When Old is New Again in Historic Lakewood Balmoral: A SFH at 5411 N. Wayne

This 5 bedroom American four square at 5411 N. Wayne in the historic Lakewood Balmoral neighborhood of Andersonville came on the market in March 2017.

The prior listing in 2014 said the house was built in 1909 on an oversized 37.5 x 123 lot.

Back in 2014, it was an “investment opportunity” which sold for $575,000.

It has come back on the market completely “reimagined, redesigned, redeveloped.”

The house has custom millwork, wainscoting and coffered ceilings.

There’s now a gourmet kitchen with white cabinets and Thermador appliances along with an island.

The listing says there are 3 family rooms (which are listed as (1) family room (2) den and (3) loft in the listing.)

The basement has radiant heated floors.

It has the preferred layout with the bedrooms as 4 out of the 5 bedrooms are on the same floor (the second). The 5th is in the basement.

The master bathroom is all marble with a double shower and a pedestal soaker tub (isn’t it just a claw foot tub???).

There are 2 fireplaces and a 2 laundry rooms.

There’s also a new 3-car garage.

Originally listed at $1.649 million it has been reduced $250,000 to $1.399 million.

Is this a deal given the total rehab?

Abraham Polatsek at Integra Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.

5411 N. Wayne: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 4,000 square feet

  • Owned by the same family since the mid-1980s
  • Sold in December 2014 for $575,000
  • Renovated
  • Originally listed in March 2017 for $1,649,000
  • Reduced numerous times
  • Currently listed for $1,399,000
  • Taxes of $15,802
  • New 3-car garage
  • Central Air
  • 2 laundry rooms
  • 2 fireplaces
  • Bedroom #1: 15×12 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 15×12 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #3: 12×10 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #4: 10×10 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #5: 12×11 (basement)
  • Den: 24×18 (basement)
  • Family room: 15×11 (main floor)
  • Loft: 24×20 (third floor)
  • Laundry room: 10×9 (basement)

10 Responses to “When Old is New Again in Historic Lakewood Balmoral: A SFH at 5411 N. Wayne”

  1. From what I have seen, reno’d houses have to be really spectacular and/or large to break past 1.5 anywhere north of about Fullerton.

    This place is definitely nice, but nothing particularly special. Several of the rooms seem to be somewhat unusual sizes/shapes, likely driven by jigsawing them into the original exterior walls and central support beam. Unusual rooms can be a feature for some, but not as much at 1.6, unless its a special house.

    The landscaping–if it still looks like the listing picture–is also a huge negative. No one wants a dirt front yard, and it implies nothing can grow there, so it would be a pain to maintain. How do you have a loose wire above the back door a year after listing? Could that backdoor look cheaper (yes, but still)? Looking at the aerial seems to indicate why there isn’t a backyard pic in the listing–there isn’t one; it looks like the deck almost touches the garage. That could be a feature, if the front yard was also zero maintenance and still looked ok.

    The “pedestal” tub thing would typically imply that the bath pic is from a different house. Here, that seems crazy, but maybe still true.

    If they’d started at 1.5 last year, it may well have sold already for more than the current ask. Now I wouldn’t even call the current ask a “deal”, largely because it has sat unsold for so long.

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  2. I’m so sick of seeing the same interior in every single house. This house is so boring and so far from downtown. I’d rather get a place in Wilmette, closer to the lake, for the same price

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  3. The renovated greystone directly across the street went for apprx. $1.5ish a couple years ago. I had looked at it when it was first demo’d and when this property was just beginning demo. There’s a renovated shingle style on Lakewood a block or two further north that started at $2.2 in 2016 and proceeded to hack and slash down to $1.7 or $1.6 over the last two years – I think it finally sold. The price for this full renovation in this location looks pretty good, IMO. I totally agree that 1.5 might have gotten this done earlier, but for whatever reason, the flippers in Lakewood Balmoral are more optimistic than the buying market. I’m just waiting for the official day when this grey craze is over with. Are we there yet?

