3-Bedroom Cape Cod Cottage Returns for 80% More: 4838 N. Seeley in Lincoln Square
This 3-bedroom cape cod single family home at 4838 N. Seeley in Lincoln Square just came on the market.
If it looks familiar, that’s because we chattered about it back in 2011 when it was a “cottage.”
8 years ago, many of you thought it should be torn down and that no one would want to live in it as it needed work.
Homedelete argued in 2011:
“Besides being north of lawrence, this cottage is old. 1800’s old. who knows what’s behind those walls. is it worth even renovating? If it were a 2000 sq victorian, or in a great part of town – maybe. But here? for $366,000? There’s no basement to even finish. 1,300 sq ft of finished space is small for a SFH these days. That’s seems on the smaller side of a 2/2 condo too. There’s just not enough of a market for a $366,000 cottage like this. Heck if you want to live up near lawrence, go 24 blocks west and get this for $359,000.”
See our chatter here.
However, the vintage house remains and has been updated since the last sale.
If you recall, it was built in 1884 (though the new listing says 1900) and is on a standard 25×125 lot with a 2-car garage.
There are oak hardwood floors throughout.
The kitchen now has dark custom Italian cabinets with a glass backsplash, quartz counter tops, a custom dishwasher and refrigerator and a stainless steel stove.
One bedroom is on the main level with two on the second floor, which have barn doors.
There’s one full bath on the main level and a second one in the master bedroom on the second floor with modern vanities. The second floor bathroom has a full body spray shower.
The master bedroom also has walk-out roof access.
The house has the features that buyers look for including central air, a second floor laundry and the 2-car garage.
The backyard is landscaped and has a wood deck.
It even has a white picket fence.
In the 2011 chatter, JJJ thought it would sell for $290,000 and someone would live in it for years. Instead, it sold for $346,000, but someone has lived in it for 8 years.
It’s come back on the market for 80.6% more, or $625,000.
Will they get the premium?
Joshua Hecker at Redfin has the listing. See the pictures and the floor plan here.
4838 N. Seeley: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, was 1280 square feet in 2011 and is now 1560 square feet
- Sold in October 1997 for $148,000
- Was listed in February 2011 for $389,900
- Sold in November 2011 for $346,000
- Currently listed at $625,000
- Taxes are now $8326 (they were $5660 in 2011)
- Central Air
- 2-car garage
- Bedroom #1: 12×14 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 13×14 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 10×8 (main floor)
- Living room: 22×14
- Dining room: 14×11
- Kitchen: 12×9
This is not a Cape Cod style home, not even close.
Nice Reno. I think they will get close to their ask or upper fives. SFH, private outdoor space, two car garage, close to the metra and the brown line – – Personally, in the staging process, I would have trimmed a few bottles from the liquor collection – – but one little corner of clutter doesn’t otherwise detract from what feels like a cute little abode.
nice that its not another grey’d out rehab, a little color isn’t bad
that barn door sliding behind the bed though… terrible
same with the low ceiling laundry in one of the bedrooms
this layout is really bizarre and not really family friendly to say the least
I would have trimmed a few bottles from the liquor collection
yep that will definitely cost them full ask sarcasm
I would have cleared the bar and used the glassware set they put on the table instead. for the table, some flowers or a bowl of fruit would look better.
Based on this one:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/4807-N-Seeley-Ave-60625/home/13404440
lot value is around $400k right now. $225k is in the ballpark of retail cost to build something of similar size to this house (of course, it would be all new then).
“Taxes are now $8326”
Nope, they are now $11,254. +35%
When the dark-painted wood trim/light painted wall look first got popular, I kind of hated it, but it’s starting to grow on me.
This place is cute, not sure it’s nearly-double-the-2011-price cute.
Also agree that this is NOT a cape cod.
I’d take this over one of the McCondos at this price point…
You can go down to the corner and get a slightly smaller McCondo for a lot less, tho:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/4814-N-Damen-Ave-60625/unit-301/home/12615213
But were I choosing only between this and the ~$600k brand new condos on Damen nearby, no question.
“Also agree that this is NOT a cape cod.”
———————
It’s not a cod at all, caped or otherwise. It’s a mackerel.
A friend sent this to me last week because I’d love to find a small SFH on in this neighborhood. I fell in love with the outside and was totally disappointed with the choices on the inside. It’s far too modern for my taste.
