8 Months Later and Still Waiting: 1104 W. Montana in Lincoln Park
We chattered about this cute vintage 1-bedroom condo at 1104 W. Montana in Lincoln Park in May 2008.
It is still on the market- but has been reduced by $11,000.
The owner has posted a Craigslist ad which reads “Owner is welcoming all offers. Short sale possible. ”
Here’s it’s history:
Unit #2: 1 bedroom, 1 bath
- Sold in August 2001 for $177,000
- Sold in July 2006 for $250,000
- Was listed in May 2008 for $256,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $244,000
- Assessments of $245 a month
- Taxes of $1,627
- Livingroom: 19 x 11
- Bedroom: 14 x 11
- Diningroom: 11 x 10
- A/C Window Units
- No in-unit laundry
- No parking
Hudson Park Realty has the listing. See the pictures here.
$200k max
No parking, no central a.c., no washer-dryer? Agreed. 200k max.
What a P.O.S.
I say it’s worth about $850 a month. As a rental. $250k for sale?What a joke. This place is slightly bigger than my SRO in uptown.
“I say it’s worth about $850 a month. ”
HD–it’s posts like this … I don’t know. Just because **you** wouldn’t pay more than $850/month for it doesn’t mean it’s *worth* that. Someone would have to pay me to own a BMW, doesn’t mean the cars have zero value.
Places like this rented for $850 or more in 1994 (trust me, personal experience); it’s a ~$1200/month rental (maybe more–anyone?), whether or not you’d give a dime for it.
anon(tfo) my comments are on the internet – i’m not writing a treatsie here. The humor of this thread, including my comment, is that this is a crappy condo conversion that used to be a rental…and the developer sold it for $250k!!! Talk about turning lemons into lemonaide for that builder. Anyway, so what if rent is $850, $1,000, $1,200, does it matter? It’s a fricken rental and the owner lives there like such, listing the unit after two years. Don’t take everything so literally! I don’t really live in a SRO in uptown!!
I’d say rent for $1100 at most… no amenities. no laundry. no cent. air. You can get 1brs in river north for $1300-$1500 that have pool, gym, decent kitchen, decent bath, views, etc.
BTW $850 was just a number off the top of my head; I wasn’t trying to make a statement of fact that it’s no more than $850. It might very well be worth $1,200, I’m not really in the market for one bd rentals in that neighborhood. Regardless, this is a rental: No parking, no central a.c., no washer-dryer and radiator heat (I hate radiator heat). It ain’t worth no $250k and probably not even $200k in the whole scheme of things.
I think my office is bigger than this apartment…
“Just because **you** wouldn’t pay more than $850/month for it doesn’t mean it’s *worth* that…Places like this rented for $850 or more in 1994 (trust me, personal experience); it’s a ~$1200/month rental (maybe more…”
I could flip your comment to HD right back at you and say just because YOU would pay $1200/m for doesn’t mean that’s what it’s worth.
It’s a nice little place in a fantastic location, but yeah, they overpaid and won’t recoup. I’d put it going at about $220k.
It does remind me of my first apartment back in 1978… A large studio apartment in Rogers Park. Rent was $185 a month, and I had a “lake view” just barely, between Mundelein College and Madonna della Strada chapel. Good times.
“I could flip your comment to HD right back at you and say just because YOU would pay $1200/m for doesn’t mean that’s what it’s worth.”
Can you read? I didn’t say I’d pay that (don’t think the 4 of us would fit well in a 1 br), just my best *guess* as to what market rent for it would be–that is, what it is “worth”. Jeebus.
I think it’s completely adorable. It’s perfect for a grad student, or a man or woman new to the city and working downtown at, for instance, one of the zillion ad agencies. I’ve seen smaller units rent for $850 in Lakeview with similar (lack of) amenities. I’m not familiar with the market for 1BRs in LP, but I’d guess it would go for $1100. The kitchen is nice though small, and it has a dining room. The courtyard is well-maintained and very pretty.
The association fee is a bit of sticking point (though it does include heat, probably also cooking gas)–I’d want to know why it was so high in a building like that. And yes, they are asking too much–in this market, it is certainly worth far closer to $200,000, IF I’m right that it would rent for around $1100. (The $200,000 would be giving it a nice bonus for location.) But I think its a nice little place–very Chicago–and if they dropped the ask a little more, they’d probably get some nibbles.
Sorry, that was intemperate.
HD has a well-known (here at least) distaste for LP and LV, so he’s discounting the “worth” of these places based on personal preference (i.e., what he’d pay). I may have been wrong on the rent, but I was estimating what the place *would* rent for to someone who wanted to live there, instead of thinking that the ‘hood was a black mark against the apartment (like HD does). Not having a mistress, I have less than no use for a 1 br apartment, so, to me, it’s worth $0/month.
