Get a Southport 3-Bedroom Townhouse for $599,000: 1125 W. Newport
This 3-bedroom townhouse at 1125 W. Newport in the Southport neighborhood in Lakeview came on the market in February 2022.
Built in 1995, this townhouse complex, which shares a main drive, has 25 units with single car attached garages.
The listing says this townhouse is “insulated for El and street noise.”
The garage, foyer, laundry and third bedroom are on the first floor. The listing says the den/third bedroom includes a queen sized Murphy bed.
The other two bedrooms are on the second floor, including the primary which has an en suite bath that has been “fully renovated” with Carrera marble, double vanity, jacuzzi tub and custom glass rainfall shower.
The listing says the second bathroom has also been “fully renovated” and has white subway tiles and gold finishes.
The second floor has the kitchen, living and dining rooms.
The kitchen has white cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances with a kitchen island with blue cabinets.
There’s a “grill deck” off the kitchen and a large patio on the ground level along with a Juliet balcony off the living room.
The listing says the water heater and furnace have both been replaced in the last 2 years.
In addition to the attached 1-car garage, there is apparently a second additional outdoor space.
The townhouse has skylights and central air.
It’s located just 2 blocks from Southport restaurants and shops, as well as the Brown line stop at Southport, and is also a quick stroll to Wrigley Field and the shops and restaurants of Wrigleyville.
Listed at $599,000, that is $159,000 more than the 2012 sales price.
Is $599,000 the new reality for a 3-bedroom townhouse in this popular neighborhood?
Randi Kamberos at Carr Real Estate Investments has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit C: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2000 square feet, townhouse
- Sold in August 1995 for $259,000
- Sold in April 2000 for $375,000
- Sold in August 2004 for $440,000
- Sold in October 2006 for $480,000
- Sold in July 2012 for $440,000
- Currently listed at $599,000
- Assessments of $230 a month (includes exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes of $9867
- Central Air
- 1 car attached garage and second outdoor parking space
- Wood burning fireplace
- Bedroom #1: 15×12 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 14×10 (third floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×13 (main floor)
- Living/dining room: 23×17 (second floor)
- Kitchen: 17×12 (second floor)
- Laundry room: 8×4 (main floor)
2000sqft w/ garage+patios
3rd Br is kind of a joke. The desk blocks access to the furnace & hwh.
Need to be about 42” tall to use the balcony…
Masonry looks rough
Inside isn’t bad, no powder room on the main floor
The views and front entrance are inspiring!
Just kidding.
“The desk blocks access to the furnace & hwh.”
Last listing showed a futon in front of the w/d closet, too.
It’s obviously a challenging space–trying to serve 3+ purposes, no matter how you want to use it.
In any given listing, if the shades are pulled down, there’s probably a good reason. To me, it’s a definite indicator that the window looks into a brick wall or straight into the window of another building.
This townhouse had been on the market just 3 days as of yesterday when I went to crib on it. Yet on Redfin, about 6,000 people had already viewed the listing.
THAT is how low inventory is in Chicago right now. Lots of people with property trackers looking for 3-bedrooms under $600,000 in Lakeview.
IAR is out with the January data. I’ll have more on it next week. But the January Chicago inventory fell 33.9% year-over-year to 5,482 from 8,288 properties last year.
In some neighborhoods, there is almost nothing to choose from and whatever does come on the market, if it’s not overpriced, goes under contract almost immediately.
does anyone wanting a 3 bedroom under $600k in Lakeview actually want this? It’s a 2 bedroom with a family room/den on the ground floor. They put in a murphy bed for guests and an enterprising agent decided that meant it was a 3rd bedroom (2 flights up for a shower!) and they could list this less-than-100-feet from the L unit similar to ones blocks away from the L.
It’s tough to say on this one. IMO, the number of views is more indicative of the agent lying than true interest. That said, the price isn’t that high for the area, it’s just whether someone will pay this and not demand a discount for the proximity to the tracks. And don’t give me this “insulated for noise” crap. If the agent is really smart, they’ll schedule an open house next weekend when there is some work scheduled between Belmont and Southport and no trains will be running…
Contingent, so some sucker was willing to pay that much for this close to the tracks. And now every single person with a similar townhouse (east side of 3300 block of Racine, both sides of 1200 block of Fletcher, etc, etc) is going to claim the ground floor is a bedroom and they should likely get $650k since they’re not on top of the tracks
Calling the first floor room a ‘bedroom’ is very common in townhouses. Three bedrooms on the third floor is usually much more expensive than places like this and marketed at four bedrooms or 2 car garage.
