Living on the Boulevard: 2048 N. Humboldt Blvd in Logan Square
We chattered about a home on Logan Boulevard but how about on Humboldt?
This American Four-Square at 2048 N. Humbold Boulevard was built in 1921 in the Logan Square neighborhood. It has great vintage details but, as the listing admits, it is “ready for your updating.”
There are no pictures of the kitchen and only a partial view of one of the baths. And there is NO central air – only window units (as can be seen in several pictures.)
But it has a woodburning fireplace, original woodwork, stained glass windows and a double lot.
2048 N. Humboldt: 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 half baths, 2 car garage, 4000 square feet
- I couldn’t find a prior sales price
- Currently listed for $1,099,999
- Taxes of $6,069
- Re/Max NorthCoast Realty has the listing
Beautiful.
Yes, beautiful.
But $1MM is really pushing it for something outside Lincoln Park, Downtown, or Lakeview, that needs updating.
But still, beautiful.
At 1.1MM do they know how much of an insanely big McMansion you can get in any one of the better burbs?
This place is worth maybe 750k.
It’s beginning to look to me as though the outer suburbs at least are starting to lose value relative to the city. Fuel prices are playing a big part, but since this has been the trend of the past 15 years, just plain misery is the biggest factor- the misery of 20,30,40 miles combined with the blandness, distances from real cultural and civic amenities, and lack of neighborliness that characterizes so many outer burbs.
But you DO have a point- you can get a comparable house in Wilmette or Evanston, really wonderful communities close to everything and with every town amenity you could want, for no more money than this and be in a much safer community with fine schools and great transit.
Probably too high, but indeed beautiful. I love the big wide hallways, especially on the 2nd floor. A very gracious house, but there is what looks like a 2 flat on one side, and I don’t know what’s on the other. Great bones, and it looks like you don’t have to tear out tons of bad remuddling.
For 1.1M I think there are a lot of better choices.
What an amazing house. I don’t know that neighborhood too well but seems like a good deal to me. 50 x 150 lot, 4,000 SF brick house – where can you find that? that lot alone in lincoln park would cost $2.5 million.
You could show me a Medieval castle replete with turrets and moat in the suburbs for $1.1M and I’d still be looking at this place. To keep beating the dead horse, if it ain’t Chicago it ain’t Chicago.
Still, agree it’s priced a little steep. And also agree that Evanston is suburbia done right. If I had to leave the city limits, that’d be the destination.
“At 1.1MM do they know how much of an insanely big McMansion you can get in any one of the better burbs?”
Not in any of the burbs I’d live in. Just more land and a lesser house–albeit with a/c.
I agree with you Dave. There are plenty of lovely homes in the suburbs- but many people don’t want to live there (no matter the cost or the square footage.)
Evanston is really a small city. There’s very little real suburbia left there, and that’s why the place is delightful.
But it still isn’t CHICAGO, and people are finally realizing what they were throwing away when they fled the city for the suburban tracts and collector roads.
I mean, if I woke up in Schaumburg, I couldn’t tell whether I was in some west St. Louis county suburb, or in Carrolton, TX. You could be almost anywhere.
But you KNOW you’re in Chicago when you’re here- no other place looks anything like it (or anywhere near as good).
Your boundary bias is evident. There just as many neighborhoods in Chicago that I would prefer Schaumburg to. There are a lot of bad neighborhoods in Chicago. Of course you’re probably mostly talking about certain north/near west side neighborhoods of a certain demographic. There are probably near burbs that have a Chicago feel as much as many of the Chicago proper outer neighborhoods.
