Gold Coast Living for $225,000: 40 E. Delaware
40 E. Delaware in the Gold Coast is a 1928 building surrounded by new construction.
Behind it, the Elysian is going up.
Down the street is 10 E. Delaware and 2 W. Delaware, or Walton On the Park.
All of those buildings are “luxury”. The one bedrooms in Walton On the Park are being marketed in the $500,000s for 900 square feet.
Is it a deal to buy an older, and yes, smaller one bedroom down the street for a fraction of the cost?
40 E. Delaware doesn’t have parking. But the small one bedrooms have w/d in the unit.
Unit #1104: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, about 700 square feet
- I couldn’t find a prior sales price
- Currently listed for $225,000
- Wall unit A/C
- Assessments of $434 a month
- Bedroom is 12 x 11
- Coldwell Banker has the listing
I like this building. Great location, steps from Michigan Ave, 900 N mall, restaurants on Rush Street, and IN Unit Laundry in every unit!!!
Question for you all:
Is in-unit W/D a potential deal-killer for you guys? For those who say yes, have you lived in a building with communal laundry (down the hall, or basement) and hated it enough that you say “never again”?
I gave it some thought before I wound where I am, but surprisingly having the (very nice, large, new, and affordable) communal laundry in the basement hasn’t been a problem.
This is another one of those “How much will you pay for convenience?” questions, because I think if most people realized how much they were spending to 1) buy decent W/D machines, $500-1000 each, 2) utilities to run them, which are quite substantial especially for the dryer and 3) paying to fix them when they break, the $1 per commercial-sized load each washing/drying doesn’t seem such a bad deal.
For some buyers- yes it is a deal killer. I’ve often said, once you have laundry in your unit- you’ll never go back to having it in the basement again.
That being said- the buildings with it on the same floor is not that big of a deal (given the fewer number of people who will be using it and the convenience of just walking a short distance to check the dryer.)
Any agents who can give perspective on re-sale value? I’ve heard it actually CAN make a difference in re-sale (if you have it in the unit.)
In my old condo I had a central laundry which I prefer. I would do 3 to 4 full size loads all at one time. Now I have a laundry in the unit, very small capacity and it seems like we do laundry every other day. My wife prefers the in-unit washer/dryer. Not trying to be sexist but its seems like women prefer in-unit vs central. And I have heard from brokers that in unit laundries helps with resale.
I’ve had both (in the last 2 years) and will NEVER go back to communal laundry. It was a great building in Streeterville with a modern, large laundry room; however, I used to dread dragging it all down to the basement to do. I love tossing my dirty laundry into the washer when needed. Such a relief. Most of my clients will not even consider a place without it in the unit.
So yes, I would say the 3 deal killers in Chicago condos are
1. in unit laundry
2. parking for purchase vs rent
3. balcony, deck, etc…people want outdoor private space (even if they never ever use it)
After living in Manhattan for 5yrs and only having communal laundry, there’s no way I would go back to it. Sharing a dozen washers and dryers with 200+ of my closest friends made doing the laundry very difficult at times to say the least. There were many times over the years where I considered buying one of those all-in-one w/d’s. Also, we were spending about $50/month – $2.25 for each wash and dry cycle.
Interesting. Guess I’m the resident crib chatter contrarian, because I have had “in-unit” before and “went back” to communal (though admittedly with some skepticism). Like Valasko says, it’s nice to able to run several large loads at once, with the communal machines being 1) larger 2) more efficient and 3) faster than most consumer machines. The downside of course is that I have to take my laundry basket down the treacherous hallway to the elavator to the basement 🙂
SR’s perspective is interesting. I’m sure those 3 deal-killers are descriptive of a particular clientele, but clearly they are all considered “desirable.” I guess I’m trying to figure why it’s such a big deal (i.e. deal-killer), because Valasko and I have pointed out reasons why communal laundry can be fine.