EL noise and neighborhood aside, this type of place/price point is great for me, but I want a bedroom, office/guest, and gym for one person.
@Lauren – generally in this area they aren’t. These spaces are usually have no door and no closet. This property does have a door but no closet (the closet doors in that room are the W/D and the furnace/water heater). This whole “well, it could be a bedroom if you *really* wanted it to” is garbage and a flat out lie by the agent.
Nearby counterexamples. They say things like den, family room or office, not 4th bedroom.
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1523-W-Henderson-St-60657/unit-I/home/13381543
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3029-N-Greenview-Ave-60657/unit-B/home/13365429
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2675-N-Greenview-Ave-60614/unit-F/home/13363290
Under contract already.
Like I said. Over 6,000 people had looked at it on Redfin within 3 days of the listing. Plenty of buyers looking for 3 bedrooms with parking under $600,000 in this popular neighborhood.
@nonya- Admittedly, I don’t follow Southport at all so you may be right. In South Loop, so many 3 bedrooms are really two plus living room.
Examples:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1353-S-Plymouth-Ct-Chicago-IL-60605/3875998_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1422-S-State-St-Chicago-IL-60605/3875672_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1333-S-Indiana-Pkwy-Chicago-IL-60605/2070760932_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1248-S-Federal-St-UNIT-D-Chicago-IL-60605/3875833_zpid/
Not surprised this place went contingent quickly.
Feels very 2005
a SoPo (True) 3Br + Parking < $600k is a bit of a unicorn, no?
While I kinda get the FOMO (Rates going up, lack of inventory, etc), buying marginal housing at inflated prices in a rising rate market is not what I'd consider a sound financial decision.
FED rate hikes and a tapering of MBS is going to crush home values
Glad to see the Boomers looking to stick it to Millennials & Z Vs GenX
I am not at all surprised that this is under contract. People are absolutely desperate now to beat the increase in interest rates and there’s very little on the market. My parents ended up turning down the offer on their townhouse (that wasn’t even on the market) because there is nothing they saw that they liked under $600,000.
I don’t see the uptick in interest rates causing a significant decrease in demand. There just isn’t enough on the market to meet demand. If prices start to fall, people will be even less likely to list, leading to more bidding wars, leading back to higher prices again.
We need a longer period with these inflated prices to see any decrease in price. People have a ton of equity in their homes and as long as they can afford their mortgage they are unlikely to sell when there’s nothing to buy. If there’s a shift back to condos, maybe we’ll start to see a decline in single family home/townhome prices. Seeing how terrible my neighbors were in my condo building during the height of the pandemic was enough to make me never want to share common elevators and hallways ever again. Maybe it’s just me though. The minority of neighbors who made me miserable will probably be happy to stay in their condos, so there will be at least some demand for condos going forward.
“My parents ended up turning down the offer on their townhouse (that wasn’t even on the market) because there is nothing they saw that they liked under $600,000.”
Most of our parents need to get over their rentalphobia.
“Most of our parents need to get over their rentalphobia.”
Depending on the city, it can be nearly impossible to find a decent rental right now as well.
“In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms. And nowhere was the jump bigger than in the Miami metro area, where the median rent exploded to $2,850, 49.8% higher than the previous year.
Other cities across Florida — Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville — and the Sun Belt destinations of San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Texas, and Memphis, Tennessee, all saw spikes of more than 25% during that time period.”
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/rent-prices-reach-insane-levels-across-u-s-with-no-end-in-sight/
“If there’s a shift back to condos, maybe we’ll start to see a decline in single family home/townhome prices.”
The only time in the last 50 years that Chicago real estate prices have fallen is during the housing bust from 2008-2012.
That happened, as you all recall, because investors and speculators bought thousands of properties, including condos, many to flip. There was also rampant appraisal fraud. By the financial crisis, there were too many properties and no buyers. Up to 40% of the properties listed were foreclosures/short sales at the worst of it. Many condo buildings saw either price cuts or were converted to apartments, especially in the South Loop.
