Crib Chatter

This 3-bedroom in 1414 N. Wells in Old Town recently came on the market.

This building was constructed in 1995.

It has 51 units and a heated parking garage but it is not a full service building. There’s no doorman.

This is a penthouse unit with south facing windows.

It has been renovated in the last decade and sports crown molding and wainscoting.

The  kitchen has white cabinets, Subzero and Viking appliances, along with a Subzero wine fridge, and a huge kitchen island with marble counter tops.

The master bathroom has a skylight. There’s also a custom walk-in closet.

The third bedroom has French doors with millwork and a custom workstation.

This unit has a rare side-by-side washer/dryer.

There are two private 9×12 terraces as well as central air.

It also has 2 heated garage parking spaces for $80,000 extra.

Listed at $1.795 million, I thought this might be the “Johnny Depp” unit we chattered about in 2008 as that unit was also listed over $1 million.

But that was Unit #502. You can see that chatter, and pictures, here.

That leaves this unit as one of the most expensive ever listed in the building.

Old Town has always been hot, even during the housing bust.

But is it a neighborhood where 3-bedroom condos sell for over $1.8 million?

Emily Smart Le Mire at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #607: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage listed

• Sold in July 1996 for $465,000 (2 parking spaces included)
• Sold in March 2006 for $915,000 (2 parking spaces included)
• Sold in November 2010 for $925,000 (2 parking spaces included)
• Currently listed for $1.795 million (2 parking spaces are $80,000 extra)
• Assessments of $1072 a month (includes cable, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
• Taxes of $17,471
• Central Air
• Side-by-side washer/dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 16×15
• Bedroom #2: 13×12
• Bedroom #3: 13×10
• Foyer: 16×14
• Walk-in-closet: 11×10

Winter has held on in Chicago as March home sales took a tumble (the above picture is from spring 2012).

From the Illinois Association of Realtors:

The city of Chicago saw year-over-year home sales decline 10.1 percent with 2,290 sales in March, compared to 2,546 a year ago. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in March 2018 was $314,000, up 6.4 percent compared to March 2017 when it was $295,000.

Historic data courtesy of G:

City of Chicago condo/TH/SFH closed totals March
year/closed/median/% REO-Short Sales
Year Closed Median %REO/SS
1997 1,226 $126,875
1998 1,540 $137,003
1999 1,766 $152,125
2000 1,793 $167,500
2001 1,800 $195,000
2002 2,112 $210,000
2003 2,261 $225,000
2004 2,772 $244,950
2005 2,822 $271,125
2006 3,000 $275,862
2007 2,399 $285,000
2008 2,098 $300,000
2009 1,219 $217,000 37%
2010 1,860 $207,750 38%
2011 1,481 $163,763 49%
2012 1,630 $170,500 44%
2013 1,894 $187,500
2014 1,875 $235,000
2015 2,173 $260,000
2016 2,149 $269,000
2017 2,546 $295,000
2018 2290 $314,000

While sales saw their largest year-over-year drop since 2014, it was the highest median price in the last 20 years.

“Limited supply and high demand took center stage for the start of the Chicago spring housing market,” said Rebecca Thomson, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and principal of Thomson Real Estate Group. “While the number of closed sales slowed in tandem with the inventory crunch, the rise in median sales price and reduction of time it takes for a home to sell on average, points to competition for well-priced homes in good condition.”

“Nationally, the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose, driven primarily by a sizable increase in the net share of consumers who think it’s a good time to buy a home,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) at the University of Illinois.

Before you blame rising mortgage rates for the sales slowdown, the mortgage rates really weren’t much higher in the month.

The average 30-year was 4.44% up from 4.33% in February and 4.2% in March 2017.

I still believe we need to see rates over 5% before they really hit the housing market.

Then what explains the lower home sales in a month that has historically signaled the start of the spring housing market?

Could the extended cold winter have put a damper on buyers?

Or is the near record low inventory really starting to hinder the housing market?

Recent housing market trends continue in March with higher home prices and slower home sales (Illinois Association of Realtors, Press Release, April 23, 2018)

This 1-bedroom loft in the Newport Lofts at 1122 W. Newport in Southport recently came on the market.

Newport Lofts is an industrial building with 23 units, a parking garage, and exterior parking which was converted into condos in 1989.

This top floor corner unit has 2 walls of windows, a wood burning fireplace, exposed brick walls and 14 foot timber ceilings.

