Does Parking Matter? 2123 N. Kenmore Still On the Market
In May 2008, we chattered about whether or not having parking with a condo unit mattered.
Read our chatter here.
2123 N. Kenmore, a 3-bedroom, 2 bath unit, in Lincoln Park seemed to have “everything” except a parking spot.
It is still on the market 8 months later and has been reduced by $30,000.
Suzanne Gignilliat at Koenig & Strey has the listing. See more pictures here.
Unit #2: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, wood burning fireplace
- Sold in June 2006 for $462,500
- Was listed in May 2008 for $544,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $514,000
- Assessments of $300 a month
- Taxes of $7,181
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
sigh….must invoke the standard mantra: nice but overpriced, overpriced, overpriced, especially given that “most” shoppers in this price range will have a car even if it’s only for weekend use.
naturally YMMV.
Yes it makes a huge difference especially at that price range, more than likely the buyers will be able to afford at least one car.
Joe Zekas tells us to ignore what the seller bought it for on his site:
http://yochicago.com/today/market-conditions/just-ignore-what-the-seller-paid_8222/#comment-244479
So I guess if history doesn’t matter when you’re making what is likely the biggest financial decision of your life it shouldn’t matter if you’re, oh I don’t know, about to marry a former prostitute.
Joe is funny sometimes.
and as a pinko, liberal, progressive, I’m all for public transportation….as long as everyone else uses it, LOL!
Chicago’s public transit/cabs only works in loop-centric travel or travel between taxi-ful zones like LP to Wicker Park.
Public transit/waddling through the snow during the winter to get to said public transit is annoying….especially when cost isn’t an issue.
end of rant. thanks.
I haven’t had a car in the city for 4 years, and I’m still alive. Yeah its pretty annoying at times, but hey it saves me about $1k a month.
What about deeded parking in a building across the street,say? To what extent does that mitigate the effect of lack of parking in high-end homes in the city? Just curious
Sonies,
Parking in Chicago shouldn’t cost more than $200/month. Car insurance what $60/month. Gas is what $50/month?
I’m having trouble how you come up with your 1k estimate. What are you also adding for the car/lease payment a Porshe?
Yea parking matters – particularly at this location which is next door to DePaul university. The students flood the residential streets to avoid paying the DePaul lots and the new parking meters that were installed around DePaul. And wait till the meters go up!
So yep a parking spot is real nice luxury and required if you’re speding a half mil.
Bob-
Parking in my neighborhood (RN) is a minimum of $250/month. I remember at 519 W. Deming in LP they were renting uncovered spots for $225 4 years ago.
I’d like to see the mortgage info on this. i’m sure they have about 5K in equity. probably less.
“Joe Zekas tells us to ignore what the seller bought it for ”
Of course you should. $462,500 was too much in ’06, and a potential buyer should offer them less than that. With those absurd taxes, my offer would be $375k. I’m sure the seller understands the principal that what they paid is a sunk cost and they should look at $375k as found money.
Bob:
A 4 year loan on a 25K car with 20% down is what? 400-500 a month? And I’m willing to bet a lot of people looking at a half-million dollar home have more car than that. I’d put insurance at closer to 80 a month.
Still short of 1K, but not too far off, either. If you drove it a lot, I could see gas and repairs rounding you off to around 1K a month. Plus parking permits. Plus the inevitable parking tickets (happens to the best of us).
Cars are more expensive than people think.
Parking (space + meters + garages + valet + whatever) = $250
Gas = $100 (used to be $200)
Insurance = $200 a month (yes, that is what it costs)
Maintenance (flat tires, bent rims, smashed windows, scratches, cleaning whatever) = $50 a month (LOW balling that one)
Tickets, yes you’ll get at least one every month no matter how hard you try and not park during street cleaning, or turn left on that red light, thanks big brother! = $75
Actual car payment = $325
That’s how you get to $1k a month.
Isn’t there a 3 bed, on the top floor, with COVERED parking, for about the same price, on this same block (or within one block)? (The address escapes me.)
And I thought the place to which I’m referring is over-priced by $100k (it is, admitedly, not in quite as good condition as 2123)…
$200 a month in car insurance? I don’t pay that much for both of my cars put together, and with one being a 2-seater convertible and the other a factory turbocharged compact car, they’re not exactly super-low-accident/theft rate grandma cars.
Did you stop driving due to getting too many speeding tickets? 😉
Nope, I was over 25, had not been in an accident for over 9 years, no speeding tickets.
But yes, it was $2400 a year and this was probably 5 or more years ago.
My rates doubled basically when I moved here.
“But yes, it was $2400 a year and this was probably 5 or more years ago.
My rates doubled basically when I moved here.”
Sonies is dumber than a caveman!
Here is my breakdown, I don’t use my car much but its a great convenience at times:
Parking in outdoor spot with camera watching lot: 175
Insurance: 60 (500 deductible, full collision)
Looks like fixed costs of 345/month to me. Assume variable costs of 300/month for gas & repairs and we’re still not at 1k.
