Get a 3-Bedroom SFH in the Heart of Bucktown for Under $800,000: 2023 W. Cortland
This 3-bedroom single family home at 2023 W. Cortland in Bucktown came on the market in February 2012.
Built on a smaller than average Chicago lot of 24×100, it has 4 outdoor spaces including a walled in front terrace.
The house has an open floor plan.
The listing describes the kitchen as a “chef’s kitchen” which has upscale stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.
The master bedroom is on the third floor with the other two bedrooms on the second floor along with a family room.
It has central air and an attached 2-car garage.
The house last sold in December 2008 and seems to sell every three or four years.
It is currently listed $4,000 over the 2008 purchase price.
What’s the market for a 2400 square foot single family home in this part of Bucktown at this price?
Ryan Gehris has the listing. See the pictures here.
2023 W. Cortland: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2400 square feet, 2 car garage
- Sold in May 1997 for $265,000
- Sold in December 1998 for $642,500
- Sold in August 2002 for $755,000
- Sold in February 2004 for $789,000
- Sold in December 2008 for $795,000
- Originally listed in February 2012 for $849,900
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $799,900
- Taxes of $10,240
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 21×19 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 15×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×9 (second floor)
- Family room: 16×19 (second floor)
The houses out in Harvard and Cary have more curb appeal for less money. I guess it depends on the buyer’s taste. But even if you evaluate from a cash flow perspective and rent potential, this doesn’t seem like a good prospect (full disclosure, I have only read one Robert Kiyosaki book so far so I am still learning).
Houses in Harvard and Cary have no curb appeal.
The main question I have is: why has this property changed hands so many times in the last 15 years? The house I bought had two owners in its entire 60+ year existence yet this home has 5 owners in 15 years!
it took a while but I found a few homes with curb appeal in Cary
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Cary/517-Mildred-Ave-60013/home/17790990
And this is a bad ass 1895 gingerbread victorian in harvard
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Harvard/307-W-Burbank-St-60033/home/17859714
“Houses in Harvard and Cary have no curb appeal.”
was just out in cary last month there are no curbs or sidewalks.
Is that exposed “decorative cinderblock” on the interior? lol
yes, appears to be decorative cinderblock! That 1998 price is looking about right
Whitewash it, put a faux-slate roof on it, maybe a cute red door….plant some vines, and in one year it’ll look nice. All except someone said that whitewashing was a bad move. I’d still be interested in more opinions on that.
The interior block is just terrible. Why????
I walked through this tear down the other day just near this place. Basically priced at lot value. They already have several offers. Looks like 1 fell out already. Nothing is really salvageable.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2042-W-Cortland-St-60647/home/13356069
http://bit.ly/KhNJwd
Whitewashed Brick House with Green Trimmed Shutters in Bruges
hd, you should go check out that house so that you can say that you went to Harvard.
As homedelete would say: Living in Cary = external obselesence.
Gawd, it’s ugly.
The “sister” home sold for $775K year and half ago. Builder is v active in bucktown/wicker. Haven’t been in this one, but like the layout of his homes a lot. Don’t like whatever the exposed interior block material is, which he used a lot. Thought it was maybe dryvit at one point, not sure.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2021-W-Cortland-St-60647/home/13356340
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com/
oh, i’ve been to harvard before. i just wouldn’t consider living there unless they had some high speed mag lev express train from C&NW station to harvard in less than 30 minutes.
“was just out in cary last month there are no curbs or sidewalks”
Not a place for people. Maybe a farm and the family that runs it though.
“Fred (April 27, 2012, 11:43 am)
As homedelete would say: Living in Cary = external obselesence.”
Cary has awful schools I’ve heard from quite a few people and it’s gotten congested over the years. I have an aunt who moved there in teh 80’s when it was little more than a farm town just outside the metro area and she got exactly what she wanted. fast forward 25 years and she’s living in the sprawl, exactly what she DIDN’T want.
I’m going to move to Harvard, open up a small pizzeria in one of the strip malls, listen to rock music all day and have Cubs’ games on in the background, and pound dough. Who needs drugs to ‘Tune in, turn on, and drop out'” ?
Would the multiple sales have anything to do with the below-grade setting of the property? (Having moved in recent years from a ground-floor condo to a SFH with a leaky basement, I cannot focus on anything else in these photos).
Cute house though…..
every picture i see the same thing — no light. this place would suck the life out of me.
in general, i just despise having neighbors that i could reach out and touch through the majority of my windows. it’s these type of SFH’s that have zero appeal to me. i need space. i need a yard. i need to talk out my backdoor and not be able to shake hands with my neighbor.
might as well live in a condo. and you could live in quite a few fantastic 3/2.5s with views out the wazoo/great hoods, schools, everything you’ve got here at minimum as far as location goes and have money left over.
overpriced place that should be rented, not owned.
