Do We Still Love the Covered Porch 12 Years Later? 847 W. Bradley in Wrigleyville
This 3-bedroom with an arched porch at 847 W. Bradley in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Lakeview just came on the market.
If it seems familiar, that’s because we actually chattered about it 12 years ago, all the way back in November 2008.
Back then, several of you liked the covered porch but thought that, given the economy, it might be too difficult to sell.
AMW (who doesn’t post here anymore) posted the following:
Really nice place. With unemployment soaring and the stock market down almost 50% this year, I don’t see much of a demand for this type of place. Places like this aren’t being sold with the 30yr treasury at 3.74%(lowest since 1977)? Sell anywhere you can before rates surge.
It actually sold just a month later.
See our chatter here.
It’s back on the market in 2020 but with some changes.
The “chef’s kitchen” has been updated and now has white and gray (blue?) cabinets, white counter tops, and subway tiles. There are also stainless steel appliances, along with a wine fridge.
The master suite has a bathroom with dual vanities and a walk-in-closet.
The second bedroom is also en suite.
The third bedroom is currently being used as an office/family room because it is not enclosed (but the listing says it can be.)
The covered porch is off the front of the unit and is extra long and wide, measuring 8 x 33.
It’s big enough for dining and grilling.
Built in 2003, the building has 6 units on an oversized lot measuring 43×160.
It has the other features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking.
It’s also just a few blocks north of Wrigley Field, near the Red Line, and all the bars and restaurants of East Lakeview.
Currently listed at $649,000, that’s just $11,000 above the housing bubble 2006 sales price of $638,000.
Is the patio still the big selling point of this property?
Rizwan Gilani at Dream Town has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #2F: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1800 square feet
- Sold in July 2003 for $570,000
- Sold in March 2006 for $638,000
- Sold in December 2008 for $587,500
- Sold in February 2015 for $572,000
- Currently listed at $649,000 (includes the garage parking)
- Assessments of $350 a month (they were $220 a month in 2008)(includes exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $12,207 (they were $7683 in 2008)
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- 2 fireplaces
- Bedroom #1: 17×15
- Bedroom #2: 14×13
- Bedroom #3: 17×14
- Kitchen: 15×10
- Living room: 24×15
- Walk-in-closet: 10×5
- Terrace: 33×8
I was on the fence until I found out this condo was on an oversized lot. Very important information to have. Kudos to the realatard and Sabrina for pointing this out.
Assuming the owners did the remodel, they really lost their ass.
Medium dark staining the HW floors looks terrible.
Just another conformation of Sabrina’s HAWT Market theory ™
like the place. Pre Corona I would’ve said this will sell quickly at that price but who knows anymore.
“Assuming the owners did the remodel, they really lost their ass.”
the remodel wasn’t that extensive…painted walls, painted kitchen cabinets and added crown, new countertops(sink/faucet) in the kitchen, painted bathroom vanity, painted walls.
“Assuming the owners did the remodel”
Looks like they had the kitchen and bath cabinets painted, along with all the walls. But the bedroom wallpaper was there when they bought.
btw: any recommendations on cabinet painters? anyone to avoid?
“the remodel wasn’t that extensive…painted walls, painted kitchen cabinets and added crown, new countertops(sink/faucet) in the kitchen, painted bathroom vanity, painted walls.”
Good catch – are the stove, hood and Whirlpool tub new?
So losing their ass is a strong statement, not seeing much appreciation
“Good catch – are the stove, hood and Whirlpool tub new?”
nope, it’s all from previous owner.
Funny seeing that AMW comment about rates being low at 3.74% and warning they’ll surge. They’re down 200 basis points since then.
“Funny seeing that AMW comment about rates being low at 3.74% and warning they’ll surge. They’re down 200 basis points since then.”
Yep. It doesn’t always work out how everyone predicts.
Just a reminder for all of our “predictions” the last few weeks about Chicago’s housing market after the virus. We’ll probably get it all wrong.
“I was on the fence until I found out this condo was on an oversized lot.”
LOTS of people care about the larger lot. In fact, it’s probably the biggest selling point you can point out in a listing in Chicago.
Why?
Because it sucks having the narrow condo or single family house on the standard lot. There’s only so much you can do with the layouts.
It’s a big difference to have a 33 foot street exposure. And its pretty rare to have it in the eastern part of Lakeview.
“Yep. It doesn’t always work out how everyone predicts.
Just a reminder for all of our “predictions” the last few weeks about Chicago’s housing market after the virus. We’ll probably get it all wrong.”
Oil Prices and interest rates. It seems like the more you think you know, the less you actually know. And those that benefit from either are just getting lucky.
“Because it sucks having the narrow condo or single family house on the standard lot. There’s only so much you can do with the layouts.
It’s a big difference to have a 33 foot street exposure. And its pretty rare to have it in the eastern part of Lakeview.”
it’s crazy, after being cooped in a small Chicago condo all day, now an extra seven feet width is like totally awesome.