1k savings is a little far fetched, IMO. Sonies you’re really saving around 345/month from where I live as I pay that and hardly drive my car. In RN that would be 400/month.
$200/month as a young, single male under the age of 25 with no discounts sounds about right. Mine was $125/month, with a special discount for some driving skills thing they had me do, and a discount because I was on a family plan driving a shitty 94 Taurus. Any decent car, in the city (prone to more fender benders = higher insurance rates) without those discounts would easily be $200/month.
While I tend to agree with the market sentiment of most posters here, they have to collectively be the most callous, rude and childish people on the internet. Dumber than a caveman! Classic! I swear that many of you people take glee in others’ misfortunes. Have you people no souls?
/endrant
Honestly, though, Sonies, you were either insuring a really expensive (or accident or theft prone) car, or were getting royally screwed. We have an econobox and a somewhat nicer, sporty car in our household (both relatively new and in good condition) and pay far less than half that per year. No third-rate insurance house, either: state farm.
“collectively be the most callous, rude and childish people on the internet”
You don’t get around teh intertubes much, do you? CC is pretty civil, on the whole, and that’s by comparison to a couple places where many of the poster know each other off-line and places that are completely anonymous (i.e., almost everyone posts as “guest”).
And a jesting reference to car insurance ads when discussing car insurance is not “taking glee in others misfortunes” especially when Sonies seems pleased to not have a car (i.e., it’s not a “misfortune”).
Sonies…cars depreciate like mot**rfu***ers. You need to add that in. GMAC missed that part by about 5 bil last year. No biggie they just asked for it back through taxpayers (and got it).
Only car I can think of that doesn’t depreciate is often red with a little horsey on front. Of course servicing that one does cost just a wee little bit.
I always wished they sold the Defender 110’s in the U.S. Even if Land Rover is complete shit it is just so damn cool.
“Classic! I swear that many of you people take glee in others’ misfortunes. Have you people no souls?”
Buy now or be priced out forever.
Yes, you know why? These people fraudulently inflated market prices and fucked over our economy, people are losing jobs left and right, and the majority here arent too happy with it.
When it is close to bottom, I will have my down payment saved up, find a nice foreclosure for cheap, and take everything I can including the shirts off their backs if offered. You know what? I’m out to look after myself, my friends, and my family. Guess what, people are inherently greedy and I wont deny it.
Building wealth for yourself will restrict wealth available to others. My finance professor in college had a brilliant lecture about the masses serving the rich. Essentially the more you greed out of the market, the more someone else will lose. It is a zero sum game. Get used to it.
“Sonies is dumber than a caveman!”
LOL funny you mention that, because I used Geico 🙂
And they were $1200 a year in Champaign, IL as an under 25 driver, so they did double when I moved to the city of chicago. It seems like some of you guys never owned a car before in east lakeview or any busy part of the city before… let me tell you, I was joyous the day I sold that POS integra to carmax. The parking tickets, the expensive gas, the hassle of the traffic, potholes, pedestrians, cabbies… my new motto is ripped from the Simpsons when homer runs for the sanitation commissioner job… “Can’t someone else do it?”
Can’t someone else drive me to work and play? The answer is YES!
Back on topic, does parking matter? For a $200,000 one or two bedroom, maybe not. For any $500,000+ property, absolutely. Anyone buying at this price point has at least one car.
Well someone thought the place was nice enough in 2006 to pay alot for the unit. But, duh, real estate prices have not gone up more than 10%, as asked, so what do they expect? I expect that this unit will sell for around $400k.
Funny Pete one of the apartments I sold this summer (500+) sold in large part because I was willing to keep the parking.
Car payment : $350
Insurance: Full coverage $125 per month (varies widely)
Gas: $30 a week (15 gallon tank)
Stickers, maintenance, etc: $100 a month
Parking $200
Total $895…
Paid off car, very little driving, street parking, low ins limits with high deductible……Probably $150 or so a month. HOw much your car costs depends on what you drive and how often you drive.
Ah, the “POS Integra” that Sonies had was an extremely high theft rate vehicle, due to various mechanical components that are easily swapped over to Civics.
I remember getting a quote for a 2001 Honda Prelude when I was 21, about $1400 every 6 months. The rates on 2002 Sentra SE-R (the one with the bigger engine) I ended up buying were less than half that.
Insurance rates vary widely between insurance companies too.
The older you get the more it cost? Im 24 living in LV and commute most days of the week. $860 a year.
a:
There is a difference between facing market reality and laughing at, wishing harm upon and generally taking joy in the bad things that happen to people or the bad decisions people made. Am I surprised that people who made bad decisions are in pain right now? Not really. Is the current market situation good for me, a renter? Absolutely. Do I wish bad things on people who own homes so I can get a cheap place down the line? No. I’m not a douchebag. I have ethics and scruples and at least try to be a “good person.”
