Want to Live Near the Villa District? A 5-Bedroom SFH at 3635 N. Hamlin in Irving Park

This 5-bedroom single family home at 3635 N. Hamlin in Irving Park came on the market in May 2019.

While on the map it appears to be in the Villa District, a historic neighborhood, this house is on the east side of the street which is filled with homes built in the last decade.

So I’m not sure it’s technically in the Villa District (but I’m sure someone on this blog will inform us all).

From public records, it looks like those lots were purchased in 2006 for $5.5 million.

This house was built in 2011 on a standard Chicago lot of 25×125. It has a 2-car garage.

The listing says the house has had extensive upgrades including hardwood floors throughout including on the second floor and stairwells.

The kitchen has dark wood cabinets, granite counter tops, including on the island, and stainless steel appliances and is open to the family room which has custom built-ins and opens to the rear deck.

3 out of the 5 bedrooms are on the second floor, including the master suite which has a 12×10 bathroom and 2 walk-in closets.

The laundry room is also on the second floor.

The finished basement has the remaining two bedrooms and a full bath along with a recreation room.

This house is near public transportation including the Blue line at Addison which is just a few blocks away.

Originally listed at $739,000 it has been reduced to $725,000.

Is it the best of both worlds to have a newer build home this close to a historic neighborhood?

Thomas Brandt at Keller Williams Realty Partners has the listing. See the pictures here.

3635 N. Hamlin: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3150 square feet

  • Sold in August 2011 for $460,000
  • Originally listed in May 2019 for $739,000
  • Reduced
  • Currently listed at $725,000
  • Taxes of $10,158
  • Central Air
  • 2-car garage
  • 1 fireplace
  • Bedroom #1: 14×14 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 14×13 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #3: 12×11 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #4: 14×13 (lower level)
  • Bedroom #5: 12×10 (lower level)
  • Laundry room: 7×4 (second floor)
  • Family room: 28×13 (main floor)
  • Recreation room: 19×14 (lower level)

 

19 Responses to “Want to Live Near the Villa District? A 5-Bedroom SFH at 3635 N. Hamlin in Irving Park”

  1. Guessing Highway Noise and air quality are issues here. There is clearly a construction site next door in the google maps photos. Anyone know what went in here? A bunch more new homes? The corner house which from the old redfin listing, looks like a bigger home, sold for $691,500 last fall and another slightly nicer looking home literally sold within the last month for less ($685,000) so this seems a little stretchy.

    The one that sold within a month:
    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3644-N-Avondale-Ave-60618/home/12735767
    Last Fall:
    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3643-N-Hamlin-Ave-60618/home/45507183

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  2. I don’t think highway noise would be much of an issue. It’s in a cut at Addison where the Metra (UP-NW) tracks are on a viaduct, so there’s a decent block of the highway noise. Good trans, Addison Blue is very close and UP-NW Irving isn’t too far if one worked near OTC.

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  3. It’s not technically the villa – because the villa is a block or two west, and has the 50 foot wide lots. This used to be an industrial building that was torn down near the top of the bubble. I was just over there a few weeks ago but I didn’t check out the status of completion. I know it took half a decade to get construction started at a decent pace – it was a house here, a house there for a long time.

    The house is nice, pretty typical for new construction, it looks like every other new construction I’ve seen anywhere on a 25 foot lot.

    The real issue I guess is just you know, Chicago.

    The local K-8 schools are terrible so St. Viators is the only option. The local gas station is kinda stetchy with the occasional fight. the neighborhood to the south across addison is totally different than the villa’s vibe. I almost put an offer in on a house on the villa back in 2011 (the same time this house was built) but declined when there was a news story of an attempted child luring/abduction three houses to the north.

    And the canary in the coal mine are the taxes:

    2018: $11,784.17
    2017: $10,158.40
    2016: $9,628.47
    2015: $8,787.13
    2014: $8,093.42

    They’ve gone up 50% in four years! I didn’t even bother looking up the taxes for 2011 – 2013 but I’m sure they’ve probably doubled in that time. There’s nowhere else to go for these taxes but up, up, up! I too would be rethinking my ‘investment’ in this neighborhood if my taxes went up 50% in 4 years, with the rate of increase getting larger and larger each year. Will they be $15,000 by 2022?

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  4. Property taxes have been doubling every ten years in many northside neighborhoods. I looked back 40 years for one home I’m familiar with:
    1980: ~$1,000
    1990: ~$2,000
    2000: ~$4,000
    2010: ~$8,000
    2020: ~$16,000 (currently about $13k in tax year 2018)

    …Exponential growth can be amazing!

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  5. “Will they be $15,000 by 2022?”

    probably considering in about 2 weeks Mayor Lightfoot is going to announce a billion dollar shortfall for the year…

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  6. “,,This used to be an industrial building…”
    Iirc this was formerly the longtime site of Wittek Golf Supply Inc. Wittek sold this site in 2006 for $5.5 mil to a builder who ran into a buzzsaw of major unanticipated delays in selling homes here due to the last recession. (when I looled up site on GoogleEarth I saw new homes were still being built a year ago). Fwiw same builder also builds spec homes in Park Ridge. Wittek relocated, moving north to a suburban location presumably with a much shorter work commute for Wittek’s decision maker.

