Crib Chatter

This 2-bedroom loft in 1421 S. Wabash in the South Loop just came on the market.

It has 15 foot ceilings and exposed brick walls along with 3 exposures: north, west and south.

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

The loft has a front balcony as well as an enclosed back porch.

It comes with the features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and a heated garage space.

This loft is in the heart of the South Loop, just blocks from the Trader Joes, the Roosevelt Collection shopping and the Roosevelt El stop.

This is a small, 5 unit building. Units rarely come on the market.

This unit hasn’t been for sale in 12 years.

Will this sell fast?

Lauren Schuh at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #3W: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1506 square feet

• Sold in August 1999 for $251,000
• Sold in November 2005 for $400,000
• Currently listed for $514,900 (includes heated garage parking)
• Assessments of $244 a month
• Taxes of $7691
• Central Air
• Washer/Dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 11×18
• Bedroom #2: 10×12
• Enclosed porch: 13×10

This 3-bedroom 2-flat at 1748 W. Cortland in Bucktown recently came on the market.

We chattered about this home the last time it was on the market and debated who the buyer would be of this kind of set-up. You can see our December 2011 chatter here.

Built in 1890, the old listing said it was custom built by renowned architect Joe Valerio.

The property, on a 24×125 lot, has a modern interior including a 2-story living room with a lofted bedroom.

The kitchen has white cabinets, white appliances and zinc counter tops.

There is a third floor master suite.

It also has a ground floor 1-bedroom rental with 11 foot ceilings and a kitchen.

The current listing says a door can be added to connect it to the main house.

The master bedroom is on the third floor with the second bedroom and a family room on the second level.

It has central air and a 2-car garage.

The listing says it’s in the Pulaski school district and it’s just a block to the 606.

This house took several years to sell the last time we chattered about it but the rental market has skyrocketed since then.

Will the fact that it has the 1-bedroom attached rental be a positive or a negative this time around?

There’s a floor plan listed this time around. If you can figure it out, please inform us.

Leigh Marcus at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.

1748 W. Cortland: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2264 square feet, 2 car garage

• Sold in March 1995 for $93,000
• Lis pendens foreclosure filed in June 2010
• Originally listed in July 2010 for $825,000
• Reduced
• Was listed in December 2011 at $799,000
• Sold in January 2014 for $775,000 (according to Redfin because the CCRD is down AGAIN.)
• Currently listed for $830,000
• Also has a 1/1 rental on the first floor. The listing doesn’t indicate how much it rents for.
• Taxes are now $9653 (they were $7563 in 2011)
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 18×13 (third floor)
• Bedroom #2: 15×14 (main floor)
• Bedroom #3: 16×15 (second floor)
• Second kitchen: 11×6

This 3-bedroom loft in the Gaertner Building at 1201 W. Wrightwood in Lincoln Park just came on the market.

If it looks familiar, that’s because we last chattered about it in February 2013. See our chatter here.

It’s a rare 3-bedroom loft and we debated whether you could raise your kids there with Clio arguing that most couples that had kids would eventually move to the suburbs.

If you recall, it has authentic loft features including exposed brick and large industrial windows with tall ceilings.

The loft has a private tiered deck and the bedrooms are enclosed, so there is more privacy than you might find in some lofts.

The kitchen has been renovated since 2013 and now has modern gray cabinets, a large island, quartz counter tops, stainless steel appliances and a glass backsplash.

It has the features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and highly coveted 2-car parking.

The loft is in the Oscar Mayer school district and there’s a Starbucks directly across the street.

This property last sold less than 4 years ago.

Do lofts have faster turnover than other condos?

Melanie Giglio at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #7: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, no square footage listed, 2 car parking

• Sold in August 2001 for $504,500
• Sold in September 2003 for $550,000
• Sold in August 2005 (messed up price in the ccrd)
• Sold in June 2008 for $780,000
• Originally listed in November 2012 for $699,000
• Sold in May 2013 for $653,000
• Currently listed at $799,900 (includes 2-car garage parking)
• Assessments are now $486 a month (they were $427 a month in February 2013)- it includes exterior maintenance, scavenger, and snow removal
• Taxes are now $9099 (they were $9213 in 2013)
• Bedroom #1: 19×12
• Bedroom #2: 13×10
• Bedroom #3: 11×11

This 3-bedroom brick single family home at 3408 N. Bosworth in Southport just came on the market.

But long time readers will recognize it because we’ve chattered about it 4 times since it first came on the market in 2010.

See the October 2010 chatter here where we had a spirited discussion about how close, and at what price, you could live near the El tracks.

See the March 2013 chatter here as it came back on the market.

See the May 2013 chatter here after the price was reduced.

