A Vintage 2-Bedroom with Parking in Lakeview for $365,000: 1049 W. Barry
This 2-bedroom at 1049 W. Barry in Lakeview came on the market in July 2022.
Built in 1910, this building has 16 units and outdoor parking. There’s also storage.
The listing calls this “vintage yet updated.”
It has 10 foot ceilings and hardwood floors throughout.
The living room has built-ins and a wood burning fireplace with brick surround. There’s no dining room.
The kitchen is “new” as of 2021 and has white cabinets, stone counter tops, stainless steel appliances, a white tile backsplash and a breakfast bar which is open to the living room and seats 3.
The bathroom is also “new” as of 2021 and has a walk-in-shower.
The rear bedroom has a den area that the listing says would be perfect for a home office.
The unit has a south facing deck.
It has the features that buyers look for that are somewhat rare in vintage buildings including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and outdoor parking. The listing says the space is wide and can fit 2 cars.
The building is in the heart of Lakeview near the Wellington brown line station and shops and restaurants.
Listed at $365,000, does this property check all the boxes for first time buyers?
Robert Clifford at Compass has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit #2E: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed
- Sold in March 1989 for $90,000
- Sold in May 1992 for $135,000
- Sold in June 1999 for $225,500
- Sold in December 2003 for $299,000
- Sold in August 2013 for $288,500
- Sold in August 2016 for $318,500
- Currently listed at $365,000
- Assessments of $269 a month (includes exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $5578
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- 1 large or 2 side-by-side outdoor parking spaces included
- Wood burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 20×13
- Bedroom #2: 11×10
- Living room: 18×12
- Kitchen: 12×12
- Deck
Losing money
TV is useless as shown
The bar addition really limits the LR usage
Would be a nice 1Br
“Would be a nice 1Br”
for sure–2d bed gets split bt living space and a closet for the remaining bedroom. Would be sweet.
nice slide in range.
No one wants a 1-bedroom anymore unless it has a den or other office space where you can work.
True one bedrooms are going to be really hard sells going forward.
“The bar addition really limits the LR usage”
Gotta have somewhere to eat.
“gotta have somewhere to eat”
Where did the previous owners eat?
This is also why this would be better as a 1Br
I don’t actively dislike it, but the unit and building seem like more of a rental.
“No one wants a 1-bedroom anymore unless it has a den or other office space where you can work.”
Not everyone works the same…some people have their home office at the kitchen island or on the breakfast bar, or whatever.
I learned that truth somewhere. I wish that I could remember where that was…any ideas?
I’d say it’s the true 1 bathrooms that are the real stinkers. What would you rather have, a 1 bed with a master and a powder room, or a 2/1?
“I’d say it’s the true 1 bathrooms that are the real stinkers.”
That is what I said. You have to have space for work from home now. That makes 2/1 more valuable than the standard 1-bedroom. Going to make it very difficult to sell the 1-bedrooms without a dedicated office space in the future.
“Not everyone works the same…some people have their home office at the kitchen island or on the breakfast bar, or whatever.”
Sorry. We’re going on 3 years of this now. Everything has changed. You’re only working at the kitchen island if you positively have NO other choice. And so when you go to buy a new home, you’re going to make sure you don’t have to keep working like that. You’re going to buy a space that has an office or a den or a second bedroom, if you can at all afford it.
It used to be every house was built with a dining room and formal living room and then those went out of style. Going forward, builders are going to include at least one, maybe more, home offices as standard.
Now I remember…
“I’ve been working on the dining room table, the kitchen island, the couch. Now that no one has a desk top, you can basically be anywhere in your house (out on the balcony etc.)”
Who needs an office at home, right??
http://cribchatter.com/?p=28046#comment-1177939
“Going forward, builders are going to include at least one, maybe more, home offices as standard.”
Aren’t offices already standard in suburban houses? All six suburban houses my parents have owned, that I remember, have had a separate office. I can’t think of a suburban house I have visited that did not have an office.
Anybody with a serious job has a desk and at least one large external monitor to project the work laptop on to. The distinction between laptops and desktops is now moot with external monitors, but anybody who says they can do their job as efficiently ie: on their phone does not have a serious job. Think gig worker type folks or with that mentality. Maybe we’ll get to the point where you can connect to external monitors from your phone as easily from your phone as you can from your laptop currently, but I’m not seeing that yet.
Having a home office has always been a huge benefit to those with serious jobs as WFH started becoming a thing long before covid on certain days of the week and increasing amounts of it were dangled as a perk to longtime staffers who weren’t on the promotion trek & wanted the flexibility. From the company’s point of view its better than giving them a bigger raise & could allow the company to underpay them vs competitors that wanted onsite work five days a week.
Now after the pandemic that whole equilibrium has been destroyed.
Ya I work from home most of the time and absolutely need my 3 27″ 1440p monitors for analytics work. I built a beastly watercooled RGB desktop to push them, but as noted a laptop is sufficient for most as noted (especially non gamers).
My 1BR has a nook that is perfect for my setup (as well as a kegerator haha). I love that I’m a bit tucked away, but still have all the space of my living room and an incredible city view.