“every picture i see the same thing — no light”
I think it’s more the crappy (perhaps owner taken) photos. I’d guess it has better light than the average btown house on a small lot.
Were these two homes drop shipped from Iraq or something? Whats with the six foot CMU wall and full height solid panel door?
First home improvement I would make would be to rent a Bobcat for a day and tear that crap down.
“in general, i just despise having neighbors that i could reach out and touch through the majority of my windows. it’s these type of SFH’s that have zero appeal to me.”
Then many of Chicago’s trendiest neighborhoods aren’t for you.
i’m sure the new owner with take comfort in their personal trendiness as they’re removing graffiti from that wall for the 3rd time in a year.
$800K for this place is one trend i’m happy to not understand. $600K i’d say there’s some value, but this place is a joke at these prices.
The curb appeal on this home is awful. I finally decided to look past that and look at the interior pictures and I was pleasantly surprised until I came across the cinder block interior wall. Now I think the place ought to be razed. I wouldn’t even pay the ’98 price to live in an ugly home behind a fortress wall and have to look at cinder block in my family room.
I think at some point in the next 15 years, this house will trade hands below 500k
@ benajmon9: I agree with you re: the cinder block interior wall. Might be nice to replace it with some glass block windows or something. Might lighten things up a little bit and keep things modern.
Also, re: Cary not having sidewalks. It is a pretty smart move actually. Less maintenance for your public works keeps taxes low. Also, Cary public schools are better than what you will get in Bucktown.
Finally, Cary is not a farm town. Compared to Woodstock and Harvard it is a metropolis. And Woodstock is getting a Panera soon.
Can’t you just put studs up and then drywall the cinderblock wall? Aren’t almost all mccrapbox condos done this way, incl. even the earlier vintage duplexes in SoPo?
Cary is for poor people who can’t afford to live in Chicago. It should be farm land though.
I am sure people in Cary have a higher median income than the city of Chicago. Also, living in Cary is like living in Barrington at a discount. You’ve probably never even been out here before.
“Cary is for poor people who can’t afford to live in Chicago. It should be farm land though.”
Amazing how the same paragraph can include both the both and smartest, and the most ridiculous, statements you’ve ever written. I’ll let you decide which is which.
the cool part about cary is the river and the drinkinin’ boat culture that goes along with that. the fox river gets a lot of boat traffic. Unlike the des plaines river and chicago rivers which regularly see more floaters than boats.
“Also, living in Cary is like living in Barrington at a discount.”
No it’s not. That’s what a poor would say though.
Matthewlesko, why do you comment on this board, it’s about City RE, not exburban/farm land.
Cary was never really farmland. More of a small village on the Fox River, just north of North Barrington. Wooded lots, small homes, right on Rte 14 with the CNW going through it.
Now Harvard is a farm town. I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Harmilda.
“Matthewlesko, why do you comment on this board, it’s about City RE, not exburban/farm land.”
A few years ago I attended a Robert Kiyosaki / Donald Trump seminar at the Learning Annex which inspired me to speculate in some suburban real estate for a couple years. Now I am speculating in some properties in the city.
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/216.html
Cary was farmland until about 30-40 years ago. I guess they had some good pastures for cows.
It won’t make a difference because in 20 years when our entire fleet of vehicles runs on cheap and abundant natural gas the entire geographical area between rockford, madison, milwaukee and chicago will be one huge megalopolis. Live wherever you want subject only to your tolerance for traffic….
“Cary has awful schools I’ve heard from quite a few people and it’s gotten congested over the years”
sorry bro you heard wrong, schools there are a the tops for mchenry county. got a few family members in school out there.
last month i actually ate at the “Italian restaurant” on main that looks over the metra stop.
“Also, living in Cary is like living in Barrington at a discount.”
did i ever tell you guys the story about 5 years ago when i stomped three wannabe white “gangstas” trying to hit on my wife at a barrington gas station?
It’s a great restaurant!
“matthewlesko (April 27, 2012, 2:13 pm)
It’s a great restaurant!”
have you ate at that place on 14 that has the Booth thats a boat in the middle? and a little bridge over the “water” to get to it ?
Groove, I know you hate bucktown, but that’s no license to start chatting about establishments on route 14 in mchenry county.
“have you ate at that place on 14 that has the Booth thats a boat in the middle? and a little bridge over the “water” to get to it ?”
Port Edward in Algonquin?! Love it! My wife and I went there for our anniversary!