The kitchen has cherry cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

If you like outdoor space, this loft has a large private deck off the living room with views of Wrigley Field in the distance. It’s large enough to fit a table and chairs although the listing doesn’t provide the dimensions.

The loft also has the features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and a parking space, which appears to be an exterior spot.

The building has a common roof top deck and a bike room.

However, there are no dogs allowed.

Originally listed at $325,000, it reduced to $310,000 within a week.

With new apartments set to start renting soon across the street from Wrigley Field at well over $2,000 a month, does buying a loft like this in the neighborhood make more sense?

Jill Peet Saponaro at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #3H: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1000 square feet

• Sold in April 1989 for $117,000
• Sold in June 1991 for $128,000
• Sold in May 2001 for $256,000
• Sold in July 2004 for $278,500
• Sold in March 2013 for $242,500
• Originally listed in April 2018 for $325,000
• Reduced
• Currently listed at $310,000 (parking included)
• Assessments of $173 a month (includes exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger)
• Taxes of $3443
• Central Air
• Washer/dryer in the unit
• No dogs allowed
• Wood burning fireplace
• Bedroom #1: 13×11
• Living room: 16×18

This 3-bedroom in 9 W. Walton in the Gold Coast just came on the market.

If you recall, this is a luxury new construction luxury building with 66 units.

It’s the building in which Citadel CEO Ken Griffith recently bought several units, including the penthouse.

The building has been popular with buyers and is basically sold out.

With this unit coming on the market, this is the first look we’ve had at “real” photos of the interiors (i.e. not computer generated by the developer.)

It has European oak hardwood floors and custom crown molding throughout.

The kitchen has O’Brian Harris cabinets and luxury appliances by Subzero and Wolf.

The master suite has a spa bath with heated floors and a Victoria Albert slipper tub.

Each unit has a large, recessed heated terrace.

It has central air, a separate 7×7 laundry room and 2-car parking is included.

The building has an exercise room and an indoor pool.

This unit closed this week and came back on the market the next day.

According to Redfin, it has come back on the market for $665,000 more than the original closing price, at $3.9 million.

Is demand so strong that it will get the premium?

Melinda Jakovich at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #903: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3172 square feet

• Sold in April 2018 for $3.235 million (according to Redfin)
• Currently listed for $3.9 million (includes 2 car parking)
• Assessments of $1978 a month (includes heat, a/c, gas, doorman, exercise room, indoor pool, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger and snow removal)
• Taxes are “new”
• Central Air
• Washer/dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 16×14
• Bedroom #2: 13×13
• Bedroom #3: 15×13
• Terrace: 29×12 (heated)
• Library: 14×14
• Laundry room: 7×7

This 1-bedroom duplex up in the Ontario Street Lofts at 411 W. Ontario in River North just came on the market.

If this loft looks familiar, that’s because we chattered about it in October 2015 when the listing called it a “White Palace” because the interiors were mostly completely white except for the timber ceilings and wood floors.

See our chatter here.

If you recall, this is a first floor street level loft with 12 foot ceilings that faces north (away from the highway on ramp.)

The kitchen has European style white cabinets with white counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

There’s a powder room and walk-in pantry on the first floor.

You ascend a white staircase to reach the second floor which has the master suite.

There’s a full bath with a Japanese soaking tub.

This loft has the features buyers look for including washer/dryer in the unit, central air and deeded parking.

Is the white motif still a selling point 3 years later?

Mirosanda Despotovic at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #101: 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, duplex up, no square footage listed

• Sold in June 1995 for $145,000
• Sold in June 1999 for $200,000
• Sold in December 2007 for $285,000
• Originally listed in April 2015 for $399,000
• Sold in November 2015 for $327,500
• Currently listed for $379,000 (parking included)
• Assessments are now $520 a month (they were $445 a month in 2015) (includes water, parking, doorman, cable)
• Taxes of $5317 (they were $4179 in 2015)
• Central Air
• Washer/Dryer in the unit
• Bedroom: 18×12 (second floor)

This 3-bedroom in the Pencil Factory Lofts at 1800 W. Roscoe in Roscoe Village just came on the market.

Recently, we had been chattering about the West Lakeview and Roscoe Village neighborhoods and how they went from middle class to luxury since the 1990s.

On the Roscoe Village Neighborhood web site, it lists the conversion of the Pencil Factory into lofts as the start of the turnaround in the neighborhood.

The building was turned into loft condos in 1994 and many of the original features were kept intact, including the spectacular industrial factory windows that face south and exposed brick.

