This 3-Bedroom East Lakeview Vintage Beauty Has It All: 500 W. Barry
We’ve chattered about units in this pre-war building at 500 W. Barry in East Lakeview before.
The last few years, we chattered about a 3-bedroom third floor unit, Unit #3W, which was listed in April 2011 at $799,900 and ended up selling last November for $575,000.
See our February 2012 chatter on that unit here. And see pictures of it here.
This current unit, however, is on a higher floor. Is this a top floor unit? The listing doesn’t say.
Don’t worry about stairs, however, as this building has an elevator.
It also has garage parking and guest parking, a rare commodity in this neighborhood.
All 3 bedrooms are ensuite and 2 of the bathrooms have been rehabbed.
The kitchen has white cabinets, stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
It has the original moldings and a wood burning fireplace.
It even has rare outdoor space witha 13×9 deck.
The unit has space pak cooling and in-unit washer/dryer.
It came on the market at $650,000, or $75,000 higher than #3W, which had the same square footage, parking and other amenities.
Will it get the premium in this hotter market?
Gina Dunning at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #4E: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2200 square feet, 1 car parking
- Sold in August 1998 for $370,000
- Sold in July 2001 for $478,500
- Currently listed for $650,000
- Assessments of $776 a month (includes elevator, snow removal, cable)
- Taxes of $9877
- Space pak cooling
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Guest parking
- Bedroom #1: 17×13
- Bedroom #2: 17×12
- Bedroom #3: 13×8
- Deck 13×9
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but for a vintage unit/building, the assessments are actually reasonable! Beautiful unit though with lots of light, and nice to see some large bedrooms and a third bedroom that isn’t 10×8 feet. How unicorn-ian is this for the chatterati? It has the precious elevator for the exercise-averse, and enough bathrooms for Jenny (I think?) and the 2-kid nuclear family is 75% covered in case of sudden gastroenteritis (odd-person out can just use the crib).
The two bathrooms photographed don’t really match in style, one is very modern, the other is pretty ugly. (Blue tile wasn’t the best choice). I can’t vouch for space-pak, but maybe others can. Great listing though, Sabrina!
It’s lovely, but it’s not a top floor unit, and I’m not sure it’s worth a $75K premium over a 3rd floor unit.
It’s only the list price. They probably hope to close for about $10-20k more than the 3rd floor unit. In addition to being a floor higher and having some recent improvements, the market seems a bit better today than it did back in Nov, as winter was setting in on the as-yet-to-get-hot real estate market.
Its the exact same unit and the assessments are actually more like $900 because there is a $2000 a year “master association fee” that adds roughly $200 a month. So the assessments are in fact a bit pricey for what you get. It was the main issue with 3W. I looked at that unit.
(and 3W sat on the market for a very long time, although the asking price started higher than this.)
Dizzy,
Figured the assessments were too good to be true. Thanks for that info, I’m not surprised the realtor makes no mention of that additional fee.
I like this place a lot for the 3W price
Love this place and this block and think it will go close to ask. Wish I’d bought it back in 98.
$900 in assessments doesn’t seem ridiculous. Taxes are also decent.
Dan, do you really think this will go for 100-125k over 920 W. Barry?
I realize there’s many advantages over 920Barry, but not sure this place is worth 125k more (assuming 920 closes around 515-525k). I think they’re both expensive, a price closer to 3W seems more reasonable. Almost the same taxes on the two units. Do 920’s get reduced or 500’s raised?
Just curious. All else being equal…is there an “iron-law” on pricing differentials between 1st 2nd 3rd (top) floors in vintage condos?
920 w barry is like the heart of boystown, also close to the El tracks… this location is far far nicer
almost $1000 in assessments a month strikes me as ridiculous when you consider there is no doorman, and you don’t have the perks other buildings might have (pool, gym, roofdeck, etc.). but that is just me. it certainly argues for a lower purchase price in my mind.
Just curious. All else being equal…is there an “iron-law” on pricing differentials between 1st 2nd 3rd (top) floors in vintage condos?