We also chattered about it after it came on the market as a rental in June 2013. See that here.

The house also came back on the market in February 2016 and was withdrawn in August. I didn’t bother to crib about it last year.

But here it is again so how can I resist?

Built in 1877, it still has one stained glass window and a some original woodwork.

It’s on a standard 25×125 lot with a 2-car garage and has central air.

The new listing says it has a “completely remodeled pass through kitchen” with a Viking stove and Jenn-Air appliances with white cabinets.

There’s an unfinished basement which apparently has a “working toilet”.

The two bedrooms are on the second floor and there’s a third “bedroom” or, as the listing says, a den, on the main floor.

The listing notes that it’s near Southport shops, the new, huge Whole Foods on Ashland/Belmont and is a “7 minute walk from Wrigley Field.”

It has come back on the market at the lowest listing price of the last 7 years: at $475,000.

What’s the catch?

As we have chattered about before, the elevated Brown Line tracks run right next to the house.

The listing doesn’t try and hide it as it says: “Please note the proximity to the Brown Line eL.”

But every property sells eventually.

Is the price now low enough to make the El tracks less of an issue?

John Gault at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures here.

Or go to the open house this weekend and judge the El for yourself. It will be open on Saturday, January 7 from 12PM to 2PM and on Sunday, January 8 from 1PM to 3PM.

3408 N. Bosworth: 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, no square footage listed, 2 car garage

• Sold in February 1996 for $132,000
• Sold in February 1997 for $170,000
• Sold in June 2002 for $428,000
• Sold in July 2005 for $569,000
• Originally listed in April 2010 for $749,000
• Withdrawn
• Listed as a rental in June 2013
• Re-listed in February 2016 for $500,000
• Withdrawn in August 2016 still listed at $500,000
• Currently listed for $475,000
• Taxes are now $10,358 (they were $8523 in October 2010)
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 15×14 (second floor)
• Bedroom #2: 14×10 (second floor)
• Bedroom #3: 11×13 (old listing says it was 11×8) (main floor)
• Living room: 23×12
• Dining room: 12×12
• Kitchen: 16×9
• Mudroom: 9×6
• Unfinished basement with a toilet

This large 1-bedroom in The Residences on Lakeshore Park at 840 N. Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast (or is this Streeterville? I never know in this location) came on the market in November 2016.

At 1800 square feet, it faces south and has a full sized dining room and half bath along with a 15×7 foyer.

It also has a 6×12 south facing terrace with gas and electricity.

The kitchen has white cabinets and granite counter tops along with stainless steel appliances.

It has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and parking is included in the price.

The unit also has a unique feature in that there is wine storage in the building included.

These large 1-bedroom units in this building are rare.

We chattered about one of the others, Unit #202, back in 2011. You can see that chatter here.

That unit finally sold in 2012 after a reduction for $790,000.

Unit #302 is listed for $989,000 but the market is much different for luxury today than it was in 2011-2012.

Will they get nearly a million dollars for this 1-bedroom?

Nancy Nugent at Jameson Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.

Unit #302: 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, 1800 square feet

• There is no prior sales price info (and the CCRD is down again. No one must be working in 2017)
• Originally listed in November 2016 for $989,000 (includes the parking space)
• Currently still listed for $989,000
• Assessments of $1566 a month (includes gas, doorman, cable, exercise room, exterior maintenance, lawn service, scavenger and snow removal- as well as wine storage)
• Taxes of $9245
• Central Air
• Washer/Dryer in the unit
• Bedroom: 12×12
• Dining room: 14×13
• Walk-in closet: 12×5
• Foyer: 15×7
• Terrace: 6×12

This 4-bedroom single family home at 7237 S. South Shore in the South Shore neighborhood came on the market in December 2016.

If it looks familiar, that’s because we’ve chattered about it several times in the past including in 2009 and 2011.

You can see the 2011 chatter here.

Check out the original interior pictures, with the appliances, here.

Thanks to the perceptive Crib Chatter reader who noticed and alerted me that it was bank owned and back on the market.

Built in 1903, the brick house is on a larger than normal 50×300 lot with 2 PIN numbers, one of which extends all the way to the Lake.

It is a rare property as there are only about 2 dozen single family homes in the city of Chicago with private lake access.

It has central air and, as of 2011, an unfinished basement.

From the pictures, it appears that the kitchen cabinets are intact but the appliances are missing.

One problem with being directly on the lake, as you can see from the current listing pictures, is, where do you put the garbage cans? They are all lined up in front of the house.

This house is just south of the famed South Shore Cultural Center, which was built in 1916 and is on the National Historic Register and has Chicago landmark status.

It still has a 9-hole golf course and is the site of many wedding receptions, including that of President and Mrs. Obama.