This unit has 3 exposures, south, east and west and is a southeast corner unit.

It has concrete ceilings and hardwood floors throughout.

The kitchen has maple cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances with a breakfast bar.

This loft has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and heated garage parking is included.

The Pencil Factory has a part-time doorman and an exercise room along with a rooftop deck.

At $499,900, is this a deal for a 3-bedroom unit in this hot and trendy neighborhood?

Joe Zimmerman at Keller Williams Lincoln Park has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.

Unit #313: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, no square footage

• Sold in July 1994 for $185,000
• Sold in February 1997 for $229,500
• Sold in February 1999 for $240,000
• Sold in June 2009 for $420,000
• Sold in November 2015 for $445,000
• Currently listed for $499,900 (includes the garage parking)
• Assessments of $578 a month (includes doorman, exercise room, exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger and snow removal)
• Taxes of $7721
• Central Air
• Washer/dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 17×14
• Bedroom #2: 13×21
• Bedroom #3: 12×13
• Foyer: 13×6

[Golub & Co and CIM Group rendering]

Since the Tribune Tower, and the adjacent lot were sold, the Chicago design community has been waiting for an announcement on the plans for the prominent Michigan Avenue/Streeterville site.

Yesterday, Golub & Company and CIM Group, announced their plans for the site at a community meeting which was meant to encourage enthusiasm and answer concerns of those living in the neighborhood.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Historic Tribune Tower with the WGN building will be 163 condos and ground floor retail. Occupation of Tribune Tower is expected as soon as 2020.
• The new tower would be 1422 feet tall and will be built on the adjacent empty lot. It would have 200 hotel rooms, 439 apartments and 125 condos. Construction wouldn’t begin until the end of 2019.

The new tower would be the second tallest building in the city, residential or otherwise.

This is a $1 billion project.

And the price points for condo units are higher than most people in Chicago could ever hope to pay at over $1,000 per square feet.

It also sounds like they will be sized as family homes, averaging, for example, 3,000 square feet in the historic tower.

From the Tribune:

As the saga of the unbuilt Chicago Spire shows, it is easier to announce plans for a supertall skyscraper than to finance and build one. Complicating matters for Golub and CIM Group, other developers already have mega-towers underway or approved, most notably the 1,191-foot Vista Tower, a hotel and condominium high-rise under construction across the Chicago River from the Tribune site.

The bigger question, nearly a decade into the city’s post-recession real estate boom, is whether the expansion will still have steam more than a year from now, when the new tower is scheduled to start construction.

Undeterred by the risks, Golub cited the project’s unique location, expressing hope it would lure international buyers.

“We are on Michigan Avenue. We are on the river. We are in the center of everything here,” he said.

Condos in both buildings would sell at prices at or near the top of the Chicago market — more than $1,000 a square foot, Golub predicted. With condos in the new building and Tribune Tower expected to average 3,000 square feet and 2,700 square feet, respectively, that means many condominiums would fetch prices in excess of $3 million.

Not only would the very richest in Chicago, and from around the world, call these buildings home, but many of the public spaces in the historic Tribune Tower will also probably be restricted.

It has yet to be determined how much access tourists and architecture buffs would have to the ornate, high-ceilinged Tribune Tower lobby, which has official landmark protection. Golub said a compromise will have to be reached regarding which hours, if any, the lobby would be open to visitors.

The 25th-floor outdoor space beneath Tribune Tower’s flying buttresses, once an observatory open to the public and now a private event space called The Crown, will become an outdoor amenity area for residents.

The location of some of the roughly 150 fragments of famous buildings and historic sites from around the world that are embedded in Tribune Tower’s base could be shifted to accommodate the new ground-floor retail space.

These are boom times. The stock market is near record highs.

There are several hundred luxury condos already going up from One Bennett Place, the Vista and 1000 S. Michigan which is about to break ground.

But is this building coming too late in the boom cycle?

Is it doomed if a recession hits?

Or will it sell out the historic structure, but never make it to building the new tower on the empty lot?

When Trump Tower was built, it was considered an A building at a B location.

Has the perception of south Michigan Avenue and the River completely changed in the last 10 years?

Developers plan city’s second tallest skyscraper next to the new Tribune Tower condos [Chicago Tribune, by Blair Kamin and Ryan Ori, April 16, 2018]

This 4-bedroom townhouse at 1909 W. Grace in North Center recently came on the market.

