would have world class health care access

    4) jesus HD, how many studios and basement apartments have you lived in?

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  7. “3) it is right next door to an emergency pet hospital so Jenny’s dog would have world class health care access”

    I can speak from experience, that hospital is more concerned about getting your credit card than anything else. like I said, I was in the neighborhood a few weeks ago, at that very hospital. My pet became gravely ill out of nowhere which is why my vet recommended I go there on an emergency basis.

    The vet wouldn’t do anything until we gave them a $2,000 deposit for their treatment plan. I’m not joking, $2,000 deposit for diagnostics like $400 EKG, $500 blood panel etc. We gave them $1,000 and said stabilize him.

    4 hours later my pet was dead and the bill came to exactly $1,068 for who knows what. Medical record fee, intake fee, disposal fee, medicine fee (which didn’t do nothing) etc. Just think if I had given them $2,000, I’m sure they would have found a way to spend every penny of it.

    I understand that people come in there all the time with no money saying “help my animal” but I got like no respect, they weren’t forthright with my pet’s condition, they didn’t diagnose anything other than ‘death’. I’m still ticked off as you can tell.

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  8. “ust think if I had given them $2,000, I’m sure they would have found a way to spend every penny of it. ”

    that sucks. we brought our cat there about this time last year. He was dead for an hour but we paid the $2K. Now he can walk on water and turn it into wine. 🙂

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  9. HD, I’m sorry about your pet. That’s really sad and the way they treated you sounds horrible. 🙁

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  10. “the school is undesirable for a lakeshore liberal. 95% low income, 89% hispanic and the students barely meet IL standards.”

    Lol, you nailed it and their hypocrisy. Their voting patterns and support for Obama’s “immigration reform” are insane in light of this kind of truth telling. Someone should stick southbound, or his so-called enlightened Lib kids in there so they can practice what his big-mouth preaches.

    That said, I think the area around St. Hyacinth Catholic church is a sleeper, a very peaceful area. There’s a good Polish deli over there and a cheap bar called Moe’s. The problem is it’s not walking distance to the Blue Line, which by the time it gets to Belmont has veered off of Milwaukee Ave. and is in the middle of the Kennedy.

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  11. “The “Avondale is one of the hottest neighborhoods” comment made my day, though having bought there at the peak. I don’t think we’re quite back yet, as the 2007 price shows.”

    Why does this make your day?

    It IS the hottest neighborhood in Chicago this spring. People are writing offers in their cars after seeing the homes or else they are losing out in bidding wars.

    Median home price this spring: $429,000. (Of course, as I always say about the median price- it’s in the mix.)

    The Florsheim factory was also where a bunch of the sales have come from.

    From Crain’s:

    http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20150602/CRED0701/150609980/homes-sales-are-popping-in-these-10-neighborhoods

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  12. “It’s attracting the hipsters who can’t afford logan. west of Pulaski is particularly sketchy and south of belmont is too. the commercial store fronts in the area haven’t quite caught up to the changing demographics so expect a lot of cell phone stores and rim shops. the neighborhood houses are smaller and the lots are too unlike north of addison four blocks away which becomes full blown Old Irving. The elementary school is Scammon and the school is undesirable for a lakeshore liberal. 95% low income, 89% hispanic and the students barely meet IL standards.”

    http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20150602/CRED0701/150609980/homes-sales-are-popping-in-these-10-neighborhoods

    This spring, David and Gia Kullgren have been on both sides of the city’s hottest neighborhood for home sales, selling their condo in Avondale and buying a bungalow a mile away.

    Their unit on Central Park Avenue sold in a week for almost 18 percent more than they were asking, and their offer on the Fletcher Street bungalow was accepted after just nine days on the market. They paid $305,000, or more than 98 percent of what the sellers wanted.

    “It is insane in Avondale this year,” David Kullgren said.

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  13. “The day I hear “Avondale is one of the hottest neighborhoods” is the day I know I missed the boat in 2011/2012. Looks like that day has come.”

    You missed the boat years ago when renovators were buying up the foreclosures.

    http://cribchatter.com/?p=16182

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  14. And what about the other 11% of Scammon students? Offspring of expatriate Lakefront Liberals who are enrolled in “magnet” programs that largely keep them away from the riff-raff, both within and beyond the school walls?