This home has been listed of and on since June 2009.

The bank has listed it for $580,000 or about half of what it sold for in 2007.

Is it finally priced to sell?

Mark Weiss at Mark Weiss Real Estate has the listing. See the pictures here.

7237 S. South Shore Drive: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2587 square feet, 3 driveway parking spaces

• Sold in 1995 (no sales info available)
• Sold in October 2007 for $1.2 million
• Was listed in June 2009 for $1.5 million
• Was listed in January 2010 for $1.5 million
• Reduced
• Was listed in February 2011 for $1.39 million
• Reduced
• Was listed in March 2015 for $994,000
• Withdrawn
• Currently “bank owned” and listed at $580,000
• Taxes now $12,760 (they were $7113 in February 2011)
• Central Air
• Full unfinished basement
• Bedroom #1: 17×13
• Bedroom #2: 10×10
• Bedroom #3: 12×12
• Bedroom #4: 15×12

The last time we chattered about rising mortgage rates it was 2013 and 2014.

But then mortgage rates dropped again in 2015 and were a non-issue until the November election, which saw a quick spike higher.

Suddenly, the average 30-year mortgage rate is sitting at 2-year highs around 4.3%.

Many buyers were caught off guard, but those actually looking should have had their mortgage rate locked in.

From the Washington Post:

Several sources of data suggest that buyers are paying more attention to the threat of higher rates. The number of mortgage applications submitted this fall was about 20 percent higher compared with the same period a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry group. That could reflect the fact that more people are looking to buy even after the busy summer season. The number of home tours requested in October by users of the real estate Web site Redfin increased 34 percent compared with the same time last year.

But while some are moving more quickly to buy, others are feeling as though an opportunity may have passed.

Kradak Thomas, a 43-year-old chemist living in Potomac, Md., said he and his wife had recently considered moving their family to Virginia for a shorter commute. But moving from their home, where they have been for seven years, would have meant giving up a 3.25 percent mortgage rate.

The higher rates now mean they would need to find into a less expensive, potentially smaller home in order to keep their monthly mortgage payment about the same. So they have decided to stay put.

Heading into early 2017, those locks should either turn into actual sales or many buyers will have higher mortgage rates by January and February.

Here’s the history of January and February sales in Chicago since 2013 with the corresponding average 30-year fixed mortgage rate (as per the Illinois Association of Realtors):

January:

• 2013: 1521 sales – rate of 3.4%
• 2014: 1383 sales – rate of 4.46%
• 2015: 1348 sales – rate of 3.6%
• 2016: 1363 sales – rate of 3.87%

February:

• 2013: 1411- rate of 3.49%
• 2014: 1361 – rate of 4.32%
• 2015: 1497 – rate of 3.68%
• 2016: 1528 – rate of 3.6%

February 2014 was the polar vortex and near record winter snowfall winter. Was it the weather or the higher mortgage rates that caused the February slowdown that month? No way of knowing.

At what level do rising mortgage rates matter to sales?

Is it 4.5%?

5%?

5.5%?

6%?

Never?

And will it matter if salaries/incomes are also rising at the same time?

Or will mortgage rates retreat back into the 3s once again in 2017 making this recent spike nothing but an anomaly?

We’ve chattered several times this year about the thousands of new apartments, many of them “luxury” that are being built all over Chicago.

Normally, this would be a good sign that the Chicago economy was strong and jobs were being created.

But the number of new apartments is well above current absorption rates while rents continue to rise.

In Logan Square, for instance, according to Curbed, there are 1500 apartments planned.

See more details here.

We know that “downtown” there are thousands of apartments under construction or soon-to-be under construction. Here’s the totals as we know them right now:

• 2016: 3830 apartments
• 2017: 4500 apartments expected
• 2018: 4200 apartments expected

If everything is built, that’s a 39% increase in downtown apartments.

The 3830 apartments built this year was the highest rate since 2001 but, remember, the developers were busy building condos for most of the early 2000s so it’s been nearly 20 years since a lot of new apartment stock was built.

Still, there are already some cracks beginning to show in the rental market.

From Crain’s:

Landlords are starting to feel the impact of an historic building boom that is adding thousands of apartments to the downtown market. While rents are holding steady so far, the occupancy rate for high-end buildings fell in the third quarter to its lowest level in nearly seven years, according to a report from Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago-based consulting firm.

The occupancy rate at Class A buildings fell to 92.2 percent in the quarter, down from 94.8 percent in the second quarter and 93.7 percent in third-quarter 2015, according to the report. The Class A occupancy rate, which does not include buildings in their lease-up phase, hasn’t been that low since late 2009.

What’s going to happen with the apartment market in 2017?