All that inventory had to be absorbed before prices could even budge off those 2012 lows.
In order for Chicago prices to fall again, we would need a massive infusion in inventory. It would take years to occur because of the demographics of the Millennials and their home buying pushing up demand. GenZ is also a large generation, so, it’s unlikely that inventory will rise substantially unless there is an explosion of building, which is what we saw 2000 to 2008.
Instead, most of the building is going towards apartment towers, not condos. As I’ve said in the past, when the condo market gets hot in Chicago, there are usually conversions of apartment buildings into condo to meet demand. We aren’t there yet. There are still de-conversions going on.
There’s really no indication of any mass inventory that’s about to come on in the city. Higher mortgage rates will slow the market. They slow the SF, LA, San Diego and Boston markets too. But higher rates, unless they double or triple, have never caused a price decline in ANY city.
We also have rents rising, and a tight rental market, that are pushing many people to want to buy. If rents rise another 5% to 10% this year, which would you want to do?
The market is red hot everywhere. Lots of properties going under contract almost immediately. We’re not used to this in Chicago. This only happens in the coastal markets.
But perhaps Chicago, because it’s cheaper than the coasts, is coming into favor?
“Most of our parents need to get over their rentalphobia.”
Also, depending on the age of “our parents,” some of them may have pretty vivid memories of the 1970s and what inflation meant. In an inflationary environment, you don’t want to rent. You want that locked in mortgage or you want to own it clear and free. Inflation is very scary for seniors on fixed income.
“Feels very 2005”
In what world?
Are there 10,000 condos being built in the South Loop?
Are people waiting in lines at new condo buildings to buy multiple units?
Can people making $40,000 buy $400,000 condos?
Is there appraisal fraud going on?
NOTHING about this market feels like 2005.
When I started this blog in 2007, as I have said before, there was so much inventory, I could do three posts a day because there was so much to choose from. In Lakeview, there was over 4,000 properties listed at any given time. Current inventory is 344 listings available. Of course, many are under contract/pending.
But the difference in inventory from the housing boom years to today is shocking.
This market is a bull market. It is a hot housing market. We haven’t had this type of market in Chicago in a long time. Genuine demand and limited supply.
“Most of our parents need to get over their rentalphobia.”
Where are the rental single family homes or townhouses? Why would they rent when they already own unless they needed the cash?
I don’t want my parents to live in a building with shared hallways and elevators. I considered selling and renting a house for a year to see if I liked a more quiet neighborhood before buying, but there was nothing available to rent, so I bought instead.
Finding a place to rent that allows dogs is also difficult. Places advertise that they allow pets, but then have a huge fee to have pets. There are admin fees and application fees to pay as well. You can’t change things as you please when you rent. If something breaks, you can’t immediately replace it. There are pluses to renting especially if you don’t plan to stay for long, but there are inconveniences that many home owners don’t want to give up.
Most of our parents aren’t desperate to sell, so why would they when there’s nothing nice on the market to buy and nothing to rent either?
“Where are the rental single family homes or townhouses?”
Since I left Chicago toward the end of 13, I’ve rented two houses and purchased two houses. I think I found the first rental on Craigslist (the outgoing tenants on that house were boomers) and the second on Zillow. Looking on/posting on Nextdoor might be an option as well (that’s where I found the second house we purchased). Finding a decent place to rent took more work than buying, because outside of NYC there aren’t brokers making a buck off of the process. No, you can’t really modify a rental, and all of the other things that longtime homeowners have come to appreciate (and there’s a big emotional/phycological aspect of homeownership too), but then there’s all the other responsibilities that homeowners constantly complain about.
“Why would they rent when they already own unless they needed the cash?”
They would rent because buying another place would mean they’re paying some other seller a huge premium in this market, even if it’s a lower amount than what they’ve sold their place for (presumably having downsized). It’s not a question of needing the cash. It’s a question of how much higher do they think the value of their current home will go (taking into account their market, the condition of the house, and rates), and what are their housing needs and priorities over the coming years?
If we didn’t have another 8 years or so to get our youngest through high school, we would be very tempted to list right now at a “make me move” price and would happily become renters again, possibly forever, who knows.
“Where are the rental single family homes or townhouses?”
Everywhere!
BlackRock is regularly (falsely!) accused of buying up thousands of single family homes to be rentals. It’s a popular current trope.