Many people who live in Chicago commute to the suburbs such as Schaumburg, Oak Brook, Deerfield, Rosemont and the like. There are a ton of good jobs with large companies in the suburbs like motorola, mcdonalds, walgreens, allstate, united, etc. Younger people today are trending towards living in the city in general and are willing to commute 45 minutes to an hour each day. But then again, not surprisingly, a lot of grads from my NW suburban cook high school moved even farther north and nw to McHenry County and lake county, and they work out in that area too. It’s a fairly even mix but I think that the city attracts far more young people than it used to. Heck, when my parents graduated high school everyone was fleeing the city and moving to far out places like arl. hts, wheaton and the like. nevertheless, Schaumburg has the reputation for sucking pretty bad, and it’s not undeserved. But rather shop at Woodfield over the Clyborn corridor anyday. Heck I hop in my car and drive 20 minutes to stop old orchard before I’d go to michigan ave.
My bias is evident, and that’s the point. The city proper and the suburbs, no matter how rich the school district and no matter how far from the nearest “bad neighborhood”, are not comparable housing markets.
I would rather live in the Wild 100s than Schaumburg. You’d likely rather live in Schaumburg than my own Polish Triangle.
…Didn’t mean Bob specifically by the way, I also know people in LP/Lakeview who plan to move to the suburbs to start their families, convinced that they must leave the city to do so. While you can probably guess what I think about that, the point is that the markets are not comparable because they serve different people, even when you consider the “best” neighborhoods in the city. I believe there are few people who are house-hunting based solely on price.
homedelete, my guess is you drive up to old orchard to shop because you would have to drive or take public trans to michigan ave. try living within walking distance of michigan ave. i’ve been in river north for 9 years and haven’t been to a mall in all that time. everything is here and walkable (and, yes, i do have a car).
1st: beautiful! what character! a rare find and an opportunity to live in a home that is REALLY chicago!
a mcmansion is space – sans character, history, nostalgia. this house has it all. what a gorgeous backyard, too!
humboldt blvd is an amazing green space – the wide blvd, like logan, provides city living without the piled-on-one’s-neighbor nastiness. heh. yay! 😉
this house is at 2048 n. Humboldt. Humboldt Blvd is at 3000 W. . . .
here’s a link to the google map (and, thus, the google streetview — for purposes of seeing “what’s nextdoor,” among others:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2048+n+humboldt+chicago+illinois&sll=42.080189,-88.22358&sspn=0.006816,0.018711&ie=UTF8&ll=41.92005,-87.702463&spn=0.013667,0.037422&z=15
i can’t tell, actually, if the building to the north of this one is a two flat – I THINK it is a single family. the one south is a single family, followed on the south by a 6-unit vintage condo conversion.
the closest el stops would be the California blueline stop at 2211 N. California (2800W) or the Western blueline at 1900 N. Western (2400W). . .
not so bad, really, as far as public transportation. the California stop is pretty close.
i’m sure the seller agent/seller has factored in room for negotiation in the price.
“Many people who live in Chicago commute to the suburbs such as Schaumburg, Oak Brook, Deerfield, Rosemont and the like. There are a ton of good jobs with large companies in the suburbs like motorola, mcdonalds, walgreens, allstate, united, etc. Younger people today are trending towards living in the city in general and are willing to commute 45 minutes to an hour each day. But then again, not surprisingly, a lot of grads from my NW suburban cook high school moved even farther north and nw to McHenry County and lake county, and they work out in that area too. It’s a fairly even mix but I think that the city attracts far more young people than it used to. Heck, when my parents graduated high school everyone was fleeing the city and moving to far out places like arl. hts, wheaton and the like. nevertheless, Schaumburg has the reputation for sucking pretty bad, and it’s not undeserved. But rather shop at Woodfield over the Clyborn corridor anyday. Heck I hop in my car and drive 20 minutes to stop old orchard before I’d go to michigan ave.”
This is me. I live in Old Town and commute to Glenview. We’re looking mostly in the city now (but we flip-flop every so often), since we’re not planning to have kids for a couple years, but our next place will probably be in the burbs when it’s school time.
John, I agree! In 5 years we have only shopped in Old Orchard once – it was raining so we decided to drive to OO instead of 5 min rain walk to Michigan Ave. And we realized that Bloomingdale’s on Michigan and in OO have totally different brands and selection. I guess it because they have different target markets.
