A 2-Bedroom in Gaslight Court With a Private Deck: 1407 N. Wells in Old Town

This 2-bedroom in Gaslight Court at 1407 N. Wells in Old Town came on the market in September 2020.

Gaslight Court was constructed between 1900 and 1920 and has 19 units built around a brick courtyard. Each unit is unique and there are several buildings.

According to TimeOut magazine, gas lanterns once lit the alley way, now replaced by electric versions, hence the name.

It was converted into condos in 2000.

The complex doesn’t have any parking.

This unit is in one of the buildings that looks out on Wells Street (on the right in the picture above).

It has 11 foot ceilings, exposed brick, arched doors and textured plaster walls.

The unit also has a wood burning fireplace in the living room.

The listing describes the kitchen as a “chef’s kitchen” with light wood-looking cabinets, what looks like stone counter tops, stainless steel appliances and terra cotta floors.

There’s no dining room in the unit but the kitchen is large enough to be an eat-in.

It has a den which could also be an office.

But one of the big selling features is the 350 square foot private outdoor terrace which overlooks Wells Street.

The unit has some of the features that buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit but no parking. Parking is available for rent in the neighborhood.

Originally listed at $699,000, it remains priced at $699,000.

The price is just $9,000 above the 2007 purchase price.

Have prices finally reached peak bubble pricing again in some neighborhoods?

John Vossoughi at Compass has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #2: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed

  • Sold in August 2000 for $242,000
  • Sold in September 2004 for $386,000
  • Sold in September 2006 for $490,000
  • Sold in September 2007 for $690,000
  • Sold in October 2013 for $640,000
  • Currently listed at $699,000
  • Assessments of $415 a month (includes exterior maintenance and scavenger)
  • Taxes of $7956
  • Central Air
  • Washer/dryer in the unit
  • No parking- but available to rent in the neighborhood
  • Wood burning fireplace
  • Bedroom #1: 15×11
  • Bedroom #2: 13×10
  • Living room: 21×16
  • Kitchen: 17×12
  • Office: 9×8
  • Foyer: 10×4
  • Deck: 23×14

 

16 Responses to “A 2-Bedroom in Gaslight Court With a Private Deck: 1407 N. Wells in Old Town”

  1. Tile looks like Saltillo, not Terra Cotta. Bathroom looks great, don’t think it works very well in the kitchen.

    Shouldn’t the property taxes be significantly higher?

    7 years of ownership, and probably breaking even assuming they did the 2nd bath remodel + 77 days on the market. I can feel the HAWTNESS! ™

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  2. Three bathrooms and not a single bathtub?

    Current trends not withstanding, there should be ONE tub at least in every house. Everyone enjoys a nice hot soak now and then, and a tub is a necessity if you have young children.

    There are many modern trends that will be very costly to remediate when they are no longer “on trend”, and will be real deal-killers for subsequent buyers, and the tub-less house is one of them.

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  3. Looking at the front of this building, I can’t believe that someone allowed a back deck to be placed on the front of this building. The outdoor space for this unit is nice enough, but I would hate what looks to be a heavy deck supported by three posts overhead.

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  4. Laura, I agree with you about the bathtub. I would not even look at any place that I was not planning to totally remodel without a bathtub. Preferable a non-giant, separate, insulated tub in not too large of a bathroom

    I also hate the barn-door tend. The loft yesterday had a barn-door that had all of the hardware outside the bedroom.

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  5. “Three bathrooms”

    ??

    “Parking Information
    # of Cars: 2
    # of Garage Spaces: 1
    # of Exterior Parking Spaces: 1
    Garage Parking, Parking Space(s)
    Attached Garage, Detached Garage”

    Where is this parking? Cobbler Square, right? So, rental.

    This is available across the street:

    https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1414-N-Wells-St-60610/unit-603/home/14116704

    I don’t like it “better”, but it’s $130k less, and there’s no one walking on my head, and the parking is in the building.

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  6. Who wants to pay the premium to live in old town if professional jobs are going remote?

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  7. “Shouldn’t the property taxes be significantly higher?”

    Assessed at $417k, so yeah. Fritz and co will jack this one up especially if it has a recent sale.

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  8. “Who wants to pay the premium to live in old town if professional jobs are going remote?”

    Gosh:

    Walking distance to a great beach.
    Restaurants and bars right outside your door.
    Supermarkets nearby.
    Brown line nearby.
    Can walk to Mag Mile shopping.

    I could go on.

    If you can work remote, why not be like Sonies and move to smaller town America instead of paying the premium for the large cities?

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  9. “ Assessed at $417k, so yeah. Fritz and co will jack this one up especially if it has a recent sale.”

    How do you get the assessment reduced by 1/3 what you paid?

    Is it owned by a Pritzker?

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  10. “get the assessment reduced by 1/3 what you paid?”

    That’s not how the assessment process works in Illinois.

    The owners have appealed at every re-ass since at least 2009. The highest Assessor’s value being appealed from was in 2015, and it was all of $52,301–17% below purchase price.

    That got reduced at the Board of Review to $47,252. And at the ’18 re-ass, the Assessor came up with the $41,715 on his own–no reduction on appeal.

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  11. Speaking of assessments, did anyone else get a “covid adjustment”?

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  12. Haven’t we chattered about this unit before (or was it another one in the building?)? It looks way better than when I went to parties there in the 90’s, but as I recall it was a nice space high ceilings and the deck was fantastic.

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  13. ” did anyone else get a “covid adjustment”?”

    Yes, but hadn’t looked at how much. -11%

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  14. “Haven’t we chattered about this unit before (or was it another one in the building?)?”

    You commented about this unit in a post about the one upstairs:

    http://cribchatter.com/?p=10277

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  15. Lauren, I despise barn doors,too. I almost cried when I was looking at housing porn at realtor.com, and saw an otherwise gorgeous condo in a place in a vintage N Lake Shore Drive building, whose owner had installed a ratty distressed-wood barn door in the living room. Below are the trends I hate most:
    – Open plan kitchens (unless it’s in a family room apart from the living room)
    – two-tone kitchen cabinets
    – bath vanities with raised basins
    – shiplap anywhere, but especially in the bath
    – Victorian-revival tubs on legs
    – high side free standing tubs with no place to set anything, or hold onto
    -industrial-style pendant lighting
    – homes with no tubs in any bath
    -gray everything
    -exposed furnace ducts

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  16. “bath vanities with raised basins”

    I think these can look really cool, but they’re not terribly functional. I’d consider putting one in a half bath with a super fancy faucet.

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