At 2400 square feet, it’s an end unit with no neighbors to the west.

That means it has 3 walls of windows whereas most townhouses have only two.

The first floor has a bedroom and the listing says, the living room, along with a fireplace and a full bath.

The second floor has the family room, and a second fireplace, along with a dining room and the kitchen.

The kitchen has maple cabinets, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

The third level has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, including a master suite whose bathroom has dual vanities.

The fourth level has the fourth bedroom, but it overlooks the master bedroom below.

There are 3 outdoor spaces including a large roof deck.

The listing says there was a new roof in 2017. There’s also dual zone HVAC.

The townhouse has central air and oak hardwood floors throughout.

There’s also 1-car garage parking.

This is a fee simple townhouse. There are no assessments.

The townhouse is in the coveted Bell school district and there’s a popular Trader Joe’s nearly across the street, on Lincoln.

Priced at $760,000, is this a deal for the location?

Paul Barker at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures and the floor plan here.

Unit #1909: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2400 square feet

• I can’t find it’s last sales as the CCRD was down over the weekend (again).
• Was listed in October and November of 2017
• Re-listed in April 2018 for $760,000
• No assessments- fee simple
• Taxes of $11,945
• Central Air
• 1-car garage
• Bedroom #1: 18×13 (third floor)
• Bedroom #2: 14×14 (main floor)
• Bedroom #3: 15×10 (second floor)
• Bedroom #4: 12×10 (fourth floor)
• Living room: 19×19 (main floor)
• Family room: 19×12 (second floor)

This 2-bedroom in the Concord Flats at 2144 W. Concord in Bucktown recently came on the market.

This building was built in 1912 and has 8 units.

It’s a “G” unit, which means it’s a garden unit, but the listing says it’s “only” 3 steps down.

It has south and west exposures.

There’s hardwood floors in the main living areas, exposed brick and crown molding.

The kitchen has wood cabinets, stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops with a tile backsplash.

There’s a full pantry.

The bathroom has a heated floor.

The unit also has 8 foot doors and canned lighting.

It has most of the features buyers look for, including central air and washer/dryer in the unit. However, there’s no deeded parking. It’s on-street only.

This unit is just 2 blocks from the Damen blue line stop and all the hot restaurants of Bucktown and Wicker Park.

Is this a good starter apartment for someone looking to buy their first place in this neighborhood?

Jill Silverstein at Dream Town has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #G: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed

• Sold in August 2007 for $280,000
• Sold in November 2009 for $280,000
• Currently listed for $315,000
• Assessments of $184 a month (includes exterior maintenance, scavenger, and snow removal)
• Taxes of $5607
• Central Air
• Washer/dryer in the unit
• No parking- on street permit parking only
• Bedroom #1: 12×11
• Bedroom #2: 10×10
• Living room: 18×13
• Kitchen: 11×10

This 2-bedroom duplex in a converted church at 3101 N. Seminary in Lakeview came on the market in July 2016.

It has been on and off the market since then.

This is a penthouse unit in the church steeple with 20 foot high cathedral vaulted ceilings.

It has exposed beams and brick along with unique church windows.

There are skylights with switch-operated windows.

The listing describes the kitchen as “gourmet” with gray cabinets, black granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances and a breakfast bar.

The unit has a 25×7 terrace off the family room.

There’s a master suite on the first floor along with a second bedroom and a 20×6 storage closet.

The second floor has a lofted office that overlooks the living room.

It has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking.

Built in 1887, this church has just 5 units.

I can’t determine if the building has an elevator.

Originally listed in 2016 for $925,000 it was reduced to $799,000 in September 2017 but has come back on the market listed 6% higher, at $847,500.

Why isn’t this unique condo selling?

Marissa Schaefer at Baird & Warner has the listing. See the pictures and the floor plan here.

Unit #D: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2400 square feet, duplex

• Sold in April 2002 for $684,000
• Sold in December 2004 for $724,500
• Sold in April 2013 for $770,000
• Originally listed in July 2016 for $925,000
• Reduced
• Listed in September 2017 for $799,000
• Raised
• Currently listed at $847,500 (includes parking space)
• Assessments of $632 a month (includes exterior maintenance, lawn care, scavenger, snow removal)
• Taxes of $14,597
• Central Air
• Washer/dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 18×11 (main level)
• Bedroom #2: 15×11 (main level)
• Family room: 24×15 (main level)
• Office: 14×17 (second floor)