I think you guys are a bit low in your rent estimates, since I’m starting to see similar units rent in Edgewater Glen for around 1200-1300 now (I must’ve really had a deal, since I was paying well under 800 for a much bigger and nicer unit there three years or so ago).
I’d say it should be around 180k, maybe even 160, since the living room is a bit narrow and there is not a full dining room.
It’s one of those places that should have stayed a rental. Reminds me of the apartment I lived in during college.
you could get $1,100-1,200 for that place from a depaul kid’s parents….
Apartments on Montana near this unit rent between 1,100 and 1,300 a month. *
http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=montana&minAsk=min&maxAsk=1500&bedrooms=1
The apartments on craigslist seem a little nicer so I would guess rent would probably be on the low end of the ranage if not less.
* very unscientific sampling
nd-
whomever is paying 1300 for a 1br in edgewater is the greater fool. I’ll take my 1100 1br in RN any day if that’s the case.
i revise my previous estimate down… $175K. too apartment like
1200-1300 should get you a nice 2BR in Edgewater… wtf are these people paying so much for a 1br? Unless they are really huge?
I think part of it is a shortage of rentals, the bulk of them were converted. The 2-3 bedrooms in my block go for 1500-1700.
The first link the craigslist listings pulls up is a bigger unit in the same building, isn’t it, for like 1350, so 1100 might not be far off;
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/apa/961793138.html
In fact, it’s not renting apparently, so maybe IT should be 1100.
In general, I can’t believe how much rents have gone up, a co-worker is trying to sublet his 1000+ studio, which just amazes me.
nd, I’m sort of amazed how much rents have gone up too. But I think that asking prices have gone up not necessarily rental prices. I see the same ads on craigslist all the time for the same amount of money over and over again. Yet anecdotally the people I know who rent are generally getting deals. It’s sort of looking trying to gauge real estate prices by looking at wishing prices on the MLS. We know there’s a huge disconnect between selling prices and asking prices.
the ppl i work with tell me about their 8-900 rents per person for 2 br in bucktown. ugh.
Very true, I think there are a lot of rehabbed units going unrented because they are too much for the space and poorly laid out, but for a while rents were stagnant because everybody was buying conversions etc. Now there is a shortage to some extent, and rents are sifting or shifting upwards, but you’re completely right, a lot of people are getting deals (myself included), especially in owner-occupied or small landlord properties.
I’m wondering that if a huge number of people loose their houses in the burbs, whether that will push up rents in the city, since there are fewer rentals in those areas, or if all those new build townhouses, garden apartments and even single-families will become rentals.
There’s definintely a price difference b/w the traditional vintage apartment and the new construction/rehab prices all around the city. $1,600 bucks for a month to rent a condo isn’t that bad of a deal especially if it’s got the works, like dishwasher, washer, dryer, granite, 2ba, etc. $1,600 bucks is way cheaper than the comparable cost to own. You can probably still rent 2 br’s in bucktown for $1,200 or $1,300 but they’re vintage which can be a pain. Old windows are drafty and they’re nowhere near as nice.
What I’ve noticed is that people are losing their homes on the south side which is driving up rents in the ‘burbs….all anecdotal of course, but the less desirable areas of the city are quickly being boarded up and it’s starting to look more like detroit. What else do you call a block with 6 boarded up foreclosures that were occupied as of 3 years ago? Where did all those people go???
“In fact, it’s not renting apparently, so maybe IT should be 1100. ”
If they want to rent it now, yeah. Probably could have got 1350 at the start of the school year. It’s hard to find renters in mid-December.
IM STEVE H. YOU’RE ALL CRAZY. THIS SHOULD BE GOING UP!!! REAL ESTATE IN LINCOLN PARK CAN *NEVER* DECLINE! ITS IMMUNE!
This is worth more than 850/month as a rental. I am thinking 1,000-1,100/month. If they wanted 850/month to rent it I’d cancel my lease now and move there.
“If they wanted 850/month to rent it I’d cancel my lease now and move there.”
Just b/c you’d do that doesn’t mean it’s worth more than $850/month, Bob. (haha)
How do you guys have time to sit and debate the sales and rental prices of a 1 bedroom unit in Lincoln Park? Get to work already!!
multi-tasking
SteveO morphs into taskmaster extraordinare from RE mogul/RE agent/CPA when our critiques hit home to properties close to his.
Steve is obviously very busy waiting around an open house waiting for someone with a big bag of money to show up.
Interesting, the bigger unit which is also for rent is listed at 10 less than this one.