And in re: purchase v. rent parking….well, some quick math:
I pay $130/month (they hiked it from $125, now I guess the poor elderly in my building will be eating cat food) in Gold Coast/Old Town area for indoor parking. If a spot is purchased for $35K (seems on the low end for the area), that’s about $220/month on the mortgage payment. Given the percentage of that $220 that is interest for the first 10 years of a mortgage, is it really worth it to own a spot vs. rent?
David,
Communal means that you are at the mercy of your landlord and the servicing company of the machines. In my apt building that means that a full dryer load takes three times to get them completely dry ($3.75). Its definitely not quicker.
Is it enough to say “never again”..no not if renting. Is it enough to make me want to commit to a place for a multi-year period and base my financial future on it? Certainly. If you’re going to own its my belief that you better be comfortable owning the place for at least 6-7 years in a stable market in order to be ahead after transaction costs are figured in. This isn’t exactly a stable market so make that 8 years or so. Would I be willing to commit to the taking on this kind of risk and hassle from the HOA for 8 years?, especially when the cost of a washer and dryer is under 1k? No.
David,
Also I agree with you on renting the parking spot vs. buying. Especially after total costs (taxes) are figured into owning the spot.
$130/month expense for an indoor spot is far better than owning a spot where your taxes alone might be $50. If there were no RE taxes on parking spots I think it would be about even, but because there are for $130/month it makes much more sense to rent. At $200+/month vs the $35k spots then it makes sense to consider purchasing and $200/mo seems to be the going rate, however.
The closer to the loop you get though I don’t think parking spots are going to be as volatile as condos as they have utility to a much wider audience if they can be sold to people who don’t live in the building.
Regarding parking, you would be surprised on how many clients refuse to consider renting a spot. They can’t deal with another person/company and refuse to write a check each month to someone other than the bank. They bought to do away with landlords/rental companies, etc….Yes, I agree odd and probably not the cheapest option but oh well….I just roll with it.
Bob,
Good point on the laundry. My building is professionally managed and any malfunctions are usually fixed within a couple days. And 1 hour in one of the many commercial dryers is plenty for even a load full of towels and sheets. You’re right that it depends on 1) the equipment and 2) management/maintenance thereof, but I guess my point is that “lack of in-unit W/D” seems like an odd “deal-killer” for me, particularly for highrise residents who probably are only living 1-2 people per unit with many dry-clean-only items (obviously a full family doing alot more laundry will have more substantial laundry needs).
And parking, of course many owned garage spots have a monthly assessment as well, so tack that on the $220/month in addition to the tax, as you point out. Obviously it will vary from spot-to-spot, it just again seems like an odd deal-killer. I mean, if a place is otherwise great (right location, right space/layout, right finishes), the parking and laundry don’t seem like major factors to me (they are more the “details” that would have a commensurate impact on your starting offer – for example at closing we got a few thousand from the seller because there was a waitlist for a parking spot because the seller hadn’t kept up the rental – inconvenience, but deal-killer?).
Then again, as resident contrarian, my preferences don’t seem quite “normal” or “typical”.
Regarding 40 E Delaware specifically, while many units have w/d in-unit, there is also a communal laundry in the building. I lived here from 04-06 – we would normally do our laundry in the unit, but we used the communal laundry for large items or large loads. It worked out very, very well.
I will also say this building is exceptionally well-maintained with an excellent door staff and full-time engineer – people who have been there for a long time who take pride in the building and are extremely attentive to residents. This is really a great building to live in.
However, the association made a big mistake in 05. This building used to have a nice private deck overlooking Rush/Walton on the north side of the 3rd floor. In 05, the Elysian offered compensation for blocking off the deck. Specifically, the Elysian offered to pay for the installation of a rooftop deck; however, the association accepted an amount before properly scoping the cost of the project which was far more than what they received from the Elysian. The rooftop deck became a non-starter, and the 3rd floor deck is no longer usable.