1926 East Lakeview Courtyard Beauty: 507 W. Aldine
The 1920s were the peak years for classic vintage courtyard buildings near the lake like this one at 507 W. Aldine in East Lakeview.
This 2-bedroom unit has a wood-burning fireplace, plaster moldings and the in-unit washer/dryer. It also has a highly coveted East Lakeview parking spot.
Brad Lippitz at Brad Lippitz Real Estate Group has the listing. See more pictures here.
Unit#2B: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, dining room, no square footage listed
- Sold in May 1995 for $154,000
- Sold in June 1998 for $199,000
- Sold in April 2000 for $243,000
- Sold in March 2007 for $379,000
- Currently listed for $410,000 (includes the parking)
- OR you can rent it for $2300 a month
- Assessments of $344 a month
- Taxes of $4830
- No central air- window units
- In-unit Washer/Dryer
- Wood-burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 14×12
- Bedroom #2: 12×11
The kitchen cabinet over the window is a nice design touch….
Poor folks…they buy at the peak and want to resell for about what they have in the place…as though the market cares about that.
That $243,000 number would have this place closing on the day it was listed.
Saw this one this weekend. Looks much better in the photos than it does in real life. If I’m not mistaken the washer has to be pulled out and connected to the sink to do the laundry. The bathrooms are pretty dated and the plaster is in pretty bad shape. Personally, I didn’t like the faux brick backsplash.
Yeah it looks like they used the “vasoline” effect in photoshop to blur out all the bad. And you seriously have to hook your washer/dryer to the sink? Ahahaha wow
I’ve always wondered why parents feel the need to move from a condo to a McMansion as soon as the first kid is born. Do infants now require 1000 sq ft of their own? I was 5 years old before my parents bought a house with a yard, because they had this old fashioned notion of only buying what you could afford (not to mention the banks had these things called lending standards).
Now that our country has a sense of Entitlement, it’s buy what you cannot afford and Obama will cover the difference! Just like Section 8 but instead of renting you get to own.
“because they had this old fashioned notion of only buying what you could afford (not to mention the banks had these things called lending standards).”
LOL! This thread has potential.
“Your brat does not need a gdamn acre of grass. Take him/her to the park, there are plenty of them. And you can find a decent private school to go to.”
Maybe their kid is really really fat and needs room to graze?
Is that the actual brick from the building below the cabinets in the kitsh or is it, as I rather suspect, faux brick wallpaper?
Also to echo ChiTowns sentiments regarding the cabinet/window situation.
I don’t consider myself a home interior expert, per se, but I am amazed at the amount of imbecilic crap so many did during their “home renovations”.
“Is that the actual brick from the building below the cabinets in the kitsh or is it, as I rather suspect, faux brick wallpaper?”
Looks like tumbled stone tile to me.
As a father who has lived in the city, moving out has as much to do with noise as it does grass. From ages 18 months and up, little kids love to run back and forth through the condo. If you are living in any sort of flat then your neighbors below quickly tire of their cute upstairs neighbor.
So wouldn’t your below neighbors want to move more than the ones causing the noise?
” If you are living in any sort of flat then your neighbors below quickly tire of their cute upstairs neighbor.”
Is it legal to make someone move because of the noisy kids, assuming they are asleep during the noise ordinance hours?
Damn I’m gettin’ old. Strike my criticism of the name.
I couldn’t agree more, Kenworthey.
You’re being a dickweed.
I’m just tellin’ it like it is.
It’s people like these dillweeds who continued to drive up the cost of housing for everyone else by overpaying at the height of the boom. They get everything they deserve including anonymous internet scorn.
ah…i meant to say they deserve everything they get..
Anyone who was willing to pay 379k for a place that 12 years earlier sold for 155k can’t be too smart. In fact, from their actions in life so far they just appear to be bacterium responding to stimuli. I’m almost certain they had little if any skin in the game (their own money on the mortgage). This can be inferred by their ask which is seems just high enough to cover the closing and transaction costs and not having built up any equity over the past three years.
These people wrecked our economy. Consider that for a few moments. Anonymous vitriol to them is not only completely justified but deserved. So is being stuck.
