We Love Terraces: 444 W. Belmont in Lakeview
There are balconies and patios on city residences and then there are terraces. This penthouse unit at 444 W. Belmont in East Lakeview is one of those terraces.
Built in 1928, the building has 13 units.
Unit #7B has central air but no parking (leased parking is available nearby.)
But who cares about parking when you have a 1000 square foot terrace like this?
Here’s the listing:
Stunning 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom penthouse unit in beautiful vintage building with most unbelievable outdoor space in the city. Interior space includes barrel vaulted ceiling, hardwood floors, true butler’s pantry, enormous eat-in kitchen with family room.
Formal living room & dining room with exquisite interiors throughout. Outdoor deck of over 1000 square feet with commercial grill, refrigeration station. Tented pavilion area & unbelievable city & lake views like no other.
Brian Loomis at Coldwell Banker has the listing.
Unit #7B: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1800 square feet
- Sold in July 2000 for $383,000
- Currently listed for $825,000 (leased parking nearby)
- Assessments of $450 a month
- Taxes of $6,313
- Central air
I love this building. I can see $600K for this unit but not $800K.
i second laura….and ugg, i hate cherry (or whatever the wood is in the kitchen above).
that’s the problem with a lot of kitchen’s in homes i’ve been shopping for….the kitchen is ugly (to me but obviously not to the installers) but new enough that it’s hard to justify ripping out the granite, cabinets and backsplashes.
Is the terrace just your own or for the whole building?
Definitely not worth the asking price, especially without the parking.
There’s no denying that this is a nice building/unit, but that section of Belmont is a noisy parking lot for 4+ hours each weekday and about 36 hours per weekend. I hope you like urban sounds on your terrace. I also hope that it is set back far enough to avoid the diesel fumes from the buses that idle in traffic. I used to live around the corner and turned a paper towel black with soot every other week when I cleaned my windows.
A – zoom in on the property with Google maps. There are two terraces on the roof of the building. The listing quoted above seems to imply private ownership of the terraces – one for each penthouse (assuming there is a 7A to go along with 7B). I see nothing explicitly stating private ownership, so I would definitely make sure to seek out that statement if I were to look at the unit.
One last thing. An acquaintance bought a penthouse with full roof ownership rights about a block away. It was larger and brand new. They paid somewhere around $600,000. And that was over a year ago. This unit, older, smaller, higher assessment, is worth no more than $500,000, but I just looked up the property and the owner appears to owe more than $780,000 on it.
No way it will sell. Mark your calendars. This unit will reappear on Crib Chatter many months from now.
… I just looked up the property and the owner appears to owe more than $780,000 on it.
Aha.
Delusional Loss Mitigation is in effect — or, “I just can’t give it away!”
I agree, this listing will appear again and again as the owner drops the price in too-small increments whilst chasing the market down.
780k mortgage…lol. this owner just lost all their equity and their bank will likely lose a lot more. Anyone with any bank details so I can consider which bank stock to short next?
When the market reaches bottom this unit will be worth LESS than it’s 2000 selling price.
If that is indeed a private terrace, then it was a steal in 2000 at $383K. But $825 is indeed too much.
homedelete, you really think the -nominal- price of this unit will go below $383K? Factoring in inflation, this would be up to $485K… so it was overvalued even in 2000?
homedelete, I never thought before that prices would drop below 2002 levels, but now I’m beginning to wonder just how bad and long this shake-out will be and just how low prices will drop. I’m even beginning to attach credence to the perma-bears who predict that prices will roll back to 1998 levels.
The clinkers in all this is that we have another, larger wave of resets of Alt-A paper coming in the next few months; and our banking system is essentially bust. Look for more and larger bank failures to come, and soon.
Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan laid it all out very neatly, no attempts to sugercoat the situation, when he said that PRIME mortgages were looking “terrible”.
The bailout that was just engineered will cost the taxpayers over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS.
This country is comprehensively bankrupt. Chicago has an unemployment rate at this time of 7.1%.
And there will not be nearly as many wealthy people able to buy upper-bracket properties as once there were. Or even stuff over $500K.
Laura:
Where are the perma-bears who are asserting 1998 NOMINAL prices will be the bottom? Not that I don’t believe you, I just want to see them for myself–I assume they are bunkered down with all their gold and ammo.
“Jamie Dimon … ‘terrible'”
He also said that the charge-off rate “might” triple (which would take it to 2.73%), and was talking specifically about JPM’s holdings, so that’s not necessarily illuminating on the whole market. Granted, JPM is probably holding a somewhat better than average portfolio, but that’s speculation rather than reality.