That’s why, my friends, I say, drive out of the city limits until you can find an acre or more. In the matter of weeks, the Big City lifestyle is suddenly toxic, and will remain so for generations. The irony of his all is that big cities, for most of history, were cramped diseased filled places of poor people. Anyone with any money at all got out of the city and into the countryside and spent time at a villa. Anyone with means LEFT the city, and out of that experience came the suburbs. The new urbanism made an assumption that turned out to be faulty: big cities would remain clean, safe and disease free, and right now, most big cities are no longer.
Out: Small, cramped, outdated city residences with no outdoor access; crowded public transportation; reusable straws, cups, bags; fuel efficient vehicles; socialized medicine with limited resources and ventilators (italy, spain, UK, Bahamas for the cruise ships, iran!); public schooling
In: larger homes on wider lots with outdoor space; private save, coronavirus free vehicles; singe use everything; large, safe gas vehicles for safety; private health care at private hospitals with large ICU wards and lots of ventilators; home schooling
Gary,
Here is some more fake news from earlier today. Not WaPo, but its sibling, CNN:
Joel B. Pollak @joelpollak
Pure garbage from @CNN:
1. Agenda-driven reporter
2. Unnamed source
3. Not on the #coronavirus team
4. Contradicts actual doctors
5. MIGHT have done something
Can you believe @OANN got kicked out but @CNN still in?
#fakenews is trash
https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/1245569613636628482
Here is the story in question:
Source close to coronavirus task force: Despite what White House is saying, tougher measures implemented earlier ‘might have made a difference’
cnn dot com white-house-measures-make-a-difference
“LOTS of people care about the larger lot. In fact, it’s probably the biggest selling point you can point out in a listing in Chicago.
Why?
Because it sucks having the narrow condo or single family house on the standard lot. There’s only so much you can do with the layouts.
It’s a big difference to have a 33 foot street exposure. And its pretty rare to have it in the eastern part of Lakeview.”
No
Without setback info the lot size in and of itself doesn’t mean jack.
Its just more realtor clownshoes
Nice unit. Agree – – wider is better in terms of what you can do with the layout and absolutely worth calling out in the listing. The front porch is gorgeous. Right now in a world of self quarantine, having two separate living spaces or a separate living / working space is CLUTCH and this place has it.
HOWEVER, this seems like a lot for what is most definitely a TWO bedroom unit, a nice two bedroom at that. The office / family room is not third-bedroom material what with the fireplace considering there isn’t one in the master and then you really wouldn’t have any place for a home office or rec room.
It is also odd that no one seems to want to live in this unit for very long. Any theories? Too close to Wrigley? Red Line as only efficient commuting option?
And I love that Roman brick. Probably my all time favorite brick shape.
I’m a little surprised by how much stuff they left up in the 2d bed for the 3d tour.
“no one seems to want to live in this unit for very long”
Isn’t 5 years a pretty good run in a 2 bedroom? And that’s the last two owners.
First owners appear to be relatively frequent movers, and the 2d owners left the state.
@anon (tfo) – I still don’t get it. Assuming these folks are in the fairly average category of well off, The transaction costs, exposure to tax uncertainty. It just seems like a better option would be to rent a swanky two bed and when one is ready to make a big move real estate wise, do it once and make it count instead of a bunch of incremental moves. Five years actually doesn’t seem like a long time to me but maybe I’m the weirdo.
Homedelete’s latest paranoid Trumpian rantings make it feel like we have two Helmethofers on the site. Please keep politics off of this. We’re talking real estate.
“Five years actually doesn’t seem like a long time to me but maybe I’m the weirdo.”
Pre-2008, the average number of years in a property was 7 years. I don’t know what it is now.
Anyone know?
Gary, any idea?
5 doesn’t seem terrible to me. But the problem is that Chicago’s real estate prices literally have gone nowhere during that time. So, you’re gaining equity only through paying down the loan. But you do little of that in the first 5 years.
“Anyone with any money at all got out of the city and into the countryside and spent time at a villa.”
Yet somehow there are big mansions that were built between 1890 and 1910 in several neighborhoods close to what is today’s downtown including in the Prairie Historic District and the Gold Coast.
Go figure.
“Yet somehow there are big mansions that were built between 1890 and 1910 in several neighborhoods close to what is today’s downtown including in the Prairie Historic District and the Gold Coast.
Go figure.”
And what a huge mistake that short lived experiment was for them. Those workers riots, and the grime that surrounded them ultimately enveloped their homes on prairie ave.
https://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2018/02/06/clash-wealth-and-labor-chicagos-gilded-age
“The millionaires began moving away from Prairie Avenue as factories, railroads, and a red light district encroached. Their opulent mansions were turned into boardinghouses or bordellos or torn down outright to make room for new industries. The decline of the tony neighborhood dovetailed with the end of the Gilded Age, as populists and progressives began instituting social reform and economic regulation. The gilt was scraped off and the squalor exposed.”
“But the problem is that Chicago’s real estate prices literally have gone nowhere during that time. So, you’re gaining equity only through paying down the loan. But you do little of that in the first 5 years.”
