How High Will Prices Go? A Million Dollar 1-Bedroom in Lakeshore East: 340 E. Randolph

340 e randolph

This 1-bedroom in 340 On the Park at 340 E. Randolph in Lakeshore East just came on the market.

It’s on the 14th floor and faces south, which is the preferred view, with views of Millennium Park, the Lake, Grant Park and the historic wall of buildings on Michigan Avenue.

It has the original Snaidero kitchen cabinets which were standard in the building, with quartz counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

It has bamboo floors.

The unit has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and parking is included.

As we’ve chattered about numerous times, prices have been moving higher in Chicago and all over the Chicagoland area over the last few years.

The median home price in the Chicagoland area rose 11.6% year over year in December to $217,700. It rose 4.3% for condos.

In Chicago’s GreenZone, the price increases have been even greater.

According to RealtyTrac, 38 out of 87 metropolitan areas saw record high prices last year. Inventory remains tight around the country so the number of record highs is expected to continue to rise in 2016.

From Bloomberg:

In March 2014, Steven and Bernadette Doherty paid $183,000 for a two-bedroom home in Charlotte, North Carolina, $6,000 more than its appraised value. Today, similar houses in the neighborhood are being priced at $300,000 or more.

“We bought at the right time,” said Bernadette, a retired Wells Fargo & Co. information technology worker. “In retrospect, we were lucky as prices have gone up so much more.”

In Charlotte, price gains have been led by in-town neighborhoods, which have seen “huge gains,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities who lives in the city. “Charlotte did not see home prices fall all that much during the recession and the recovery here has been very strong.”

Doherty moved in-town because she and her husband enjoyed amenities and events including nice restaurants and professional football and basketball. They also wanted to be closer to their grandchildren.

The purchase also has helped fuel spending. After buying a “fixer-upper,” the couple poured more than $100,000 into construction, repairing termite damage and installing new air conditioning, electrical fixtures, roofing and siding. Next year, they plan to expand with a new master-suite bedroom and bath that could cost another $70,000.

Rising values of neighboring homes make them confident they are making a worthwhile investment.

“It was a little bit risky” to buy at the time, Doherty said. “The market has turned in our favor.”

Charlotte, Dallas, San Francisco, Denver and Portland are all at record highs. Prices still lag in Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas but are well off their 2012 lows.

This unit at 340 On the Park is listed for $299,000 more than the 2008 sales price. The building has already been setting records the past several years.

Is this building an outlier? Or is it foreshadowing what’s to come in the rest of the GreenZone?

Chris Cho at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #1407: 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, 1186 square feet

  • Sold in September 2007 for $619,000 (included the parking)
  • Sold in March 2008 for $690,000 (included the parking)
  • Currently listed for $989,000 (includes the parking)
  • Assessments of $596 a month (includes doorman, clubhouse, exercise room, pool, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
  • Taxes of $10,803
  • Central Air
  • Washer/Dryer in the unit
  • Bedroom: 12×11

 

29 Responses to “How High Will Prices Go? A Million Dollar 1-Bedroom in Lakeshore East: 340 E. Randolph”

  1. Nice unit. Are these views protected?

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  2. Not sure what the intent of the article is

    The spent $183M + $100M of repairs/upgrades and are comparing it to houses in the area that sell for $300M?

    What’s up with Pic 7? Other than the Deck, this place is meh

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  3. Plenty of south facing 1br comps @ 800-900. High 9s is certainly a new record if it closes at that.

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  4. “Other than the Deck, this place is meh”

    It *is* a nice big one bedroom. You find 3 beds that are only a little bit bigger.

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  5. “Are these views protected?”

    yes

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  6. “Nice unit. Are these views protected?”

    Yes and no. nothing is really protected when it comes to the crooked city of chicago.

    but for the most part you should be okay, if not it will be a real lengthy battle before anything happens so you have time to get out (sell) before the wind gets to the masses.

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  7. You can do a lot better in Streeterville or the Gold Coast. While I like this area, it’s not so much better than other areas that I would be willing to pay $834 per square foot.

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  8. 340 on the Park is an anomaly. Does anyone have stats on surrounding buildings so we can compare since 2008 how prices here are always strong even with all the doom and gloom. As much as i dislike lake shore east this building is pimp.

    FINALLY!!!!!!! a place that got the bedroom/bathroom size in proportion to the living space! It gets the groove seal of approval.

    “Other than the Deck, this place is meh”

    So find me another one bedroom, this size, with these views, with this large of deck, that has proven to hold its value and appreciate when other have depreciated?

    Paint is cheap and your ouwn personal decor ideas you can add, *but you cant add more sqft.

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  9. A mil. for that?!?! That’s insane.

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  10. Million dollar condos aren’t just for the rich!

    http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/public-housings-gap-of-luxury-a-watchdogs-special-report/

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  11. “You can do a lot better in Streeterville or the Gold Coast.”

    Jenny, which units? where and how?

    I get GC and streeter may have stuff *closer but really you are talking only ONE mile away, if that.

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  12. “So find me another one bedroom, this size, with these views, with this large of deck, that has proven to hold its value and appreciate when other have depreciated?”