“Port Edward in Algonquin?! Love it! My wife and I went there for our anniversary!”
oops maybe its on 31? i have been wanting to get a reservation for that booth. there is also a crazy wooden castle playground out there that my kid loves.
as again mind not all there so i cant remember the playgrounds name
“Groove, I know you hate bucktown, but that’s no license to start chatting about establishments on route 14 in mchenry county”
sorry its just why pay this much to live in bucktown when mchenry co has so much more for less.
[Groove77] “sorry its just why pay this much to live in bucktown when mchenry co has so much more for less.”
While we are comparing living in the city of Chicago to bumblefuck McHenry, why don’t we see what we can get for our dollar in Elkhorn while we’re at it? Seems reasonable doesn’t it?
Dude, you’ll get more wilderness bang for your buck in Elkhart than anywhere else within 100 miles. Commute into the city for business only when you need to. Drink new glarus everyday.
I like Bucktown but I’d take Elkhorn, Cary or Harvard over THIS house. This is coming from someone that despises outer burbs too!
I liked the walled outside very much. Nice and private–none of the pedestrian Damen traffic looking in my windows as they walk by. What I don’t like however is the master being away from the kid’s bedrooms. I don’t need my child kidnapped in the night and I don’t even hear a ruckus. Or even the more likely event of him falling out of bed or needing some water. And what irritates me to no end is people saying living in a crap suburb is like living in a nice suburb except cheaper. Um, no. Cary is not Barrington. And Aurora is not Naperville. And Berwyn is not Oak Park. Just like “West Bucktown (aka Humboldt Park) is not Bucktown.
What is this? Rt14Chatter dot com?
“And Aurora is not Naperville”
Far east side Aurora is the same, you can hardly tell the difference. I do know someone who lives there and they do lie about it, they’ll say Naperville if it’s with someone who they figure won’t probe further. They use the Rt. 59 metra stop.
If a person is so insecure and status conscious that they have to lie to people where they live, that is a bit pathetic. But if it was that important to me to impress strangers, or I was that embarrassed to live in Aurora, then why not just move to Naperville and quit living a lie?
Elkhorn? Don’t be ridiculous, that’s in Wisconsin!
“If a person is so insecure and status conscious that they have to lie to people where they live, that is a bit pathetic”
There are LOTS of pathetic people in which case. Like those who live in the west loop but consider it the loop because its east of the highway but west of the river.
“then why not just move to Naperville and quit living a lie?”
Presumably many of those from Aurora may lie because they cannot afford the other place.
New Glarus is good, but overrated. Sure, compared to Point’s dismal offerings you’d want it ever day, but compared to Half Acre, Three Floyd’s, Rev Brew and a zillion other beers easily accessible in Chicago it is nothing particularly noteworthy. Yes, I know we are spoiled.
New glarus is not overrated, however, that doesnt diminish the high quality of other beers available in the area. Ice been drinking two Brothers lately and everything I’ve had has been pretty good.
“but compared to Half Acre, Three Floyd’s, Rev Brew and a zillion other beers easily accessible in Chicago it is nothing particularly noteworthy. Yes, I know we are spoiled.”
This is why I don’t get people that love 312. It’s basically Goose Island’s bud light. You can get 50+ different beers @ Binnys. I understand the person drinking mass market domestic/sub-premium beer as it’s a volume play. But to fall in love with 312 those people are funny. Like the people that love Jameson or Yager that are over 25.
I actually thought the west loop started at Halsted. I don’t live there so I’m not trying to change the boundaries for personal reasons but if someone tells me they live in the west loop, I think west of halsted not the boeing building area….
“I actually thought the west loop started at Halsted.”
Does if you look at zip codes. But not the neighborhood boundaries as they’re defined.
Maybe knowing ones neighborhood wasn’t as easy back when websites like this didn’t exist:
http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/neighborhoods/west_loop.html
But I tend to pay attention to such things as neighborhood boundaries where/near I live. If only to avoid unnecessary parking tickets from permit parking on the street.
Only a transplant from somewhere else whose ego was caught up in living in the ‘Loop’ would be insistent they lived there when they lived in the WL. And likely a transplant without a car.
I see examples of this from time to time–its funny. I’d imagine the people that move from NJ to Manhattan act the same way.
Whenever someone tells me they live in Manhattan instead of NYC, I ask them if they live in the part of Manhattan that’s connected to the Bronx.
From a strict perspective West Loop would have to be west of the actual tracks. In terms of how it has evolved, certainly anything between the river and Halsted is appropriate. The bigger crime is stretching it to go all the way to Ashland, and I have heard yahoos trying to go all the way to Damen. west Loop doesn’t mean “anything west of the Loop”. And what of poor Greektown….