If I were them my honest advice would be to investigate good magnet schools and start networking with key CPS people that could gain their offspring admission to the better schools, because they are stuck in this condo. Life is all about decisions and they dug their own hole. Luckily for them its a good neighborhood overall and a nice area to live–it could be a lot worse. If they were to remain here their kid(s) will have a childhood much more interesting and enriching than mine or any other of the countless suburban raised kids out there. But oh boy, no SUV driving soccer mommy future for mommy. The bacterium can no longer follow their program.
Pretty unit from the pictures. It looks like the windows are steel, which would scare me away at the listed price. The views look like they are not very private.
Based on GL’s observation, and thanks for the site visit it saves us from going, this is way over-priced.
For four hundred thousand I am not plugging in the washer and I expect central air. They’ll be lucky to get what they paid.
I’m sorry, but did someone in this thread claim that “These people wrecked our economy”? Good grief.
Did the price on this unit get bubbled-up? Certainly. But that hardly inculpates this particular class of condo owners. Sure, easy lending drove up prices everywhere. But in areas like LP and ELV, the bubble was also fueled by increased incomes among young professionals and, for some, downpayment assistance from boomer parents.
“These people” are most likely still dutifully making their mortgage payments. And chances are, it’s not a subprime mortgage.
They’ll either sell this place for roughly what they paid (give or take a few grand) or, if they really need to move because of space reasons, they can rent it out for $2k/mo and go rent a suitable place (be it in the suburbs or right down the street) for just a bit more. “These people” are obviously not destitute and are likely not looking for assistance under the housing plan announced today; if the majority of people who bought condos and starter houses in this country over the past several years were more like “these people,” the economy wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in.
The wave of mortgage defaults that began to sweep the country nearly two years ago and eventually poisoned billions of dollars in mortgage-backed-securities did not originate (and has yet to arrive) in Lincoln Park or East Lakeview.
Lastly, is no one else seriously troubled by the use of their child’s name on here? This is an excellent blog and Sabrina is providing a great service (and some of the commentary is actually worthwhile). I’d hate to see it go down the tubes because a few people feel like anonymously pushing the limits of decency.
so… how did they know they were buying at the height of the boom? I guess this “anonymous blog committee” should approve all home purchases.
Anonny,
I’m deeply troubled by the use of the child’s name. It’s over the line.
Brad,
A litmus test to know (roughly) where in the boom they were buying: if they thought that 379k was a fair price in 2005 and we have a recorded sale price of 154k in 1995, we have 12 years of appreciation 7.8% appreciation per year.
Now lets extrapolate that rate of growth out 12 more years: do you think its reasonable to assume this property that sold for 154k in 1995 would be worth 933k in 2017? Or a cool million in 2018?
They were buying near the top. Even magazine publications like the Economist had front page stories entitled “After the Fall” with a picture of a home falling back in 2005.
Experts recommend de-personalizing your house before putting it on the market. I sure wouldn’t want pictures of my kids, let alone names, making mass marketing materials as is the case here.
Realtors would be doing their clients a favor in reminding their clients of this before pictures and virtual tours.
I’d buy it for 300k without parking and 310k with.
Thank you, Kenworthey, for pointing out that talking about the child’s name is inappropriate for this site. It’s not relevant to the property.
I’ll remind you again: please keep the conversation to the property and not the throw pillows, pictures on the walls or other personal items- all of which will be changed if you buy the property.
Thanks.
FB all the way:
Warranty deed recorded 4/4/2007 for $379,000
First mortgage recorded 4/4/2007 for $303,200
Second mortgage recorded 4/4/2007 for $75,800
Amount financed: 100%
What household in their infinite wisdom would give a $379,000 mortgage to finance a 2/2 *condo conversion* at 100% of the purchase price in 2007? How much would this property have sold for in ’07 had the buyer been required to put some skin in the game?
So us naysayers were right; If it looks like an FB, sounds like an FB and finances like an FB it’s an FB. The schadenfreude is so thick it is palpable.
b.n. this buyer would saved himself many a sleepless nights if she/he had spent 10 minutes in February 2007 googling ‘housing bubble’.
“Brad on February 18th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
so… how did they know they were buying at the height of the boom? I guess this “anonymous blog committee” should approve all home purchases.”
“kn on February 18th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I’d buy it for 300k without parking and 310k with.”
