Bought in 2010 and Now Trying To Re-Sell Just 2 Years Later: 445 W. Fullerton Parkway in Lincoln Park
I’ve been seeing a fair number of 2010 purchases come on the market recently like this 2-bedroom vintage unit at 445 W. Fullerton Parkway in Lincoln Park.
This unit has a lot of the vintage features buyers look for including french doors and box beamed ceilings in the dining room.
The kitchen has maple cabinets, granite counter tops and white appliances.
The unit is larger than your typical 2/2 as it has a 14×5 sun room along with a 5×4 laundry room.
There’s no parking (it is leased in the neighborhood) and there’s no central air (window units only.)
But it does have an in-unit washer/dryer.
The listing also indicates it is in the coveted Lincoln school district.
The unit is now listed $42,100 under the 2010 purchase price.
That is also about $30,000 under the 2003 price.
How low will this go?
And what does it say about the GreenZone market right now?
Ted Nash at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #2E: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in September 1992 for $180,000
- Sold in August 2003 for $369,000
- Sold in August 2008 for $412,500
- Sold in March 2010 for $382,000
- Originally listed in March 2012 for $350,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $339,900
- Assessments of $326 a month
- Taxes of $5117
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No central air- window units only
- No parking- rental available in the neighborhood for $155 a month
- Bedroom #1: 14×13
- Bedroom #2: 11×10
- Dining Room: 15×13
- Sunroom: 14×5
- Laundry room: 5×4
Ok looking place, needs some updating. Must be more to the story though. Why would you sell this so quick and at such a loss? No central a/c deal breaker for me
cheap finishes
Ha, they bought into a bubble near its peak and two years later are dreaming they’re only going to loose 8.4% of their purchase price. Ha! Keep dreaming suckers. As bubbles deflate you don’t loose single digits of %.
The March 2010 seller is the one who really got lucky and knew how to cut a loss.
Even with the needed updates, one less bedroom, and lack of a/c and parking I would take this unit in a heartbeat and save money over the previous posting. The bars definitely need to come off of the windows and doors though. This is Lincoln Park not Englewood. I think it is a cute place though. I would be surprised if it sold for under $300k.
The bars on the window probably are there for a good reason. Sure, Lincoln Park is not Englewood, but getting broken into happens everywhere- the burglary rate for the U.S. as a whole is 50% irrespective of the area. When it happens, you are very, very traumatized. It is harrowing in the extreme to discover that someone can get into your house. Oftentimes, an event like that triggers a move, as it did for a friend of mine, who put his Naperville home up for sale the day he and his family arrived home from a one-week trip to find that someone had moved out their entire house. The only belongings left to them were a sock and a hairpin. Someone had simply backed a moving van into the driveway- I mean, who would question a moving van in a Corporate Transferee suburb- and piled their belongings into it. My friends said they would never feel good in the house ever again.
I look for vulnerability to break-in when I select an apartment. This place would not make the grade- I hate windows over landings and those bars could be bent by a determined housebreaker, given time and freedom from interference, which is easy because most people are at work all day. Anything on the ground floor, or with a window over a landing, or with any sub-grade space, is out of the question. I made my landlord replace my old, thin back door with glass panes protected by a grill, with a heavy, solid-core door. Transoms should be blocked or walled in- someone crawled through one into an apt. here in RP a number of years back. Security was not an overriding obsession when these old places were built, because the crime rate was once so low in the U.S. compared to now that people left their doors unlocked clear into the 50s, and on hot nights slept on the beach or in their yards. But it’s a different world now.
Good points, Laura.
For me, it’s living right on a busy part of Fullerton just off Clark, and a unit right off the alley that services the Five Guys. For what it’s worth, the Fullerton-facing bars seem decorative, and are also on floor 3.
Thats a pretty big generalization. We have neighborhood watch in my subdivision and watch out for each other. A few summers back was the only time I remember a house being broken into, and everybody received an email from the association describing the car and two guys that were seen by the house, whose garage door was partially open. When I saw the garage door on the house across from us left open a few months ago, and a panel truck waiting out in front, I called the neighbor at work. By the time they got home, the police were already inside checking things out, responding to another neighbors call (false alarm). There are plenty of people home during the day out walking their dogs or babies, and they would certainly come over to check if they saw a moving van in front of a neighbors house. We’ve lived in our house for 15 years, and there really isn’t a lot of turnover in our subdivision. Right now there are no homes for sale, and I believe four sold last year, out of 80 homes. Other subdivisions may have more turnover, but your generalization doesn’t fit my Naperville experience. In fact, I’m sure some people feel the neighbors are nosy and would prefer more privacy.