I would think there may be a small premium for third floor b/c you don’t hear anyone above you, but for no other reason. No prestige in being top floor of a three story building (no view, and not really a penthouse despite what realtards say). I’d think the second floor would go for close to the third floor b/c its not on the ground (privacy) and utilities may be lower since its sandwiched between units.
I love small windows
Second floor is the worst – you can hear people above you, and the people underneath you will hear and complain about you.
I’d think the second floor would go for close to the third floor b/c its not on the ground (privacy) and utilities may be lower since its sandwiched between units.
“I realize there’s many advantages over 920Barry”
Indeed.
“lmost $1000 in assessments a month strikes me as ridiculous when you consider there is no doorman, and you don’t have the perks other buildings might have (pool, gym, roofdeck, etc.).”
What are assessments on a 2,200 sq ft place, with one garage space plus outdoor guest parking, in a full service (doorman, pool, etc.) building? I’d say you’re looking at (at least) roughly $1,500/mo. And this is a fairly small, older building, with units that have wood burning fireplaces and good sized outdoor spaces, i.e., not the typical SL/west RN high rise. Provided that they are adequately funding the reserves and the building is well cared for, $1,000/mo for this unit seems very reasonable. (Consider the Marlborough: I realize this building isn’t situated directly on the park and within The 614, but these assessments are a steal compared to the Marlborough, which is similarly lacking in ammenities – with no parking.)
Bummer that it lacks a powder room and that the nice deck appears to be off a bedroom. But someone will buy it in the next month or so in the high $500k’s (maybe $600k if it’s actually nicer than dipicted in the underwhelming pics).
Scratch what I said earlier about this unit being better updated than the 3rd floor unit. That one is much nicer.
Not familiar with 920 Barry but the location alone should give this one a huge premium.
Now 920 Barry isn’t what I’d call the “heart of boystown” as another poster did, but it is near the L and near the hospital, both strikes against it. Also, the buildings east of Broadway are (for the most part) better than the ones west of Broadway. Only east of Broadway to you get the really big, vintage, upscale condos. Buildings west of Broadway tend to be graystones or frame-homes.
East of Broadway was a luxurious neighborhood when it was built up, whereas west of Broadway was more working class, so the buildings on the east side are just plain nicer. Too bad so many were torn down for 4+1s and then for crappy 1990s and early 2000s condos.
I LOVED the other one in this building, I realize it’s just decorating but that is one that we’ve chattered about the really sticks out in my mind. This seems more generic. Again, it’s stuff that can be changed but some buyers don’t have vision like that.
The bathrooms don’t belong in this place AT ALL.
This is a beautiful apartment in a building high on my list of best-loved Chicago condo buildings.
However, I really don’t think this unit will fetch any more than the last one featured on this site because it doesn’t look any better. The kitchen is not great, and a lot of people will wish they hadn’t bothered with the baths, because the new ones are way too “trendy”, taste-specific, and completely out of character with the building. I find them hideous.
“Second floor is the worst – you can hear people above you, and the people underneath you will hear and complain about you.”
Not if the building was built with concrete and plaster, you don’t. There are plenty of pre-war buildings in East Lakeview where that is the case. I don’t know that about this building, in particular, however. But I had a friend who lived in one of the pre-war courtyard buildings a few blocks from here and he could play his guitar full blast and no one heard a thing. It was 12 inches of concrete in between floors.
We lived in a pre-war on the second floor and never heard anything from the first floor below us (except their dog barking as we climbed the stairs), but hearing footsteps from the third floor above was pretty common.
Just as an aside, I had never heard anyone refer to a building in Chicago as “pre-war” until I started reading Crib Chatter. I had only heard it used in reference to NY real estate.
I don’t much care for it; it always makes me think, “which war?”. The tacky concrete block 3-flat down the block is “pre-war” if we’re talking about the Iraq war…
In NY, it’s WWII. Here, I think Vietnam might be a better choice.
“We lived in a pre-war on the second floor and never heard anything from the first floor below us (except their dog barking as we climbed the stairs), but hearing footsteps from the third floor above was pretty common.”
I live in a courtyard building in ELV a few blocks from here that was built in 1912 and this is the case with me. Very nice construction back then.