I wouldnt, it has no central air and its a run of the mill garden unit. It is decorated very nicely and the photos are touched up quite well, but imagine the place empty. All the windows stare right across into another “unit”. Nothing special about this place at all except the special ed the buyers came from. I say 250, 275 tops. Knocking off 100k is just the starting point so to negotiate lower.
How would you feel if Obama lowered this FB’s mortgage payment to 31% of household income by lowering the interest rate, changing it from an ARM to a fixed and if that wasn’t enough, reducing the principal balance?
The reason MANY people bought in the last few years was the nesting instinct. Couple gets married, has kids (or is about to) and realizes they have to have a 3000 sq ft McMansion. Raising kids in a rental is child abuse, apparently. This is why so many otherwise intelligent people thought it was a “great time to buy” just because you no longer had to outbid 5 other potential buyers, despite all the obvious evidence that the housing market was tanking. I know so many people this happened to.
Imagine how many legitimate bidders who would’ve used conventional financing were outbid by this arsehole either because they didn’t have the 10% or 20% downpayment at that price point or because they ran the numbers and saw it didn’t make sense?
I would love to know what bank originated that second mortgage giving them 100% LTV. I’d say there’s a greater than 50% chance that bank is gone. And if that bank was acquired by another bank recently here’s to hoping the acquiring bank implodes as well.
And this couple isn’t a total FB case. They have no equity tied up in this–they can walk scot free! They can even threaten their lenders big time and force a workout: only the lenders stand to lose a boat of money (and they might).
Seriously even with a foreclosure their credit will be fine by time the kid is in high school. They can always walk away and move to a nice apt in Arlington Heights. If people start figuring this out and doing it is what the Fed and Treasury are really scared of. There are a lot of underwater loans out there and only a small fraction so far go into foreclosure.
Obviously, Suzanne researched this….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubsd-tWYmZw
D**m you Suzanne….this listing wasn’t SPECIAL and no we COULDN”T DO THIS! Aaaarrrgh.
Bob:
1) Surprisingly, it was the House of Morgan that gave both loans;
2) Do a little research of your own (i don’t want to post it here) by using the assessor’s website, the recorder’s website and google, and you’ll realize like I did that this is a foreclosure waiting the happen. No lis pendens recorded, yet, but if I were a gambling man I’d say the odds are better than 50/50 that this will be a foreclosure or short sale – absent Obama paying the mortgage;
3) The 2000 purchaser used conventional financing and had a substantial down payment.
Related question: when the recorder’s website shows the mortgage grantor as MERS, how do you determine who the lender is?
“1) Surprisingly, it was the House of Morgan that gave both loans;
2) Do a little research of your own (i don’t want to post it here) by using the assessor’s website, the recorder’s website and google, and you’ll realize like I did that this is a foreclosure waiting the happen”
I can’t believe how ignorant you people are. Firstly, I saw the place and it was great. The washer DOES NOT have to be pulled out. Secondly, that is stone above the sink, not faux wallpaper. Don’t you people have anything better to do than make fun of people. Oh, right, you don’t own anything anyway.
nice place! shows well
Is that supposed to be an insult?
“Oh, right, you don’t own anything anyway.”
OK so the w/d has a permanent home.
This is still on a middle floor w/o central air.
All the windows face the other half of the building 20 feet away.
410 is way too high (I think 370’s), but the market will determine.
As a blogger on this site I think it is fun to make predictions and see what happens. It is a “real-world” way to see what is happening in the market and believe it or not, everyone’s perspective helps me as I try to think about what a good price for my unit would be.
I learned on this site that while I have things people really like, it is self-defeating to set too high a price when the unit is initially offered.
Looks like I was mistaken in some of my earlier comments. I have spoken with the listing broker and Antonio is correct that the washer/dryer does not need to be connected to the sink and the backsplash is tumbled marble. I never claimed it was wallpaper. Sorry for the confusion.
Had a look at this one last week. Enchanting place. Love the location.
Bob-delete, fancy seeing you here. Your strife is understandable. I would ask your bosses for a pay raise. Then, quite possibly, you’ll be able to ditch the $500 rental you’ve been squatting in all these years and perhaps get a 450 sq/ft studio downtown. You’ll save a boat load in commuting expenses!
You must excuse me, I have this flair-up coming on which starting to aggravate me.
kn, you’d buy for 300 or 310 with parking??? parking is worth way more than 10K that close to the lake. try 25-30K