“I mean, who would question a moving van in a Corporate Transferee suburb- and piled their belongings into it.”
“services the Five Guys”
Isn’t this really any alley you choose? Thought it was closer to north of Belmont.
“Isn’t this really any alley you choose? Thought it was closer to north of Belmont.”
You’re thinking of another Five Guys (on Broadway between Belmont and Melrose). There is also one right next door to this place on the corner of Clark/Fullerton. If you look at an overhead (gmaps, etc), you can see that the alley next to this unit (it’s on the left side of Sabrina’s picture between the subject building and the next one). It’s a tiny dead-end alley that just services a couple of the buildings facing Clark, including the Five Guys. Worst part of this would be the trash.
Some neighborhoods in Naperville are very settled, but others have very high turnover. My friend lived in a newer subdivision in a beautiful house, but knew only one neighbor well, a local banker who did his best to keep an eye on things except he spent most of his time at work. So how could he really watch.
My mother, on the other hand, lives in an older suburb with many people who’ve lived on her street nearly as long as she has, over 40 years. There are a number of stay-at-home mothers and they notice everyone on the street. It was one of these women who foiled a couple of lowlifes who were trying to break into a house through a back sunporch.
Urban neighborhoods tend to be more anonymous. You may know most of the people in your building, but no one in the building next door, let alone two streets over. Most people really don’t inquire of strangers trolling alleys- many people don’t even enter the alleys behind their buildings because the building personnel carry their trash out for them. Many other people are careless about closing security gates and making sure the lobby door is firmly closed and locked. It’s wonderful to have a closely-knit group of vigilant neighbors around you, but you can’t count on it. The best defense is a place that is difficult enough to break into that a burglar will look for easier opportunities.
“How low will this go?”
Could go to $300k, if the seller has that much equity or cash. Otherwise, perhaps in the high three-hundred-teens. This seller obviously has some sort of (good or bad) motivation to get it sold.
“And what does it say about the GreenZone market right now?”
Not much. Honestly, I find this unit (and this and some of its immediately neighboring buildings) to have been long overpriced. That is, it was too high in 03 (pre peak) and 10 (post crash). It should have closed at no more than $350k in 10. Had they taken their time and handled the pricing differently, they might have been able to get that much back. Now it just looks like a troubled property, at least based on the listing history.
It’s an intensely busy intersection, with lots of apartments/rentals nearby, on an alley with a busy greasy burger and fry joint, with no parking. It is wholly immaterial that it’s in Lincoln elem.
“Not much. Honestly, I find this unit (and this and some of its immediately neighboring buildings) to have been long overpriced. That is, it was too high in 03 (pre peak) and 10 (post crash).”
So anonny- you’re saying this, and the buildings nearby, haven’t been priced right for about a decade. What WAS priced right in that time period? Wasn’t every property “mispriced”?
“burglary rate for the U.S. as a whole is 50%”
One out of every two houses is burglarized, overall? I hope that’s a typo.
Keep in mind that a break-in to a non-attached garage does *not* constitute burglary.
” the Fullerton-facing bars seem decorative, and are also on floor 3.”
They aren’t merely decorative–they are also to keep pets, children or both from plunging out of an open window–check out the LR pic–those front windows are basically ground level.
Or, you could (if you aren’t sonies) consider them juliet balconies.
I always found the “dwelling place of another” element a bit too limited. One who enters a non-attached garage (without permission) with the intent to commit a crime should face the same charge as one who enters an attached garage with the intent to commit a crime. I can’t remember if the “at night” element still matters.
“I always found the “dwelling place of another” element a bit too limited. One who enters a non-attached garage (without permission) with the intent to commit a crime should face the same charge as one who enters an attached garage with the intent to commit a crime.”
I’m talking about how it would get reported by CPD to the FBI crime database. B&E of a non-attahced garage =/= burglary. And, based on my 10+ years in my current locaiton, I’d say that even garages would take over 20 years to hit 50%, and that would count multiple breakins of a single garage..
I owned a condo in the sister building to this one (corner of Fullerton and Cleveland) about 12 years ago. Many of the units in that building, including mine, had/have some or all of the original woodwork — it was cherry in my condo, which is very unusual. Those condos had/have pocket doors, a built in hutch and other beautiful vintage details. The architect for both these buildings, as well as several others on Fullerton, had lived in my condo with his family so our details were particularly elaborate. It’s a shame that this condo hasn’t fared as well.
Wanted to correct something here. This unit is not the same unit that sold two years ago.
That was actually the unit across the hall.