Also we have child and plan to have at least one more but we want to stay in the city. The main reason is commuting to work, second – I cannot imagine us living in the suburbs. But may we’ll change our mind after paying for our son’s private school.
P.S. Currently we rent, but plan to buy in a year or so. I found this site very helpful (especially we’re not American and RE market is soooo complicated in US). Thank you all for your posts!
312forever. there are some high-quality public schools in chicago. if you live walking distance to michigan ave, you probably live in the ogden school attendance area. it’s excellent.
To each’s own, michigan ave isn’t better than woodfield or OO, but, at least we can all agree that naperville sucks pretty bad.
John, Ogden school is the one next to Newberry library? If yes, we live in this school district. But this is an elementary school, are there any good high schools besides Latin in the area?:)
I went to the best school in my city and I still feel the benefits after 10 years after graduation – specially now I’m in grad school. I kind of feel obligated to do the same for my child(ren). I would trade extra-bedroom for Latin school on any day.
I have a feeling the main reason people in Chicago and in States move to suburbs because of the schools.
Homedelete, I have never been to Naperville! It it that bad?:)
312forever — if you are north of Oak (1000N), you are in the Lincoln Park High district. South of there is less good (Wells High). Ogden is the elementary across from Newberry.
forrealestate, the google maps link is not accurate. To actually see this house you have to scroll right to what the map will say is 2088 N. Humboldt. I believe it is the largest original single family home on Humboldt Blvd between Palmer Square and Humboldt Park.
312forever–the neighborhood high schools are improving, but CPS secondary education is still all about selective enrollment schools. Payton is pretty close (Wells, south of Division), but Whitney Young and Northside are fairly long hauls from your current neighborhood. They are three of the best (i.e., consitently top ten) in Illinois, so don’t necessarily fall for the “suburb’s are better” line.
Yeah, yeah, the kids have to get in, but that’s the story with college (and almost everywhere else in the world), too, so what’s the big deal.
homedelete
“To each’s own, michigan ave isn’t better than woodfield or OO, but, at least we can all agree that naperville sucks pretty bad.”
Yeah, I’ve lived in Naperville for 15 years, moved out of the city (after renting/owning there for 10 years) for the great Naperville schools after having kids. Not only do my kids get great college prep education, they have a chance to compete in high school sports at a very competative level. All that for the cost of property taxes, which are not that high.
40 minute train ride to the loop, lots of greenery, parks, riverwalk, a lot of young people (North Central College is located in the downtown area), great downtown area with lots of good restaurants, shops and nightclubs. We own a beautiful house which seemed like a palace when we moved into it after living in Chicago for so many years (our last chicago home was the top floor of a lakeview 3-flat), but is actually pretty averaged sized for Naperville. Big back yard, kids can ride their bikes all over without us having to worry. But if you aren’t a parent, I guess you can’t see the attraction of the suburbs…
312forever —
Look into the international baccalaureate program at Ogden. It used to be that the program fed straight into the IB program at LPHS, which was a whole separate animal (teachers, curriculum, etc.) from the neighborhood LPHS students. No if any of this has changed.
It’s a joke, everyone makes fun of Naperville. I’ve been hearing naperville jokes since high school; although schaumburg has been steadily overtaking naperville as the butt of jokes. Naperville is actually a great place to raise a family and there are a lot of jobs out there too.
Thanks everybody for the school tips, you’re so helpful!
I’ll start doing school research as well to be prepared.
When I am a parent, I will continue to not see the attraction of the suburbs. If anyone is interested, I was born and raised in Chicago proper, and *gasp*, I have a white-collar job.
We’re not all criminals and bums, folks.
Dave
“When I am a parent, I will continue to not see the attraction of the suburbs. If anyone is interested, I was born and raised in Chicago proper, and *gasp*, I have a white-collar job.”