When I read postings like this, truly wonder how bad things can get:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/rfs/777431169.html
I stepped up in court this morning on my first option ARM foreclosure. Granted, one case does not make a trend but all I’ve seen up to this point are subprimes and defaulted 2nds mortgages. The neg am was only 8% or so more than the original balance but this might be a taste of things to come. It was on a condo in Evanston. Nice place too.
I had the chance to meet Jamie Dimon back in 2005. Back then he was talking about value at risk and all other kinds of risk management metrics completely unlike other bank presentations. Needless to say most in the crowd didn’t quite ‘get it’. In hindsight he was a genius.
One unadmirable trait about the man is that he wears his political heart on his sleeve like an idealogical college student. If politics is a supposedly forbidden subject on dates and in the workplace, why would he find it appropriate at a corporate presentation? Just because only your board can fire you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t adhere to the same behavioral standards as the rank and file, IMO.
Dimon has some personal flaws visible to the naked eye, but at this point, people are willing to accept a few warts in somebody blazingly competent who also tells the truth as he sees it.
Our flip-flopping politicians with their professional handlers and image-makers should take note of the great respect Dimon commands: people out here are starved for capable, courageous people who deliver the truth.
Unless you can offer compelling reasons why the real estate depression will suddenly stop decling after months of substanital trends I don’t see why 1999 prices are inappropriate. There are so many reasons the indicate the downward trend will continue i.e tightened credit, the end of toxic mortgages, high inventory, increased foreclosures, increasing inflation, higher unemployment, REOs,lack of qualified buyers, etc. When these factors wane only then will we be out of the great real estate depression of the 00’s.
Don’t forget about public sentiment turning away from owning a home. Another year or two of these market conditions and your friends will look at you like you’re nuts if you tell them you’re thinking of buying a house.
It used to be common sense that you rented until you had plenty of money saved up and you were ready to settle down – because everyone knew that it took about 7 years before you broke even on the purchase.
Then it was common sense that if you didn’t buy a house today using whatever means necessary, you were priced out forever and doomed to a life of throwing money away on rent.
Soon it will be common sense to avoid buying because people only lose money on houses. They take forever to sell and are just a burden on owners. You can’t move to another city to take a good job if you own a house; you will be doomed to a boring life and a bad job if you own.
Of course, that will probably be the best time to buy.
I’d wait more than a year or two, the option arm resets have just begun.
Agreed. The day I start looking seriously at buying property will be the day I see a Time magazine cover that says “why you should never buy real estate”.
When the average American looks at you like you’re crazy for wanting to buy, is when prices will be lowest. In other words when buyers are treated like they are insane, the way renters were two years ago.
Has this ever happened in history? I am being totally serious, has there ever been a time in American history when the majority of people thought it was a bad decision to own a home if one could afford it?
“has there ever been a time in American history when the majority of people thought it was a bad decision to own a home if one could afford it?”
No. No, there hasn’t. Of course, there is the issue of “can afford it”. Somewhere between 5 and (maybe) 15% of homeowners (as of Q4-06) couldn’t *really* afford it and that’s why there’s a serious problem.
I believe homeownership was looked down on in the aftermath of the Great Depression, up until the end of WWII when the GI Bill got a lot of people into their own homes. This housing downturn has all the makings of a real estate depression, so the situation could very well repeat itself.
Beautiful Pre-War. And that patio… My computer almost shorted out from all the drool hitting the keyboard. Not sure of the value, but the listing is in a league of its own with the low assessments and the enormous patio.
I wish Chicagoans would cozy up the possibility of painting their ceilings (think 3 palate system in the whole room). The barrel vault ceiling needs something more than white. Ditto for the rest of the house.
The kitchen is OK. They nailed down the right appliances, but that hexagonal coffered ceiling is very “Toll Brothers” and I’m with the other poster when I say PEOPLE CUT IT OUT WITH THE CHERRY CABS! Whatever the case, I think the buyer in the $800K range can easily afford to make any changes they want.
“homeownership was looked down on in the aftermath of the Great Depression, up until the end of WWII”
Curious what you mean by “looked down on”. I take it to mean that your “typical” person thought less of someone for owning a home and perhaps made the homeowner the object of ridicule/pity (akin to your “typical” person of today toward fat people or smokers). Not the impression I had from relatives who lived through that era or anything I’ve ever read.
It was interesting to see this. I almost bought a unit in this building in 2004 and am very glad I did not. I backed out of my contract because, among other reasons, the board was litigating against the owner of the penthouse for the work on the roof deck, which had been a common area and which somehow became his alone. ( I guess he bought the rights – I am not a real estate pro so don’t know how that would have worked but there were also complaints that the construction itself was causing water problems to the interiors.) Don’t know much more than that but with the pending litigation and potential costs and the animosity in the building to the penthouse it just did not feel right.