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  7. ‘looked’ not ‘looled’

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  8. “probably considering in about 2 weeks Mayor Lightfoot is going to announce a billion dollar shortfall for the year…”

    We already know the shortfall and have known about it well before the last election.

    Did I believe any of the candidates who said they wouldn’t raise property taxes to pay it? No. Because there are few other ways to get the money quickly. But we will certainly see some other kind of tax to pay it.

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  9. “Property taxes have been doubling every ten years in many northside neighborhoods.”

    What have prices done during that time?

    Huh.

    Basically, the rise in housing prices can be traced directly to the ten-year treasury and the mortgage rates. Nationwide.

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  10. “It’s not technically the villa – because the villa is a block or two west, and has the 50 foot wide lots.”

    I don’t know the exact boundaries but it’s not two blocks west of here because the picture of the villa “marker” that is in this post was taken at the end of this block- but on the west side, not the east side, of the street. So I’m assuming Hamlin is IN the villa. But maybe just the west side.

    They were all vintage bungalows on that side of the street.

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  11. “Basically, the rise in housing prices can be traced directly to the ten-year treasury and the mortgage rates. Nationwide.”

    That’s an interesting perspective. Tell that to the guy in crystal lake whose home he bought in 2006 for $350,000, is in 2019 worth $315,000; while his or her property taxes have increased from $3,500 to $9,000. Tell him that it’s just the ten year treasury causing a rise in everyone else’s property values, his is actually priced ‘just right’. Except the taxes, still need a narrative for that.

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  12. “I don’t know the exact boundaries but it’s not two blocks west of here because the picture of the villa “marker” that is in this post was taken at the end of this block- but on the west side, not the east side, of the street. So I’m assuming Hamlin is IN the villa. But maybe just the west side. ”

    SO instead of a general answer off the top of my head being “A block or two”, the villa starts on the other side of the street. It’s like anon(tfo) wapo’s approved fact checking going on here. Regardless, the former golf outlet was certainly not the villa because it was not a bungalow on a 50 foot lot. Do note that there are a few houses that are not bungalows, there are a few four squares, which is the homes i was *this close* to putting in an offer on, and during my tour of the villa, the historian regularly panned the nouveau riche original owner of the solitary art deco house that is really out of place. IIRC, apparently it was built about a decade after the rest of the homes, right before the great depression, and it was ostentatious at the time, and even today, it’s still frowned upon by purists.

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  13. “Tell him that it’s just the ten year treasury causing a rise in everyone else’s property values”

    Yes. His house has appreciated since 1980 thanks to the decline in mortgage rates. That was the example given.

    If he bought a home in 2006, the rates haven’t gone down much for him and it would have gone down in price because he bought at the height of the bubble. Remember that? Oh yeah- that little bubble thing. Sorry. Some people also bought stocks in 1999 and lost everything.

    Good luck to everyone when the rates reverse course but that will probably be a problem for the Millennials and GenZ as it doesn’t look like inflation is going to get here…maybe ever.

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  14. Rising property values don’t pay the property taxes. Income pays the property taxes. Incomes have not been doubling every ten years since 1980, like property taxes have been.

    At some point, the percentage of household income spent on property taxes is going to crunch a lot of people. It will be an interesting social experiment.

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  15. HD – where exactly is the deco house? I just see a two flat that seems more late teens than deco (at least from the 3d aerials).

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  16. “HD – where exactly is the deco house? I just see a two flat that seems more late teens than deco (at least from the 3d aerials).”

    I looked on Google streetview and I believe it’s on the west side of avers, it’s the third house north of addison. It’s notI dont think it’s particularlly art deco but that’s what the tour guy called it, if i remember correctly. It’s got a weird juliet balcony, an unusual entrance, columns supporting the porch roof, a weird – not arts and crafts – roofline. I could see how 80 years ago when it was built it probably looked even less arts and crafts than it does today. I did the tour, god, probably at least 10 years ago.

    The house I looked at and was about to make a bid was 3632 n harding. The pics are on redfin, the people who bought it did a good job renovating it, because it needed a lot of work.

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3632-N-Harding-Ave-60618/home/13457498

    Its unlikely I would have gotten the house anyways as my bid was a little bit short of the final $350,000 selling price back in 2011.

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  17. “on the west side of avers, it’s the third house north of addison”

    The Dutch colonial with the red tile roof? It sure as heck doesn’t fit the neighborhood, but it’s about as Deco (on the exterior) as is it Bauhaus.

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  18. “The Dutch colonial with the red tile roof? It sure as heck doesn’t fit the neighborhood, but it’s about as Deco (on the exterior) as is it Bauhaus.”

    Agreed, not much art deco. I’m just telling you as I remember it. From 10 years ago. On some warm sunny afternoon walking tour. Maybe I’m misrememering the art deco part, but I got the house right.

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  19. Thanks, nice house, but definitely not deco.

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