Say that again when you in fact *are* a parent. Its amazing how life changing an event that is. And, of course, the child’s mother will most likely have a say in where her child goes to school as well. A lot of parents want to give their child to have the *best* chance of succeeding, and are willing to make sacrifices for it. I grew up closer to the city, and graduated from a school that was going through changes as the neighborhood changed. When I went to college, I struggled. My friends from the “better” high schools were used to the effort and were ready for college. I succeeded, but it was a uphill climb.
“Say that [I will continue to not see the attraction of the suburbs] again when you in fact *are* a parent.”
Um, I am a parent. The only appeal that the ‘burbs holds for me is escaping the insanity of Cook County gov’t. Indeed, I think my kids will be better people going to city schools than suburban schools.
Will I wind up looking the hypocrite if my kids don’t get into one of the selective enrollment high schools? Maybe, but private school is still a possible alternative.
“give their child to have the *best* chance of succeeding”–well, then, send them off to boarding school, preferably at Andover, but Exeter or Choate or amny others would be fine too, or at least send them to Latin/Parker/Lab/LFA, because at all of those schools, the odds are much better than ANY public school. What you get in CPS can be the equal of any school in the ‘burbs.
“compete in high school sports at a very competative level”–this is another argument (academics v. athletics) that’s totally inappropriate for this board (which, if I write that, means its REALLY off-topic).
Juliana, do you still work in the Loop? how long does it take you to get to your work?
I have a kid and we decided to stay in the city. With LP and lake within 5 min walk it not that bad:).
One of the schools we’re considering is Lycee Francais – you cannot have this type of education in the burbs simply because of the diversity.
Anon, I thought that it’s even harder to get into Latin/Parker/Lab than to any selective enrollment high schools, am I right?
Juliana, do you think that the safety and ample opportunities for “do-overs” might have a lasting effect into adulthood?
I’ve noticed that kids who grew up in the suburbs have what I call a bubble-wrap mentality. They go about their business without much thought about the consequences of their actions, because the world *should be* wrapped in bubble wrap. Therefore, any ill that befalls them is the result of somebody else’s negligence.
This might be easily mistaken for America in general, but I’ve noticed that kids who were raised in the city don’t have this lack of responsibility when they reach adulthood. I pin it on the fact that Suburban kids got to leave their toys, bikes, etc. strewn all about the neighborhood, whereas city kids got their toys and bikes stolen by homeless people if they did that.
“Anon, I thought that it’s even harder to get into Latin/Parker/Lab than to any selective enrollment high schools, am I right?”
That’s my understanding, but I haven’t *really* investigated, so I don’t really know. And admissions to all 3 are a little different at pre-school/K vs. High School. There is a pretty big (relatively) enrollment bump for the 9th grade class.
I do always love the condescending tone of the suburbanites–“if you aren’t a parent, you wouldn’t understand” “if you *really* cared about your kids, you’d make the same decision”–in an attempt to defend their perfectly understandable decisions. Different priorities in determining what’s best, which is fine.
312f–British School will be pretty close to you, too, when they move into their new building on Halsted (about 1400 north) and there’s also Near North Montessori, which is K-12, on Division about 1400 W.
I think there is a good mix of public and private schools in the city but there are a higher number of good public schools in the suburbs. Where I live the jr high terrible so anyone with money sends their kids to the private catholic school 2 blocks away. as far as high school in the city there are a handful of good magnet schools, most of which are highly selective, and the rest are really expensive and private. Whereas in the high school I could live almost anywhere in the nw burbs, southern lake county or dupage county and not really have to worry about the quality of my kids education. Right now the public high school in my neighborhood is Shurz and I get a little intimidated just riding my bike past the school on a school day. whereas I could move nearly anywhere in the north or nw or west burbs and not have to worry the quality of the school, with the exception of a handful of areas. There’s nothing inherently wrong with staying in the city or moving to the burbs I just think that a good public high school or an affordable private school is more challenging to find on the north and nw side of the city. Its unfortunate that this is the case nowadays but I guess we can blame the generations before us for moving to barrington instead of staying in the working class neighborhoods of the west side. Maybe Austin would be a different place and barrington would still be forested. who knows.
homedelete,
Don’t blame the parents blame the courts. Ever since the Brown vs board of ed it effectively sealed the fate of the inner city public schools.
