Back to the 1988 Price for this 2-Bedroom Gold Coast Duplex Condo? 1434 N. Astor
This 2-bedroom duplex up at 1434 N. Astor in the Gold Coast came on the market in November 2018.
It is bank owned.
Built in 1889, it has a 3-unit self-managed association.
The two bedrooms, which appear to have carpeting, are on the second level with the living/dining room and kitchen on the third floor.
The unit has skylights and two fireplaces, although I believe the one in the bedroom is decorative only.
From the pictures, the kitchen appears intact with white cabinets, a stainless steel refrigerator and white oven.
It has in-unit washer/dryer, space pak cooling but no parking.
I’m not sure about those HOAs as it’s bank owned, but you can also see the HOAs from 10 years ago, when it wasn’t bank owned.
Strangely, we actually chattered about this unit the last time it was on the market in 2008. It sold and then came back listed as a rental.
You can read our chatter here.
This is what Gary said about it at the time:
“Sure enough the MLS shows it closing on July 15. So someone bought this. Let’s review the math from another perspective. Rent = 34200, Assessments = 9000, taxes = 10613. Net to owner = 14587 or a 2.1% return on assets. Doesn’t matter how you finance this it’s a bad deal. Some people just really love real estate.”
Originally listed at $474,900, it has been reduced $126,100 to $348,800.
That’s just $46,300 more than the 1988 sales price of $302,500.
Will this property sell for the same price as 31 years ago?
Who’s the buyer for this?
Gasper Flores at Su Familia Real Estate has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #3: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1400 square feet, duplex up
- Sold in June 1988 for $302,500
- Sold in July 2008 for $685,000
- Lis pendens foreclosure filed in September 2016
- Bank owned in May 2018
- Originally listed in November 2018 for $474,900
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed at $348,800
- Assessments are now $2,282 a month (they were $750 a month in 2008)(includes heat, gas, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes are now $19,194 (they were $10,613 in 2008)
- Space pak cooling
- In-unit washer/dryer
- No parking
- Bedroom #1: 22×15 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 16×16 (second floor)
- Living/dining combo: 29×15 (third floor)
- Terrace: 6×9 (third floor)
How in the world do you get a three-unit, non-coop building with assessments of almost $2,300 a month? Are you using gold plated slat for the sidewalks?
Sabrina, I’m looking at anon’s e-mail address right now.
As for “That’s just $46,300 more than the 1988 sales price of $302,500. Will this property sell for the same price as 31 years ago?”, that kinda blows a hole in your definition of “Green Zone,” doesn’t it?
The price is right, but the HOA + taxes are killer here. 2018 reassessment means the taxes are going up to about $23-24k/year. So you have $2,300 HOA + $2000 taxes = $4,300/mo. cheaper to rent a 2-bedroom in the area which range around $3,000-$3,500/mo. So this would make a horrible investment property…
your definition of “Green Zone,”
Yes, of course, the exception invalidates the general principle. Excellent logic there–right up with neighborhoods, once defined, never evolve.
upon closer inspection, I think Sabrina is wrong in describing this as a Duplex up. This is just the 3rd floor unit, the stairs in the photos is probably leading up from the entry door for the 3rd floor unit that starts on the 2nd floor. I was almost going to schedule a viewing for this property thinking that it was for floors 2 & 3 since Sabrina said it was a duplex up. LoL.
“Yes, of course, the exception invalidates the general principle. Excellent logic there–right up with neighborhoods, once defined, never evolve.”
———————————
Neighborhoods evolve all the time, sometimes swiftly. Compare the character of Logan Square today to fifteen years ago for instance, anon (tfo). It’s like night and day.
Neighborhood BOUNDARIES, on the other hand, don’t change, and they certainly don’t double the size of a neighborhood overnight, which is what the shills are saying happened to Bucktown, for example.
Sabrina — Now I’m looking at Kevin’s e-mail address in reply section. Could the problem be in the notifications plug in you recently added/went back to?
HOA for a building of this vintage could be saving up for a foundation repair, maybe a sewer problem they know about, or electrical upgrades they know need to be done. If the money is earmarked for a specific reason and there is a plan in place to deal with it that may make it more palatable. I lived in a building near here a long time ago and we had a little higher than average assessments at the time but we also didnt need to do any specials when the city mandated life safety upgrades, when the elevators went out, or windows needed replacing. As long as high assessments are being used to prevent specials I dont see fault with them. It’s like a mandated savings account and I can tell you after walking up 12 flights of stairs Im glad our building could drop almost $1,000,000 right out of the reserves to replace an elevator in an emergency.