Will some of these buildings be converted to condos, where there appears to be more demand?

Or will a hot economy fill up all of these buildings at their current rental rates?

2016 finally saw signs of life in the new condo market but most of the announced developments were luxury buildings.

And why not?

The new buildings, such as No. 9 Walton in the Gold Coast, are selling out as demand in the upper bracket remains strong.

Even the Ritz-Carlton, which first began marketing over 9 years ago, is seeing a surge in sales. From Crain’s:

Buyers closed on seven units at the Ritz-Carlton Residences from Dec. 1 through yesterday, according to Midwest Real Estate Data. That’s more than any building in the city, good news for any developer but particularly so at a project where only 26 out of 89 units were sold in the first nine years of trying.

Seven sales “would be happy-dance numbers for anyone,” said Karen Ranquist, a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group agent and partner in Ranquist Development, which has built several condo projects. She is not associated with the Ritz. Her firm’s building on Hubbard Street in the Fulton Market District has had two closings in December, and Ranquist said two more are scheduled in the building.

Hearing the Ritz’s December total, Ranquist said any developer “would be thrilled to have those closings in what is typically a slower time of year.”

Ranquist said the Ritz may be benefiting from the downtown market’s shortage of new-condo inventory during developers’ pronounced swing over to building luxury apartments.

“People look around downtown and say, ‘Where are there any condos?'” Ranquist said. Some high-end buildings are under construction now, but “you can’t move in until late 2017 or 2018.” At the Ritz, “you can buy and move in.”

Golden concurs. “We can sell and close sometimes in a week,” he said. “There’s definitely an advantage there.”

If you’re willing to wait, there are several prestige buildings under construction including One Bennett Place in Streeterville and the Vista Tower in Lakeshore East.

Will the upper bracket continue to sizzle in 2017?

Sales were slow in October as Chicagoans obsessed about the Cubs but all that changed after the World Series and the election in November.

It was like a switch was flipped and buyers rushed out.

It was the second strongest November for sales in the last 10 years. Only 2009 was stronger but that was the year that the first time home buyers program expired at the end of November 2009.

The program caused a mass frenzy to run out and buy. You had to close by the end of November to get the deal.

If you remove that month, with its artificial stimulus, then this was the strongest November in the last decade.

From the Illinois Association of Realtors:

The city of Chicago saw a 13.2 percent year-over-year home sales increase in November 2016 with 1,881 sales, up from 1,661 in November 2015. The median price of a home in the city of Chicago in November 2016 was $260,000, up 11.3 percent compared to November 2015 when it was $233,500.

Here is the November sales data for the last 9 years (thanks to G for some of the data):

• November 2007: 1859 sales and median price of $290,000
• November 2008: 1093 sales and median price of $222,500 (16% short/REO sales)
• November 2009: 1905 sales and median price of $215,000 (29% short/REO sales)
• November 2010: 1144 sales and median price of $182,500 (39% short/REO sales)
• November 2011: 1429 sales and median price of $157,000 (43% short/REO sales)
• November 2012: 1750 sales and median price of $180,000
• November 2013: 1844 sales and median price of $200,000
• November 2014: 1638 sales and median price of $230,000
• November 2015: 1661 sales and median price of $233,500
• November 2016: 1881 sales and median price of $260,000

“The sharp uptick in both single family and condo home sales reflects consumers’ desire to enter the homeownership marketplace as opportunities present themselves, with the anticipated rise in rates and declining inventory boosting activity,” said Matt Silver, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and partner at Urban Real Estate. “Buyers who’ve been watching from the sidelines and may have been distracted for a multitude of reasons, including the Cubs World Series run and the election, are being spurred into action, and both buyers and sellers are reaping the rewards.”

“With the election finally over, consumers appeared to have responded with a significant growth in sales (year-over-year),” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. “Supply continues to be a problem, but prices of both regular and foreclosed properties increased and the forecasts suggest that these trends will continue into the first quarter of 2017.”

The average days on the market statewide fell to 62 days from 68 days a year ago.

The 30-year mortgage rate averaged 3.77% compared to 3.93% in November 2015.

The 30-year mortgage rates have now spiked to around 4.3% but those new rates won’t be reflected in the data for several months yet due to buyers being able to lock in their rates.

Earlier in the year, we debated whether or not low inventory was depressing home sales, i.e. that there just weren’t enough properties out there that buyers wanted to buy.

November’s huge spike in sales, while inventory remains as low as ever, proves that theory to be incorrect.

How long will this rush to buy continue?

Could this momentum propel the Chicago housing market to new all-time highs in 2017?

Illinois home sales, prices gain traction in November [Illinois Association of Realtors, Press Release, December 21, 2016]