You, like so many people, are scared of being perceived as being politically incorrect. Why are you scared to walk by that public HS near your house? Surely its poor quality of education isn’t enough to induce fear in people all on its own.
Just as equally important if you lived in the N or NW burbs you wouldn’t have to worry about your childs safety or getting the crap beat out of them every day by THOSE PEOPLE. Lets face it: in all of their PC idealism the court never considered the unintended consequences of trying to mingle two fundamentally different population groups.
You use “quality of schools” as a proxy for your preference to not appear un-PC and to mollify people like kenworthey, I don’t. I guarantee you if you were to switch the student population of a failing school in the inner city with a thriving one in the suburbs that the inner city school would then be successful and the suburban one failing. Because “quality of school” has more to do with the “quality of the kids” than any other environmental factor. My suburban school from another city spent far less (~66% less) per capita on each student than the inner city schools across the state line. Yet the achievement levels for our school were mcuh higher. So much for achievement levels being environmental.
When I have children I want them to attend a school with many college bound students in an area where the drop out rate is low. Shurz doesn’t meet my criteria but Hersey and Prospect in Arl. Hts do. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I don’t know what it is, if its income, students quality, faculty, administration or any other number of socio-economic factors but I didn’t make the system I just have to live with it. And I’ll make the decision to abandon shurz and send my kids elsewhere.
Bob:
Schurz is 83% hispanic. So I guess you’re an anti-everybody.
Ah yes, who could forget that the “quality of kids” in Chicago is inferior to that of the suburbs…
…I really didn’t want to dignify that with a response, but quite frankly, anyone with a worldview that narrow can kindly stay in the suburbs so that Chicago can continue to be a worthwhile place to live.
312forever
“Juliana, do you still work in the Loop? how long does it take you to get to your work?”
I haven’t worked in the loop since my second child turned two, but it was under an hour one-way for me when I worked there. Our babysitter worked at our house so there was no morning drop-off to worry about.
If we knew we would be able to get my kids into good city schools, we might have stayed there, but it seemed to be difficult and expensive. As it turned out, we lived in unincorporated Lombard when we first moved and sent our kids to an expensive private school anyways, since we didn’t like our local elementary school. We made the move to Naperville when we realized it was where we could get most “bang for our buck” with property taxes/schools.
Dave,
There is a reason there are metal detectors in many CPS schools. It certainly has nothing to do with the quality of the instructors or the quality of the schoolbuilding acrhitecture. I suspect in your suburban school you were unfamiliar with such things. I think its safe to say with your naievity you wouldn’t last a year in CPS. Send your kids there and report back the results. You’d be in Schaumburg before people with my “narrow” view any day of the week. Go back to watching MTV now.
Also this tangent isn’t whether the city of Chicago is livable for you, its about families. And I think there are enough responses here to add credence that the city IS unlivable for families. They don’t want to connect the dots for fear of being rebuked by people like you, but I have no such fear. Your idealogy is based on non-sense David. There are a plethora of facts that show otherwise and unfortunately for you facts are neutral.
I wouldn’t know what they have in suburban schools; I was born and raised in Chicago as I frequently and proudly note here.
Take a ride through the East Side sometime, if you’re not too afraid of the current ethnic makeup of the neighborhood my family has lived in for the last century or so.
“I think there are enough responses here to add credence that the city IS unlivable for families.”
Some families macke a rational decision to move to the suburbs, some stay in the city after making a similar weighing of costs and benefits and coming to a different conclusion. The city is definitely unliveable for anyone who fears people with darker skin than themselves.