Agreed it’s not a cape cod, so not sure why that error keeps being repeated.
It’s also under contract.
I live in the Ravinia neighborhood of Highland Park, which features many late 19th- and early 20th-century “cottages” like this one. Of similar interior size.
They generally go for around $400,000. And for that money, you get to live in a great school district.
Why would someone pay $600,000 for basically the same home north of Lawrence in a city school district? I mean, I understand some people really want to live in the city, not the suburbs. But north of Lawrence isn’t really a very exciting part of town. You might as well be in the burbs. So why pay an inflated price for a place that’s basically the size of most 2/2 condos?
“Why would someone pay $600,000 for basically the same home north of Lawrence in a city school district?”
Good question. You are right, Dan #2, that this size of a house in most parts of Highland Park wouldn’t even be over $500,000. HP is having a hard time selling its smaller houses right now.
Maybe the demand for “city” living really IS that high, Dan #2. Someone would rather live north of Lawrence for $600,000 than near the metra in HP for $100,000 to $200,000 less.
It’s really a generational change. Who would have predicted it?
It’s north of Lawrence so it may as well be in the suburbs. Nobody who actually lives in this area feels that way, only a suburbanite or someone who thinks Old Town is far north would ever think that.
“It’s really a generational change. Who would have predicted it?”
Not me for sure. Burbs have essentially had a lost decade+ at this point.
“It’s north of Lawrence so it may as well be in the suburbs.”
It’s 40 minutes closer to Ogilvie than HP is. That’s 1:20 per day, times 240 workdays a year, times 15 years = 4,800 hours.
$42/hour for that extra $200k, ignoring any tax differential, car cost differences, and appreciation trend.
“worth it” to enough people with the ~$150k+ HHI to support the maybe 30 sales per year of SFH within ~1/2 mile of the Ravenswood metra stop under $900k.
Wow – I’m feeling the hatred here!
Ok – maybe I went too far. I realize there are a lot of good reasons to live in town vs. the suburbs. I made a cold financial calculation in that comment. A lot of other people will, too.
I know north of Lawrence isn’t the same as suburban. I take that back. It just isn’t a very exciting part of the city, in my book. You’re not close to the lake or walking distance from much interesting stuff except Lincoln Square.
A generational change? Are you calling me old? I happen to love the city and grew up in Lakeview. I would have stayed, but schools back in 2000 when we had our first kid weren’t good enough. Nowadays, the choice might be different because schools really have improved. Today’s young generation puts off having kids till their late 30’s a lot of the time. My wife and I didn’t do that, so we had to make a choice about schools when I was 28.
I stand by what I said about it being a long commute for a city neighborhood. It’s not 40 minutes closer to Ogilvie than Highland Park. An express train from my area in the morning gets you downtown in 40 minutes. The commute from this home, once you actually get to the station, is probably 20 minutes. So you save 40 minutes a day, not 1:20 a day.
“once you actually get to the station”
Most likely closer to the station than in HP. Also, every train from R’wood is 20 minutes or less, rather than (assuming Ravinia, not HP or Braeside) 3 (which are 44 or 45, not 40, and arrive bt 8:19 and 8:49) in the AM; in the PM the last train that skips any stops and stops at Ravinia leaves at 5:50; otherwise its 50+.
So, yeah, an hour a day, instead of an hour-twenty.
I’m a five-minute walk from Ravinia station. Probably about the same walk as this place is from Ravenswood.
Also, I have a flexible work schedule. So on the days when I work downtown I often leave the office before 5 take the 5:07, which takes about half an hour to get to Braeside, a 10-minute walk from my home. But not everyone can leave that early.
“I’m a five-minute walk from Ravinia station.”
OK, but how many other houses are?
Here’s what I found that’s currently for sale that’s in that zone and $200k less:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Highland-Park/591-Broadview-Ave-60035/home/16878333
lot is not much bigger than the featured house (most of the extra taken up with a driveway), and, while larger, every room needs work, and it appears that the upstairs of the original house doesn’t have central air. After spending maybe $100k I’d like it more than the following one:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Highland-Park/591-Pleasant-Ave-60035/home/17616329
Which is deliciously builder-grade on the inside, and has a healthy dose of curb repel out front. It is absolutely fine, and has a good value proposition for a family home.
It’s totally ridiculous how far back these houses sit on their lots. Should have more backyard than front yard.