    If so, maybe Scammon is getting into position to become the next Nettlehorst. I’ll leave it to the rest of you to decide if that’s a good thing.

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  15. West of Pulaski is not sketchy – it’s dingy on Belmont but nice once you hit the internal streets. Lived near Keeler and Melrose for a couple years now and love the area. Quiet at night, no crime outside except for alley graffiti and drunk polish bums. Community presence is growing. Walk to Kilbourn park. Intrinsic is a great charter that recently opened up. Scammon is fine (and getting better) – they are level 1. Disney 2 is proximity. The area is wedged btw logan and irving, both of which are undergoing massive change. I’ve noticed change in the neighborhood since moving here. 2011/2012 was definitely the time to buy, but there are still some deals.

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  16. Laura Louzader on June 7th, 2015 at 8:08 am

    Never thought I would live long enough to see Belmont & Pulaski become “hot” or “hip”, while the hipsters scorn the near north side and Streeterville as “the viagra triangle”. This far west nabe is one of the dullest, fugliest neighborhoods in the city.

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  17. Sabirina or any other expert, I have some questions. During the last housing bubble people were putting down either 0% or 3% down. Now in this current housing bubble are people still putting down very low amounts like 3% to 5%? Or are they putting down 20%? How can I find out the actual data? How can I find out the actual foreclosure inventory that the banks are still holding back? That is critical because if they are still holding a large inventory then it may not be prudent to buy now.

    If any expert can answer the above questions it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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  18. “Now in this current housing bubble are people still putting down very low amounts like 3% to 5%? Or are they putting down 20%?”

    It depends. It depends on the building/location and type of property. Some banks are allowing as low as 3% down for many properties.

    The difference between now and in 2005-2007 is that there aren’t as many interest only loans. But you don’t need them this time because the mortgage rates are so low. The reason for interest only was to keep the monthly payment as low as possible.

    There is less being built this time around- much, much less. There is less speculation by mom and pop investors (but more by “professional” investors including private equity funds and management funds like Blackstone.)

    No two markets are the same at different time periods.

    As for foreclosures, you can find out how many are in the pipeline by googling it. There are firms that keep track with how many are still to come and how many the banks may be holding onto. That being said, the banks have slowly been working their way through their inventory and now they’re being rewarded with record high prices. In Illinois, the time from the filing of the lis pendens foreclosure to the bank taking it back to it coming back on the market can be anywhere from 2 years to 6 years. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen people still living in units when they haven’t paid since 2010.

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  19. Nimesh: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-07/another-bubble-alert-home-down-payments-hit-three-year-low

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  20. The Q1 2015 U.S. Home Purchase Down Payment Report shows the average down payment for single family homes, condos and townhomes purchased in the first quarter was 14.8 percent of the purchase price, down from 15.2 percent in the previous quarter and down from 15.5 percent a year ago to the lowest level since Q1 2012..

    The report also shows that the average down payment for FHA purchase loans originated in the first quarter was 2.9 percent of the purchase price while the average down payment for conventional loans was 18.4 percent of the purchase price..

    FHA loans as a share of loan originations increased throughout the quarter, from 21 percent in January to 22 percent in February to 25 percent in March.

    “Down payment trends in the first quarter indicate that first time homebuyers are finally starting to come out of the woodwork, albeit it gradually,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “New low down payment loan programs recently introduced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with the lower insurance premiums for FHA loans that took effect at the end of January are helping, given that first time homebuyers typically aren’t able to pony up large down payments..

    The share of low down payment loans — defined in the report as purchase loans with a loan-to-value ratio of 97 percent or higher, which would mean a down payment of 3 percent or lower — was 27 percent of all purchase loans in the first quarter, up from 26 percent in the fourth quarter and also 26 percent a year ago to the highest share since Q2 2013. Low down payment loans accounted for 83 percent of FHA purchase loans originated in the first quarter, while 11 percent of conventional loans were low down payment loans.

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  21. @Nimesh I’m no expert but I can tell you that I would never put down more than I have to since it isn’t really a game changer, especially at the current mortgage rates.

    In theory you can always pay down your mortgage faster by sending the bank extra payments, but you may not be able to recoup your down payment if you have to sell too soon or in another bust market.

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  22. Agree with Laura. Why live way out here in a condo in this boring area? Buy an SFH in the burbs, instead. This is the worst of both worlds – no city amenities, but no suburban peace and quiet.

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