Where do you live, Bob?
I don’t want to live near people like you.
You’re taking somebody who wants to overturn Brown v. Board seriously? Just take his opinion about housing prices with a grain of salt in light of this new information.
JC it already is overturned de facto, if you believe anything else you’re eyes aren’t open to reality.
Jackpot I live in River North, but I’d bet you make your decision of residency more on demographics than paradigms. At the end of the day false threats mean little.
Let me break down some of the hidden jewels about this property that are not being discussed:
1. The house doesn’t appear to have BAD replacement windows or BAD storm windows from the 60’s-70’s. This alone makes the house incredibly attractive. Storm windows have come a long way, so if you want to install them you can do so and make them much more invisible than they used to be.
2. The stained glass appears to be mint and matching throughout the house.
3. The kitchen isn’t pictured probably because it isn’t worthy of photos. If the kitchen is as original as the rest of the house, it probably resembles the ultra high-end modern day / retro kitchens that people are trying to replicate (painted wood cabinets going up the the ceiling with nickle hardware ala Restoration Hardware). If it’s a dissaster from the 60’s/70’s, well then consider it an opportunity to do your own high end kitchen that actually matches the grandeur of the house (vs. buying the house with the cliche HomeDepot Cherry Kitchen that everyone else installed during the last decade). Either way, NOT paying for someone else’s BAD renovations is always an opportunity.
4. The A/C Issue: The lack of central a/c can be a great OPPORTUNITY to install a brand new, dual zone a/c system. One could potentially install the duct work for the 1st floor central a/c system UNDER the house. And then install the ductwork for the 2nd floor through the attic (or the crawl spaces along the roofline if the attic is a walk-up). Most central a/c systems in older homes are poorly designed, resulting in the problem of “hot upstairs / freezing downstairs.”
5. Painted woodwork is the rage right now. But the woodwork was probably painted over in the 30’s/40’s so if you ever wanted to expose the wood it’s probably very well preserved. (painting over woodwork was a 30’s/40’s fad) I would also bet that the painted over tiles around the fireplace are vintage Rookwood. (I’ve never removed paint from vintage tiles but I’m sure someone out there knows how to do it.)
6. The light fixtures are AMAZING and as a dealer of antique fixtures… …some of those fixtures are easily worth thousands on their own.
The fixture with the hanging glass amber shades with the matching singles… $5K-$10K easy for the entire set.
7. For old house fans, detached garages are a huge plus. The garage on this house looks like it could be expanded into a 3 car with potential for a 2nd floor suite / office / rental unit.
BOTTOM LINE #1: Whether or not you think the price is worth the price, I think a major component of the pricing is the rarity of a single family home with near mint detail and numerous opportunities to coustomize the space.
BOTTOM LINE #2: Big homes in the city that aren’t chopped up are increasingly rare and increasingly popular. What do you think this house will be worth in 15-20 years ???
The issue of “city house vs. suburban McMansion” is really a non-issue. The likely buyer of this house isn’t pondering whether or not to buy this house vs. a Toll Brothers home 40 miles from downtown.
I would bet the likely buyer isn’t even pondering this house vs. a home in Evanston or Wilmette.
Just Curious:
“This might be easily mistaken for America in general, but I’ve noticed that kids who were raised in the city don’t have this lack of responsibility when they reach adulthood. I pin it on the fact that Suburban kids got to leave their toys, bikes, etc. strewn all about the neighborhood, whereas city kids got their toys and bikes stolen by homeless people if they did that.”
There are plenty of “bad kids” at the big suburban schools too. My son had two calculators and a backpack stolen his first year of high school before he learned to watch his stuff. Now he’s in college at DePaul and travels back and forth between Lincoln Park and the Loop at all hours and has been able to adopt quite well, and hasn’t “lost” anything so far!