    You are correct Groove, but personally I would have forfeited the deck and gone for the 2nd BR:

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1201-S-Prairie-Ave-60605/unit-4802/home/13022201

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  13. These are about half the price and have lake views: http://www.estately.com/listings/info/175-east-delaware-place–249

    http://www.estately.com/listings/info/1120-north-lake-shore-drive–27

    http://www.estately.com/listings/info/505-north-lake-shore-drive–283

    This one is almost double the square footage for the same price:
    http://www.estately.com/listings/info/1240-north-lake-shore-drive–38

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  14. miumiu, you are clearly in love with that building (it is one of my favorites too). Did you ever buy there?

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  15. ” but personally I would have forfeited the deck and gone for the 2nd BR”

    Personally I wouldn’t pay $1mil for a 1 bedroom but of the unit you listed to this one I would have to go with the 340. love me some OMP but you cannont deny the size of the deck and the size of the living space.

    plus you dont get a view of the train tracks and get to hear free concerts on your huge balcony. and the proximity to the daley park for little groove, he would be in childhood bliss. Ya’ll haters say what you want but that park is awesome.

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  16. I am in love with that building but we did not buy. We were short on cash and my husband does not like leveraging too much.

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  17. “we did not buy. We were short on cash and my husband does not like leveraging too much.”

    Also who really would have liked to gamble on the south loop in 2009?

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  18. Ridiculously over priced unit in my opinion. $1M for a 1 bedroom with highly dated finishes?? In a building with 344 units and literally tens of thousands of similarly boring alternatives near by? Why would anyone spend anywhere close to a million dollars on this when they can get a modern SFH or brand new condo close to the city for the same price:

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1615-N-Burling-St-60614/unit-104/home/91488428

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2052-W-Ohio-St-60612/home/14105606

    Literally hundreds of homes in the city that are more bang for the buck than this crap hole.

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  19. I agree that the place is a letdown for he $$$$$. And seems overpriced.

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  20. I thought the lobby was the unit!

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  21. Here we go again. Let me remind everyone that median home prices tell you NOTHING about home prices – just what’s been selling. Sell more new construction, sell more big homes and median prices go up. Do don’t even discuss them except in the context of how the character of the neighborhood is changing.

    Also, want me to list all the really nice $1 MM+ SFHs in Lake View that are flat to declining in value over the last few years?

    I think the problem here is that (and I love Cribchatter) the most interesting stories are the outliers and stuff that is for sale. I spend a lot of time looking at what HAS sold and it can be a very different picture.

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  22. “Let me remind everyone that median home prices tell you NOTHING about home prices – just what’s been selling. ”

    I disagree. If you look at median home prices from 2008-2016 you will see the median price trend follows the market closely.

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  23. So find me another one bedroom, this size, with these views, with this large of deck, that has proven to hold its value and appreciate when other have depreciated?

    It hasn’t sold yet so until that point you’re guessing on what the actual appreciation will be. I love me some outdoor space and even if I give a $300M premium for the deck, I dont see this as a $700M condo

    The Owners should fire their agent immediately. If the space is truly >1000sf, the pictures dont communicate it. Anyone know if they’re including the deck in the sf calcs?

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  24. “I disagree. If you look at median home prices from 2008-2016 you will see the median price trend follows the market closely.”

    They might trend in the same direction but the magnitudes will be different. Also, while an increase in underlying prices will indeed increase the median sales price that’s not the only factor at play. Therefore, an increase in median sales price does not prove that prices are increasing.

    As an example the average sales prices of SFHs in Ukrainian and East Village are up like 50% in the last few years (system is down so I don’t have the exact figures right now). I can assure you that prices are NOT up 50% in that timeframe. What’s going on is that you have more and more high end new construction selling at $1.4 MM in the mix. Not only that but the new construction that they are building today is more pimped out than what they were building 4 years ago.

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  25. System is back now. Looking at the 12 months ending May 2015 vs August 2011 average SFH sale prices in Ukrainian/ East Village went up 69%. I can assure you that home prices in the area did not go up anywhere near that much in less than 4 years.

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  26. “It hasn’t sold yet so until that point you’re guessing on what the actual appreciation will be.”

    Doode, look at the listing and selling history of all the units in the building. even in the hole of the housing market when folks were selling hundred of thousands lower than they paid, this building magically *didn’t have market issues like the rest of the US.

    “The Owners should fire their agent immediately.”

    Yes staging is waaaay lacking, i dont know if its the seller lack of interest or a lazy agent. But come on you punk arse assotiation of realtors if you are listing a home that is $650k or higher put some dang effort into the commission you are getting.

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  27. “if I give a $300M premium for the deck, I dont see this as a $700M condo”

    What year did you travel from where you are using M for thousand? I believe K replaced M over 100 years ago. Anyone reading this would think you are talking about a $300 Million or $700 Million condo. Let’s use common English on here folks.

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  28. So giving area measurements in square rods or Angstroms is a no-go?

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  29. My preferred measurement for real estate is cubits, but I’m an old school dinosaur, so don’t mind me.

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