Foreclosures and Short Sales (Again) in the Paramount Lofts: 1645 W. Ogden
It’s time to re-visit the Paramount Lofts at 1645 W. Ogden, a 2006 conversion in the West Loop.
We last chattered about the building in April 2008 when foreclosures and short sales were happening in the building.
See our prior chatter and pictures here.
14 months later and there are still foreclosures and short sales.
The second cheapest 2-bedroom in the building is currently a short sale:
Unit #608: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1200 square feet
- Sold in July 2006 for $336,000
- Lis pendens filed in June 2008
- Short sale
- Originally listed in January 2009 for $225,000
- Reduced
- Listed in January 2009 for $200,000
- Still currently listed for $200,000 (parking $25,000 extra)
- Assessments of $439 a month
- Taxes of $3981
- East facing
- Robert Bermes at Century 21 S.G.R. has the listing. See the pictures here.
This 1-bedroom is currently bank owned.
Unit #412: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, no square footage listed
- Sold in October 2006 for $288,000
- Lis pendens in July 2008
- Bank owned as of April 2009
- Currently listed for $141,570
- Assessments of $350 a month
- Taxes of $2520
- Leo Lopez at State Banc Real Estate Brokerage, Inc. has the listing. See the pictures here.
Units like these are a dime a dozen in this city. $200k plus parking still seems a bit high especially for the area. I say it’ll go for $150k including parking.
Craigslist rentals has 1BRs on offer at $1200/mo and 2BRs at $1500/mo. Are those asks at all representative of collectable rental rates? If so, the 1BR is about right-priced and the 2BR needs to drop about 10%.
This is defintely one of those buildings that could have been a fairly successful rental building, but it’s (obviously) a tough ownership property.
From what I hear you can negotiate around 10% to 15% off any craiglist rental price.
The other thing I’ve seen with craigslist is that most ads are deceiving, because the lower priced ads for comparable rentals are usually rented quickly after they’re posted, whereas the higher priced ads tend to linger for a while, giving the false impression that the units command a higher price than they actually do. I see the same ads over and over again in river west giving the impression that new construction 2/2’s are $2,400 a month but in reality it’s just same apartments listed repeatedly and they’re NOT renting at $2,400 because if they rented for $2,400 they would stop posting the damn ads.
No way that area is a ghetto. Ever walk around there at night? Scary as shit.
depressing little unit, but 200K seems cheap to me, especially cuz it has a view.
I think two words on this one say it all: “2006” and “conversion”..
From my experience CL rental listing prices are definitely negotiable. The last 2 places I rented came down to $2150 and $2100 from their original CL pricing of $2500 and $2700. Always works best to wait until the end of the month when the owner fears having to let the unit sit vacant another 30 days.
It seems like that building is suffering from too many investors. I have financed a unit in there and it isn’t pretty now for the actual owners of their units. I think the other problem is that it really is on the cusp of the west loop. It can get quite unsavory one block west… that type of flaw in this market does not bode well for sellers.
I walk by this building everyday. The neighborhood is not as bad as others believe. If you work at Rush or the IMD, it’s a good location. However, this building lost a large tenant when Staples closed in January. I don’t think there are any other first floor tenants. I wonder how this will affect the assessments? And I would be wary of a building with such a large footprint in which most of the ground-level space is empty.
That area blows ass… stay far away from this one. I was going to look at a short sale here a while ago, but the awesome REO realtors are probably the biggest morons on the planet and never return phone calls. So I took a drive around and wouldn’t ever live here. Nowhere near public transit, near like 10 busy streets and the building itself looks like its in bad shape.
a: You’re on the border of where you start finding pockets of seedy areas if you venture further west, but this is anything but a ghetto. You’re still on the good side of the United Center with a block or two of cushion. Makes me wonder how long it’s been since you’ve seen a genuinely shitty ‘hood.
Sonies: There are plenty of transit options: the Madison bus gets you downtown in 10 minutes, the Ashland bus can get you north or south, and both run all night. The Blue, Green, and Pink lines are all just a couple blocks away. Easy highway access to the Kennedy and the Ike as well. Ashland, Madison, and Ogden are all indeed busy streets, but the traffic rarely turns into a jam in that area unless there’s something going on at the U.C.
“but the traffic rarely turns into a jam in that area unless there’s something going on at the U.C.”
Which is 100+ days per year? (41 NBA, 41 NHL + circus + anything else)
I do live directly across from Skinner Park and the new school that is just getting it’s finishing touches. That area is a calm and nice area with plenty of young professional who do not want the LP/RN frenzy and craziness. I think it is due, in part, to the CPD training HQ and nearby station.
The closer you get to Ashland however, the scarier it gets. I would hesitate to buy this place just for that reason. It did take me a few months to realize what a crappy area this is and awhile back I was in favor of the place on Monroe closing. No longer!!
These loft units are really poorly set up and are not good for anyone other than college kids or first time renters. Stay away…far away!!
Hey, the Turtle Wax Building is gone!