On a side note, if your kids can succeed in a Chicago Public High School (other than magnet), graduate near the top of his/her class, manage to get high ACT/SAT scores and maybe take a few college classes to fill in for the lack of choices at the local high school, it may pave their way to admission at an elite college. I think this would take an exceptional kid to rise above the norm in this way.
Getting straight A’s at Naperville North won’t even get you into the top 10% of your class unless you are taking AP classes and the homework load can be enormous in the enriched classes. Add a few activities and the stress level can get pretty bad for kids.
So its kind of a Catch-22 situation where going to school that prepares you better for college actually works against your being admitted to an elite one.
“Getting straight A’s at Naperville North won’t even get you into the top 10% of your class”
See, this is ridiculous. That sort of grade inflation doesn’t prepare anyone for anything except whining about grades.
“it may pave their way to admission at an elite college. I think this would take an exceptional kid to rise above the norm in this way.”
And that’s what the elite colleges are looking for, exceptional kids (along with legacy kids–a real issue many places), not kids that can get a 4.0 at a school where that’s a dime a dozen. You want your kid to go to Harvard (or similar)? Move to one of the Dakotas or Wyoming.
“There are plenty of “bad kids” at the big suburban schools too. My son had two calculators and a backpack stolen his first year of high school before he learned to watch his stuff. Now he’s in college at DePaul and travels back and forth between Lincoln Park and the Loop at all hours and has been able to adopt quite well, and hasn’t “lost” anything so far!”
So wait a second…did your son have things stolen in the suburbs only to find refuge in the safety of Lincoln Park? I’m confused….
This is why I like this blog (in addition to the RE bent).
From my perspective Nawtsil isn’t 100% wrong. I don’t know enough of JC’s subject matter to comment. But JC consider that the “bad kids” at your suburban school might be seeling drugs at worst. They’re not bringing guns to school. Theres a large difference there. And Nawtsil it doesn’t have to be this way.
I also agree with Julniana in that kids from CPS who reach adulthood aren’t oblivious to reality either non-collegiate or post-collegiate. This has been my observation in any case. Many of them are _quite successful_. I have never witnessed one not in tune with reality.
anon:
“See, this is ridiculous. That sort of grade inflation doesn’t prepare anyone for anything except whining about grades.”
I don’t know if this is grade inflation…its just that from the time you start high school you can take 3 or more accelerated classes that are usually very difficult to get an A in. Those weighted classes make the top grade point averages of the best students closer to 5.0 than 4.0. The Asian kids seem to raise the bar, probably by being willing to put in the extra work. The results are there too, so again, its not really grade inflation. Naperville North’s math team, for example, were Illinois state champions 13 of the last 14 years. There are just so many really good students there that the competition is pretty fierce.
I do wish there were some partially weighted classes though that were somewhere between the difficulty of the weighted and the regular classes. My kids should be taking the more difficult classes to prepare themselves for college, but five hours of homework per night is just ridiculous.
Just Curious:
“So wait a second…did your son have things stolen in the suburbs only to find refuge in the safety of Lincoln Park? I’m confused….”
No,after graduating from Naperville North, he is in college at DePaul. My point was that after going to a big suburban school he had acquired some “street smarts” which you seemed to imply that suburban kids lack. Granted he doesnt’t stray far from Lincoln Park and the loop campus, but even in those environments one needs to be aware, especially after dark.
Just noticed that the price on this house dropped to $995,000. I understand that there significant tax breaks for investing in renovation of a landmark house like this, which could make it more attractive. Anyone know how that works?
Beautiful home that appears relatively if not quite completely intact with no “befuddling” by the 1970s + hackers. If the structure is sound the question becomes one of how livable before and then planning some upgrading. Does the plunbing need to be re-done, wiring and of course central air? The home is approaching that time frame. These re-dos are quite expensive and that with cosmetic modifications will add several hundred thousand at the least. 900K to 1 mil is a lot but then rarely does one find such a beautiful and gracious home. This would be a home to interest me i.e. not paying for someone’s bad taste.