Living the Vintage Dream in the Middle of Lincoln Park: A 2-Bedroom at 1024 W. Armitage
This top floor 2-bedroom at 1024 W. Armitage in Lincoln Park just came on the market.
The building was built in 1890 and has 5 units.
This unit has south and west exposures from 17 windows.
The listing says it had a total kitchen renovation in 2013 with Carrera marble counter tops, white cabinets, a farmhouse sink, a thermodor wine column and Subzero, Wolf and Bosch appliances.
It has a private rooftop deck with surround sound and city views.
The unit has exposed brick walls and a wood burning fireplace.
Even though it’s vintage, it has the features buyers look for today including canned ceiling lights, central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking.
It is surrounded by restaurants and stores on Armitage and just a few steps from the Armitage El stop.
Is this the property that vintage lovers dream about?
Patrick Flickinger at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #4: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed
- Sold in April 2000 for $390,000
- Sold in January 2005 for $527,000
- Sold in July 2010 for $605,000
- Currently listed for $779,000 (includes garage parking)
- Assessments of $396 a month (includes exterior maintenance, scavenger)
- Taxes of $10,452
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- Wood burning fireplace
- Private rooftop deck
- Bedroom #1: 17×14
- Bedroom #2: 14×11
What makes this property the dream is its perfect GZ-within-the-GZ location. This is the center of the yuppie safety zone bubble (not pricing, but location) steps from shops on Halsted etc.
The buyer will be a young girl/guy or couple who will soon get married within 3-4 years and then sell. Just look at the crib and the fat Range Rover. The Range Rover is a sure-fire sign the couple is moving to the suburbs.
The finishes are updated so its just waiting for the right buyers. The buyers of this place will eventually end up in a $2.0+ million suburban home. It’s for 29 year olds with family money, who like safety, wouldn’t ever bother with Sucktown. Maybe also someone with a Midwest transplant mentality where they don’t have the time or inclination to become gritty Chicago lovers. I see this as a Miami of Ohio-grad special, with family money kicking in part of the purchase, and the grads having jobs in finance. The woman is living the feminist dream slaving away in her cubcible downtown, but she’ll toss out that crappy life choice once the kids arrive.
So, just find the right buyer and it will sell.
The family money in Chicago does drive up the cost of living. I know of couples that got wedding gifts in the mid-six figures to buy the $1,000,000 SFH right after marriage. Downpayments of family money is quite common for upper-middle class professionals. I have relatives who live in condos owned, financed or partially paid for by family money. it’s quite common in the GZ neighborhoods but quickly fades away outside of the GZ where the common people live.
Factor in bonuses, high salaries and stock options for the downtown professional and the competition, and prices, for the late 20’s early 30’s something professional for real estate is fierce.
We need anon(tfo) to sharpen her pencil and figure out whether all of this added-value or was ultimately a net negative investment, given the last purchase and current ask:
“17 windows replaced in 2014, total kitchen renovation in 2013, new rooftop deck in 2011, new furnace 2011, new A/C 2012. fireplace w/ rebuilt mantle. Kitchen features Italian Carrera marble counter tops, white cabinets, Thermodor wine column, Subzero glass fridge, Wolf over, Wolf range, Bosch d/w, farmhouse sink. Solid core doors throughout, rebuilt entry staircase as well as a rebuilt staircase leading to the rooftop deck. closet feature custom drawers/organizers”
Will they get their money back?
This place screams MBA from Michigan or Notre Dame, age 32, recently married to Rachel or perhaps even a Katie from the Northern burbs… lol
but yah probably works in finance
I only see rovers in the city to be honest, maybe i’m just traversing the wrong suburbs!
Yeah, the couple probably belongs to a health club, the guy probably is a narcissist “triathlete”, the girl does “yoga” but they cannot deal with the stairs here in Unit #4. I guess with a child they do have a legit excuse.
Has this site turned into the let’s play the stereotype game? or the let’s assume couples are using their “family money” if the condo costs 500K+ and it’s in LP.
A dual MBA income is pretty common nowadays…
Boy, you guys are a bunch of hatin’ generalizers. I’d love to own this place, wish I had the scratch. Love it, love the location.
“Will they get their money back?”
As un-optimistic as I am about the real costs of reno in Chicago, I doubt that that work cost them $160,000.
” yah probably works in finance”
Doctor.
Sort of in east Bucktown, but nice reno and nice deck.
So this is owned by a 29-32 year old doctor from Miami University (Miami of Ohio doesn’t exist) whose parents paid the down payment and they can afford this mortgage one year out of residency?
“a doctor”
Isn’t it comforting to know the doctor analyzing your parents’ health is simultaneously concerned with how he’s going to buy his next $5000 couch? Lol.
Don’t laugh so much. I never lie. I will never forget the time I had a family member who had a fatal brain hemorrhage, and the doctor (Evanston Hospital) was explaining the hopelessness of the situation across the table… and the D-bag was wearing a Cartier tank watch.
“Sort of in east Bucktown,”
Huh? What’s in “east Bucktown”? Certainly not this vintage unit.
Right. The 606 is all new-ish construction.
2005 price says it all. This part of town isn’t any more gentrified than it was back then. This is just a Chad & Trixie looking for a greater fool C&T couple to come give them a gift of 180k.
doctors, as a profession in general, are absolutely horrible with money and finances. this is not an opinion but fact. I believe it’s part of the reason why medicine is so expensive – physicians order tests and procedures without regard to cost or patient ability to pay, and then get indignant or annoyed when told that one’s insurance deductible hadn’t been meet so scale back the diagnostics. most doctors these days marry other doctors or other professionals, and the echo chamber that is the office break room only serves to reinforce their financial lack of awareness.
I have found that Doctors are more likely to be DIY investors too, I am sure there are a few success stories there but you are right most are not doing the best they can in the money department.
Basically they think they’re smarter than everyone and are kind of jerks. Then again if I had to deal with the masses like some of these guys do I’d probably be a jerk too.
“Is this the property that vintage lovers dream about?”
I would guess that “vintage lovers dream about” properties that have vintage interiors, but I could be wrong.
Or they could just be a hard working couple who made good financial decisions, but sure let’s play the guessing game. This is why crib chatter sucks.