Live in the Heart of Wicker Park: 2031 W. Evergreen
This 2-bedroom at 2031 W. Evergreen in Wicker Park has the distinction of being located in the “heart” of the Wicker Park/Bucktown scene.
Located between the restaurants/scene of Bucktown and that of Division Street, it has all the usual features: ten foot ceilings, granite kitchen countertops, marble baths, central air and washer/dryer in the unit. It also has parking.
Why isn’t this selling?
It’s now listed $13,100 under the 2005 purchase price.
Jackie Lafferty at Baird and Warner has the listing. See more pictures here.
Unit #2W: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in March 1998 for $187,500
- Sold in March 2000 for $259,500
- Sold in July 2005 for $373,000
- Originally listed in December 2008 for $389,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $359,900 (parking included)
- Assessments of $134 a month
- Taxes of $3780
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Living room: 25×13
- Kitchen: 10×9
- Dining room: 10×6
- Bedroom #1: 12×14
- Bedroom #2: 11×9
Headed for the March 2000 price.
2/2 in same building (unit 3W) recently sold for 379,000.
The last sale on 3W I see was 4/21/08 for $350,000 (first listed for $415,000 last list of $379,000.)
1W sold 5/29/08 for $328,000.
These are glorified apartments that should rent for $1,600 to $1,800 a month. It’s crazy to think that someone was dumb enough to pay $300+ for this cramped city apartment. Actually, I know why they did it: it is better to own and lose lots of money than to be a dirty scumbag filthy hoi pollei renter.
11 by 9 sweet.
Interesting article in Forbes today:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0713/opinions-housing-market-values-heads-up.html
I will quote just the Illinois relevant portion-
‘It’s a similar story in Lincoln Park, where single-family home prices slipped only 2.2% last year, far less than in the rest of Chicago. But inventory has since tripled. Wagner Appraisal Group figures there’s a 16-month supply. A year ago “I was almost cocky about our position compared to the rest of the market,” says Jennifer Ames. No longer. After 11 months of lowering the $2.1 million asking price on her 3,400-square-foot house, Ames sold it in June for $1.6 million.
Given the glut of unsold homes, Lincoln Park’s prices may well slide at least 15% this year–as Chicago’s did in 2008. If you look at Fiserv data going back many years, you find values in Lincoln Park track the rest of Chicago pretty closely with a one-year lag.’
“Living room: 25×13” My ass! This place is rubbish
““I was almost cocky about our position compared to the rest of the market,” says Jennifer Ames. No longer. After 11 months of lowering the $2.1 million asking price on her 3,400-square-foot house, Ames sold it in June for $1.6 million.”
Actually, per ccrd, $1.575mm. Or $39k less than they paid for it in July 2003 ($1.614mm). At least they didn’t have to pay their realtor.
Also funny about that LP house in the Forbes article–not actually in Lincoln Park, but Lakeview. It’s on George. So, Stevo has a genuine basis to disregard that one.
Why they thought they could get $2.1mm there, I’m not sure.
“These are glorified apartments”
No they have track lighting in this one, easily makes it worth close to 400k, lol.
“Ames sold it in June”
If “now has never been a better time to buy” why would they want to sell? Do they know something we don’t? 8)
“why would they want to sell?”
It appears they bought two houses in ’07, tore them down and built a 5600 sf behemoth. The price of the two they (likely) tore down exceeds what they sold their other house for.
“Do they know something we don’t?”
Not anymore.
PS:
Their assessment on the new house does not come close to reflecting reality, yet, even tho the assessor’s description does. I’d be interested to see how accurately the assessment gets changed.
West town more than wicker park, no?
Given that Wicker Park is about 2 blocks away (if that)- I would say this is Wicker Park.
I’m biased since this is my neighborhood, but this is a GREAT area, and has improved even since 2005 (Division especially).
Not defending the price. Based on the room sizes, this is like $350+ per square foot???
I’ve been to this listing with 2 different clients, which is no small feat. It was extremely difficult to schedule the appointments. In all, I made 6 appointment requests to see the property twice. That doesn’t include the fact that the agent took a while (2 days) to call back and let me know that she couldn’t make it. Once you arrive, you are in a glorified apartment. The block and location are beautiful, but the Ikea-quality MDF cabinets and zero updates since 1998 make it a hard sell.
Regardless, if you can’t schedule an appointment, you can’t sell a house. I always tell listing prospects: One of the most important elements to selling you house is availability to show it when appointment requests come in, especially if they are short notice. Whoever you list with, have a friend call for an appointment and see how long it takes your realtor to call back. More than 24 hours is unacceptable. It’s very telling as to how hard they will work to sell your house.
Still for sale, and reduced all the way down to… $350K. LOL Guess they want to hold it another year before taking their lumps.