My next condo will likely have a separate room for a dedicated home office though, but I’m not convinced that’s an upgrade for my workstyle (although many would disagree).
But ya this unit is odd. That TV setup is a joke. I use my home theater every night to chill down. It’s also great for hosting movie nights, game day, or youtube for pregaming, etc.
“I can’t think of a suburban house I have visited that did not have an office.”
Your definition of “suburban” Lauren may be different from someone else’s.
What era was the home built?
A 1920s or 1930s bungalow in Oak Park or Park Ridge likely doesn’t have an “office.” A 1960s split-level might (or may not). A 1980s colonial might or you can create one out of an unused dining room. My parents had a new build McMansion in a far out suburb built in 1993 and it had a dedicated home office/library space. Those were definitely “in” in the 1990s bigger homes.
All depends on the size of the house and when it was built, doesn’t it?
I have never been in a smaller suburban home that had a dedicated office space because there was always a family room/great room and otherwise all the other rooms were bedrooms. Or there was a basement. Some in Chicagoland may be able to carve space out of the basement.
If only anon(tfo) would post the full context of the discussion. We literally WERE discussing the same thing as we are in this very thread. Do you need a home office now that many people will be working from home?
I brought up the fact that many younger people had raced back to the city and were still renting the 625 square foot 1-bedrooms that did NOT have an office or much other space for a desk so maybe the answer was “no” you don’t need it. But those were renters. These are buyers. Two different beasts.
Here’s more of what I said in Oct 2021:
“The apartment buildings have filled back up with the tenants fully knowing they were NOT going back to the office any time soon and when they do go back, it might be for just 1 or 2 days a week.
These tenants are making an informed choice now. It’s not like last year when they got stuck in these apartments during the pandemic. There’s been a lot of moving around to get the “right” space. Some are definitely choosing the small 1-bedroom without an office, or even space for a desk, as their option.
Maybe someone who reads this blog can fill us in on why they chose that option even while working from home.
Do you need a separate office space like this condo has or is it irrelevant?
Last year, I thought that apartment developers would switch out floorplans going forward to ALWAYS include a small office niche. But so far, I haven’t seen any real changes in that direction. Probably because occupancy jumped back up quickly so the “old” product is still renting and why mess with it?”
“Last year, I thought that apartment developers would switch out floorplans going forward to ALWAYS include a small office niche. But so far, I haven’t seen any real changes in that direction. Probably because occupancy jumped back up quickly so the “old” product is still renting and why mess with it?””
And
“Do you need a home office now that many people will be working from home?”
Those are statements discussing both related and separate factors.
On the former, given still limited supply and sustained demand, I’d say it’s mostly a “why mess with it” situation, though it really varies depending on the type of apartments.
On the latter, I think it’s really hard to say with confidence what the WFH situation is going be, long term. One week it seems like return-to-the-office has gained enough steam that there’s no stopping it (even if it’s not quite M – F), and the next it seems like it’s never coming back and WFH will remain the norm.
“I think it’s really hard to say with confidence what the WFH situation is going be, long term.”
No, it’s not. Just listen in on the MillerKnoll or Steelcase conference calls. A year ago, some employers thought they’d get more workers back into the office. They were wrong. Now they’re realizing they have to lure them there with amenities and new office spaces, outdoor working spaces, free food in the cafeteria, gyms etc.
Each industry has differences but few are going back 5 days a week ever again. That ship has sailed. You now have GenZ coming into the workforce with this new reality. With 11 million job openings, employees still have the upper hand.
Totally agree that for most young professionals the 5 day in office week is gone. Even before the pandemic, I had been working from home about 2 days a week (every Friday and one floating day for errands, etc.). Now it’s reverse, I only go in one day for group meetings and a floating day if there’s some event going on or team visiting.
The bigger 900sqft unit in my building with an office nook demands much more than the standard 820sqft rectangle 1BR.
As Sabrina noted, there’s a big difference between apartment & condo demands though. Time will tell if newer apartments push for more office space, but I would expect so.
“No, it’s not.”
OOOOOOOOOOOOkay. You go ahead then, speak with confidence about it. Good luck!
“Aren’t offices already standard in suburban houses?”
I browse ~$1m-$2m houses in the burbs here and other places from time to time–not Toll Brothers or similar newer houses, nor extra large lot places like Barrington Hills. I see far less than half with proper offices, rather than bedrooms being used as offices.
Our home was built in 1949, and didn’t have an office, but we’ve made two of the bedrooms into offices. Which works fine because we still have enough bedrooms aside from those. Not so great if you only have three bedrooms and have to give one up for office space.
I hardly even work in my bedroom “office,” anyway, for whatever reason. I always have worked best at the dining room table in the winter and on the front porch in the summer.
“Our home was built in 1949, and didn’t have an office, but we’ve made two of the bedrooms into offices.”
This is a little nuts because we’re strangers and just characters on the internet, but last Monday you came to mind I hoped that you and yours were safe and not directly impacted by the event in HP. I was up in Wilmette the day before (at a shiva of all things, with lots of HP visitors), and it was surreal to be heading to the airport that day.