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  4. The renovated greystone directly across the street went for apprx. $1.5ish a couple years ago. I had looked at it when it was first demo’d and when this property was just beginning demo. There’s a renovated shingle style on Lakewood a block or two further north that started at $2.2 in 2016 and proceeded to hack and slash down to $1.7 or $1.6 over the last two years – I think it finally sold recently. The current price for this full renovation in this location looks pretty good for your typical grey-crazy buyer IMO. I totally agree that 1.5 might have gotten this done earlier, but for whatever reason, the flippers in Lakewood Balmoral are more optimistic/stubborn than the buying market. I’m just waiting for the official day when this grey craze is over with. Are we there yet?

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  5. @anon – there are plenty of houses over $1.5M in Lakeview. Big spectacular ones can be well over $2M. I’d adjust more to Irving Park

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  6. I looked a little in Lakewood-Balmoral (as well as elsewhere in Edgewater), and my impression is that over $1 m, and up to $1.5 m was not uncommon (I wasn’t looking in that price range, for the record), but that $1.5 m would be near the top of the market. Of course, nothing was common, since houses in that specific neighborhood are reasonably scarce, and outside of that area Edgewater is (of course) less expensive.

    My knee-jerk reaction to the post, based on what I specifically like, was that as you could get pretty much your choice of the market for $1.5m in Lakewood-Balmoral, and since most people attracted to Lakewood-Balmoral probably like the neighborhood in part because it has some amazing vintage houses, I would want something renovated to maintain more of the historic charm or would prefer to do it myself (and a lot of the houses that get sold in the area are ones that would be amazing with some renovation).

    But then I checked, and the highest recent sale, for about $1.7 m, is this one, which seems pretty similar in style to the one in the post:

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5510-N-Lakewood-Ave-60640/home/13402780

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  7. “Big spectacular ones can be well over $2M”

    Is this one either big or spectacular?

    Seems like a medium-nice reno of a fine, but nothing special frame house.

    Do you see places like this (yeah, yeah, wider lot–ignoring that, bc the wider lot isn’t such a premium thing this far north) going for $1.6+ in LV?

    I just clicked thru every $1.5m-$2m house north of Fullerton, up to Foster, and east of the river that redfin shows having closing in the past 12 months. There are exactly 1 that is (like this one) (1) a reno of a house originally built over 20 years ago, and (2) frame. (using Realtordotcom bc RF doesn’t have the interior pix): https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4318-N-Greenview-Ave_Chicago_IL_60613_M88667-33912#photo0

    You can quite fairly argue that the featured house is nicer, certainly. But I stand by my contention that this type of house is typically seen as the cheaper alternative, and is generally going to struggle to get $1.5m

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  8. “this one, which seems pretty similar in style to the one in the post”

    Finishes look to be a notch or two nicer throughout. Looks like the only thing preserved was the facade–since they weren’t trying to save the out-of-zoning height, they didn’t have to preserve the walls. The front yard looks sooo much better.

    Buyer came in from out of town.

    Think they got a little lucky, and it still required 18 months, and some number of price cuts totaling at least $100k to get it sold.

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  9. A double-lot teardown in Southport Corridor went for $1.7m.

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3344-N-Lakewood-Ave-60657/home/13381549

    Also, houses being older is not at all a negative in Lakewood-Balmoral. It’s the opposite.

    You are more likely to find the more expensive houses being new construction in Lakeview (and in much of Lincoln Park), because the original housing stock in Lakeview tended more to workers cottages, so the lot is going to be more valuable with a huge new construction house on it. But if you had the kind of well-sized Victorian or 4-squares more common in Lakeview-Balmoral with a usable basement and attic, the situation would be different, and being older could be a premium.

    One exception in Lakeview is the various greystones, and they commonly go for $1.5 m +, and I don’t at all think they are inherently more valuable (because not frame) to someone interested in vintage architecture.

    That’s actually why I’m not really a fan of the subject of the post, as I think being tastefully redone in a way that preserves vintage character seems more likely to appeal to those drawn to Lakewood-Balmoral in the first place, and there’s not much vintage character left. The house I showed was a counter example, questioning my own assumptions.

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  10. I work in the loop and this would be entirely too much time on the red line for my taste.

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