None of this prevents me from acknowledging market reality and understanding that a lot of people are probably screwed. I just don’t get excited and happy about it. Judging from the comments here, it seems like many people here do. I think that’s sick and sad.
Anon: didn’t recognize your reference to Geicko. My bad. As to your comment about CC being not so bad in the context of the intrawebs…I’m not so sure. I think the major difference with CC is that it is SO personal. We are constantly commenting on real people’s decisions, homes and lives. When you descend into nasty comments about such real hardship, it really strikes a nerve with me.
A few posts back, someone recommended that a realtor be shot for a particular listing. Shot. Was it hyperbole? Probably. But that person is someone’s mother. A real person. Is calling (literally) for her head really necessary? I really wish such crap were deleted.
Sonies – you need a to do a better job shopping for care insurance, and I am glad that some people got the caveman joke….
TftIChi,
With all due respect, I don’t mind laughing at the people who were pressuring me to buy a house / condo over the past three years and are now screwed. I went to a bunch a parties were I heard, “Oh, you don’t own? But real estate always goes up.”
My favorite story was about a couple getting a divorce in New York. The wife wants the husband to buy out her interest in all of thier real estate holdings…..at 2006 prices! She complaines that her income will be less than $250,000.00 per year without the buyout…… (Oh,by the way, she doesn’t have a job, and she was literally crying about this…….)
I think it is pretty funny.
But the best part of this site is the education I recieved……
Are you talking about the divorce article that was in the NYT just last week?
“Ah, the “POS Integra” that Sonies had was an extremely high theft rate vehicle, due to various mechanical components that are easily swapped over to Civics.”
So that explains it! I mean my frickin insurance payments were like 1/3 of the value of the entire car!
And TftIChi,
Shooting that clueless realtor would be doing a service to society as a whole. So lighten up a bit. It was sarcasm after all…
“I think the major difference with CC is that it is SO personal.”
I have lurked/posted in several fora where genuinely personal vitriole lead to the depature and/or banning of several posters and others where the regular refrain is that certain posters are beneath contempt (expressed in more colorful ways) for their personal attributes or ideas (political/religious/moral). And I’m not even touching on my very rare forays into celeb gossip site comment threads.
The derision here is focused on financial decisions and actions of individuals, rather than the individuals themselves–thus, no matter how personally felt by the subject of the derision, it is **not** personal (at least most of the time). I suppose you think hyperbolic criticism of our dear Governor is also unnecessarily “personal” b/c he’s someone’s father?
This site is relatively tame but being on the receiving end of some of the bullness there are a couple of a$$holes that regularly post on this board. We all know who they are so I’ll leave them unnamed.
a,
Your finance professor called the market a zero sum game?
In re: cost of car ownership,
Don’t forget depreciation as an expense – you can do a rough monthly amortization to get an idea. Most German and Japanese cars have a “half-life” (the time for the car to lose half it’s value) of around 5-6 years depending on make and model, while American and Korean cars have half-lives around 3 years. Of course this also varies somewhat with mileage, but is a good rule of thumb for normal amounts of driving of perhaps 8,000-15,000 miles per year.
If you buy a $30K import that loses $15k in value over 5 years, your average monthly depreciation expense was $250. Of course, this is tempered somewhat by the principal portion of the monthly loan payment, but it’s nonetheless a substantial expense.
The Miseans on this site def. believe the market is zero-sum.
Initially I thought it humorous some on here found the critiques personal and scathing. However it seems during this downturn people are offing themselves with alarming regularity. Just today a Chicagoland RE executive offed himself and the list is likely to grow, unfortunately.
So please for those of you who do take this site and the criticisms (too) seriously please understand that this is just the internet. It doesn’t always translate into reality on the ground.
And life isn’t always about the bottom line or what possessions you have either. If someone fell in love with a place and bought it I really couldn’t criticize them if it provided happiness in excess of the potential economic risks (and its hard to put a price on happiness). But we can’t easily quantify the intangibles so we tend to focus on what we can measure.
Sonies on January 7th, 2009 at 9:31 am
So that explains it! I mean my frickin insurance payments were like 1/3 of the value of the entire car!
During the import tuner craze, in addition to the Integra being a vehicle that young guys would crash a lot, the top 10 highest theft rate vehicles list typically had several model years of Integra on it.
The former millionaires/billionaires who have committed suicide didn’t do it just because they lost money. People lose money all the time and don’t kill themselves. They did it because their money and their status were all that was important to them. Once they lost those things, they had nothing left. Would Donald Trump off himself if he lost everything? Unfortunately not, as he has made a career out of going back and forth from wealth to near bankruptcy.
America just became a sorry ass place of too many unhappy people. My wife says it well. “Everyone there lives to work not works to live” No warmth… Chicago was the best I found. Good riddance!!
Anyone up for a road trip to Patagonia? 🙂