In theory yes, but that equity disappears when the real tax bill increases precipitously. In my neighborhood there’s a direct correlation between declining home prices and the increasing real estate taxes. in the end, the monthly payment is about the same, but less is going to the bank, and more is going to the government, which is a drag on every homeowner’s equity.
“The millionaires began moving away from Prairie Avenue as factories, railroads, and a red light district encroached.”
Yeah- like 30 year later they all had to move to the Gold Coast.
Lol.
Nobody “fleeing” anything until during the Great Depression when there were a lot of burglaries on the north side so many rich, including the Wrigleys, among others, then moved up to the North Shore and built their “country homes” along the lake.
I get so tired of the male “doom and gloomers” in our society. Seriously. When has a woman ever droned on about how we’re all “doomed” and everyone is going to “flee” and no one is going to eat again and there will be civil war.
Never.
Women are WAY to practical for that nonsense.
Oh- and Homedelete, you argued that the city was dirty and disease ridden and that’s why the rich fled.
Those aren’t the reasons that they left the Prairie Historic District (according to the link you provided.) It was labor unrest. Too few rich and too many poor. Too much inequality.
Not disease.
“I get so tired of the male “doom and gloomers” in our society. Seriously. When has a woman ever droned on about how we’re all “doomed” and everyone is going to “flee” and no one is going to eat again and there will be civil war.
Never.
Women are WAY to practical for that nonsense.”
Crazy, I don’t know any guys that wore pink hats to Washington, screaming at the sky that fascist orange man was going dissolve congress and make himself dictator. Men are just too practical for that kind of nonsense.
“But the problem is that Chicago’s real estate prices literally have gone nowhere during that time. So, you’re gaining equity only through paying down the loan. But you do little of that in the first 5 years.”
Wait, What?
I thought Sabrina’s “HAWT Market Theory(tm) was in full effect?
Maybe it’s just a woman thing?
The rich fled Prairie Avenue because of the vapours.
🙂
“Five years actually doesn’t seem like a long time to me but maybe I’m the weirdo.”
Me either, but I’d have to say that most of our contemporaries bought a starter home (condo or smaller house) and moved on within about 5 years. Really don’t know too many who went straight to the house they’ve now lived in for 10+ years, and that’s both in Chicago and nationally. I’m coming up on 20 years in my first purchase, tho, and won’t be buying another place in Illinois, so…
“When has a woman ever droned on about how we’re all “doomed” and everyone is going to “flee””
Ok, c’mon, you have said many times here how women won’t live in certain states due to their theocratic approach to governance, which is pretty darn analogous.
You can make the same point w/o making it an us-them thing.
In my experience doing mortgages most people don’t keep condos longer than about 4-7 years. They pretty much start looking to move as soon as they have a kid. Notice 90% of the condos for sale have a crib in the 2nd bedroom.
While I don’t have hard data, I have anecdotally noticed young professionals putting off buying. They do seem to prefer the uber fancy luxury apartments. You no longer have to buy to show you’ve made it. I wouldn’t have bought our first condo the same luxury apartment options existed then.
“I wouldn’t have bought our first condo the same luxury apartment options existed then.”
Yeah, think about Chicago’s rental stock in, say, 1995 to 2005. Not a lot of premium options.
“When has a woman ever droned on about how we’re all “doomed” and everyone is going to “flee” and no one is going to eat again and there will be civil war. Never. Women are WAY to practical for that nonsense.”
LOL! Suffrage was the biggest mistake in American history, that’s led us to the place we are now: Government has never been bigger, never been more broke and underwater. When the going gets touch, the ladies will default to socialism or having the “government” be the Big Daddy to take care of everything. Now you have Diversity police everywhere demanding that women get affirm action appointments to every single job that exists in the world.
HD: I think you’re right we’re entering into a cycle (times are always cyclical) where the suburbs will relatively improve in desirability. I called this about 6 months ago, before COVID which will accelerate the trend.
The top in the market was seeing the new West Loop condos, 1,800 sf 3bd condos selling for $750,000 as far west as Racine. There is no green space in sight, and these people will not be staying in that urban environment in 8 more years when they are busting out the unit, with no space.
Yeah, rentals sucked back then. Even the high rises.
There was a clear distinction between an apartment and condo. If you wanted anything remotely nice, you had to buy; especially outside of the downtown.
Now it is the reverse. The luxury apartment buildings are nicer than most of the condos.
The value proposition of buying a condo in Chicago isn’t all that great nowadays with stagnant values and dated inventory imho.
“The value proposition of buying a condo in Chicago isn’t all that great nowadays with stagnant values and dated inventory imho.”
Certainly for a ‘commodity’ 2/2, no matter how nice the building, unless you *know* you have a 15+ year ownership horizon.
I like the layout, the outdoor space and the wide lot. I believe this is a GVP Development property and they generally did multiple living space units on a single level in a smart and space efficient way that is not as cookie cutter as most. But they also used crappy block like the competition and that is a limiting factor in terms of desirability, This is nonetheless quite the nice and spacious 2/2, although the 2006 price is pretty bad.