I think this is a duplex up. You enter on the 3rd floor where there is a MBR and BR, then walk up to the 4th floor where you have a living room and kitchen. The 4th floor looks like an attic or expanded attic.
The 1st floor sold in 2017 for ~1M and its duplex down and the assessments are only $1k/month. Something seems weird. Are they not counting the basement?
The price is right for this unit but yes, those assessments…its weird, Unit 1 sold 2 years ago, and that unit is larger and went for over a mil, and the assessments are only listed as $1,000…so it must be a special tacked on there.
“upon closer inspection, I think Sabrina is wrong in describing this as a Duplex up. This is just the 3rd floor unit, the stairs in the photos is probably leading up from the entry door for the 3rd floor unit that starts on the 2nd floor. I was almost going to schedule a viewing for this property thinking that it was for floors 2 & 3 since Sabrina said it was a duplex up. LoL.”
Foreclosure units usually have a lot of mistakes in the listing. The bedrooms are listed separately from the living/dining/kitchen in the listing, but that doesn’t mean that they are. The only way you’d know is if you went and looked at it.
Die on that hill, john, die on that hill. All by yourself.
“Die on that hill, john, die on that hill. All by yourself.”
—————————-
As long as it’s North of Armitage, sure.
so i was interested enough to view the property. This building is a mess. It is a duplex up (2nd & 3rd floors). But it is a duplex up of the rear half of the building (so there are only views of the alley behind the building). This building is a mess. There is a $90k special assessment with another $175k special coming up soon. the floors are all sagging, the entire building is sagging/uneven. No rentals allowed in the building. Thermostat controlling all 3 units in the building are located within this unit. Separate HVAC is not possible bc all 3 units operate on the same radiator system and one of the unit owners refuses to spend any money on updating. The lady in charge of the HOA seems to have high-end tastes, so building expenses probably wont’ be cheap so don’t expect the HOA dues to decline much….
so i was interested enough to view the property. This building is a mess. It is a duplex up (2nd & 3rd floors). But it is a duplex up of the rear half of the building (so there are only views of the alley behind the building). This building is a mess. There is a $90k special assessment with another $175k special coming up soon. the floors are all sagging, the entire building is sagging/uneven. Also the windows all need to be replaced at an estimated cost of $37k (per the HOA president).
No rentals allowed in the building. Thermostat controlling all 3 units in the building are located within this unit. Separate HVAC is not possible bc all 3 units operate on the same radiator system and one of the unit owners refuses to spend any money on updating. The lady in charge of the HOA seems to have high-end tastes, so building expenses probably wont’ be cheap so don’t expect the HOA dues to decline much….
wow!
“There is a $90k special assessment with another $175k special coming up soon.”
Will the bank have to give it away? Because with those specials and assessments, who will buy it?
“Will the bank have to give it away? Because with those specials and assessments, who will buy it?”
Ultimately, I think the HOA president (Unit 1) will end up buying this unit (while discouraging potential buyers so that the price will keep dropping) and is just waiting for unit 2 to sell so she can own the whole building and convert to a single family home.
I’m guessing that Unit 1 and Unit 2 owners have already made a deal. First, those $90K and $127K special assessments would have required Unit 2’s approval (the owner who “refuses to spend any money on updating”).
Think of the situation that Unit 2 was in around 2017: Unit 1 was on the market, Unit 3 was in foreclosure, and the building probably needs a lot of work. They are looking for a way out.
I think that the new Unit 1 owner is offering Unit 2 a way out in return for driving down the price of Unit 3.
vb – i think you are spot on. Coincidentally or not, the Unit 1 owner is a property developer, so she certainly has the means and know-how to accomplish this. With that said, I don’t think any other potential buyer would really be able to return this building to its highest and best use. Buying and rehabbing just Unit 3 alone isn’t worth it unless you can get the price significantly below $200k + pay the specials + do some serious renovations and reconfiguration.
my guess is that whoever split the building up into condo units probably took out some supporting walls/joists causing the floors to start sagging.
Price INCREASED to $389,900
“Price INCREASED to $389,900”
Maybe the bank was getting a lot of lowball offers?