I know you think I live in the equivalent of Schaumburg, but if you come up here you’ll see that hundreds of homes are within a 5-minute walk of the station. Just because it’s outside the city doesn’t mean we all live on treeless sub-divisions off highways lined by Olive Gardens and Walmarts.
“I often leave the office before 5 take the 5:07, which takes about half an hour to get to Braeside, a 10-minute walk from my home. But not everyone can leave that early.”
That’s faster (and nicer) than the Brown Line to Western.
Apples to oranges Sabrina. It’s neither faster nor nicer than Metra from Ravenswood, nor would a Purple Line from Wilmette be faster or nicer than a Brown Line from Western. These are the more fair comparisons.
“hundreds of homes are within a 5-minute walk of the station”
So, you, like MiuMiu before you, can walk a mile and a half in 10 minutes?
Looking at sales over the past 3 years in an area that includes places up to about 8 minutes walk from the Ravinia Metra station, and limiting the price to $450k (so the $200k less), there have been 18 sales (6 per year) and they are mostly depressing 70s/80s in the interior. Which is fine, but not a strong cross-shop for someone seriously looking at this place, even if nearby, instead of HP.
You may be right, but you’ve set the price to $450,000. If you raise that to, say, $700,000, there are hundreds of home within about a 10-minute walk of the station. I’d consider 10 minutes to be about 0.75 miles in all directions and should be walkable for an average adult.
Plenty of nice homes without depressing 70’s and 80’s interiors if you go above $450,000. I realize that was the number we were talking because I set it at 200,000 below the Ravenswood cottage, but since our conversation now seems to be about the neighborhood as a whole and its desirability in terms of access to downtown, I feel I can raise the price to a level that’s more typical of Ravinia (and still below Ravenswood).
As it is, I’m not favoring one over the other. Ravenswood/Lincoln Square is a great area. I’d definitely consider a home there. But you generally do have to pay a lot more there for a similar home to what you’d find in my neighborhood. A $700,000 SFH in Ravinia would probably be $1 mln in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square.
“I know north of Lawrence isn’t the same as suburban. I take that back. It just isn’t a very exciting part of the city, in my book. You’re not close to the lake or walking distance from much interesting stuff except Lincoln Square.”
It’s barely north of Lawrence (the ick, north of Lawrence thing in the old discussion was bizarre IMO), and it is Lincoln Square (although the part of LS with more workers cottages). Is Lincoln Square not close to anything else? It’s close to Andersonville, North Center, Lakeview, even Lincoln Park (anything not too far on the brown line), and if you drive it’s not bad to Bucktown/Wicker Park. The house is very close to the Damen stop, which is nice. (Damen bus might be nice too, I am closer to Western so don’t know, but many of Chicago’s buses are really not bad.)
The benefit of this place vs. the burbs is that it’s not tethered to a Metra schedule, and it’s walking distance to nice city neighborhoods (LS and Andersonville) and a very short ride to many others. I get preferring what you get in the burbs, but many people (including me, I live in the general area) do not. Prices reflect that.
Until recently I lived in Lakeview (first east, then Southport area for many years), and I prefer this area, although I get not everyone does as it is less expensive.
It is a longer commute than some other areas (so is Southport), but being able to walk for everything otherwise is nice, and I like the hybrid SFH neighborhoody vibe combined with easily available amenities and I like being in the city. I go to a lot of local theater, and other than Writers (in Glenview) it’s in the city. Downtown stuff like the CSO is farther away, but still if I want I can take the L home and often do.
The Ravinia area has always been quite the bargain. Walk to the train, grade school, beach, parks, tennis courts, golf course, and local business district. East of the tracks, you can feel like you are in the woods. Property taxes are higher, but Chicago is fast catching up. Oh, and the train ride to Chicago takes less time than the Brown line.
“Oh, and the train ride to Chicago takes less time than the Brown line.”
Why would you take the brown line from this house? You can get on the same train that stops at Ravinia, and save an hour+ per day.
Anon (two), you are right about using the Metra. I guess I was thinking of the train ride on the Brown line when I lived in the Southport area.
” the Brown line when I lived in the Southport area”
Never takes me 40+ minutes (Metra time to HP) on the brown line coming from Irving Park or Addison, unless there is a stoppage or something. suppose it would if I rode around the loop to Wabash, but then I would for sure switch to Red.