Crib Chatter

We last chattered about this authentic loft at 1012 N. Milwaukee in West Town in April 2010.

See our prior chatter and pictures here.

It has been reduced $25,100 in the last 6 months.

The loft has a wall of windows along with diagonal hardwood floors.

It has several exposed brick walls as well as a lofted den.

The loft has all the bells and whistles buyers look for including central air, in-unit washer/dryer and parking.

Ron Knoll at Saffron Realty still has the listing. See more pictures here.

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

• Sold in February 1997 for $171,000
• Was listed in April 2010 for $325,000
• Reduced
• Was listed in mid-October 2010 for $314,900
• Reduced
• Currently listed for $299,900
• Assessments of $197 a month
• Taxes of $3476
• Central Air
• In-Unit washer/dryer
• Parking included
• Bedroom #1: 15×14
• Bedroom #2: 15×10
• Loft: 17×10

This yellow Victorian house at 1167 W. Eddy in Lakeview has been on the market since August 2010.

It has been reduced $50,000 since then.

Built in 1893 on a standard 25×125 lot, the house has all the bells and whistles buyers look for including central air and a 2-car garage.

The house has retained some of its vintage features including hardwood floors and brass detailed pocket doors.

There are also 8 skylights and an unfinished basement with 8 foot ceilings.

While there are only 2 bedrooms, both of which are on the second floor, there is also a 14×10 office, also on the second floor.

The listing says the house is being sold “as-is”.

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

For those of you unfamiliar with this block, the picture below is what is directly across from the house.

Located just a block from Wrigley Field, is this an attractive townhouse or duplex condo alternative at this price point?

Jan Sachs at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.

1167 W. Eddy: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, no square footage listed

• The previous sale was before 1990
• Originally listed in August 2010 for $674,900
• Reduced
• Currently listed for $624,900
• Taxes of $6494
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 17×13 (second floor)
• Bedroom #2: 18×16 (second floor)
• Office: 14×10 (second floor)

As expected, the September sales data was not good as sales in Chicago were down 26.9%, declined 22.4% in Chicagoland and fell 23.4% statewide compared to September 2009.

Even the IAR isn’t really trying to “spin” this one.

This is one of the more negative press releases I’ve seen from the IAR in awhile.

From the Illinois Association of Realtors:

In the city of Chicago, September total home sales (single-family and condominiums) were down 26.9 percent to 1,403 sales compared to 1,918 homes sold in September 2009. The city of Chicago median price in September 2010 was $180,000, down 20.0 percent compared to $225,000 a year ago in September 2009.

Year-to-date sales remain up 11.1 percent January through September 2010 with 15,285 sales compared to 13,760 home sales for the same period in 2009. The year-to-date median sales price for the city of Chicago is down 7.9 percent to $210,000 from $228,000 for 2009.

 Here is the recap of September sales over the prior 4 years.

• September 2010: 1403- median price of $180,000
• September 2009: 1918
• September 2008: 1813
• September 2007: 2108- median price of $267,750

“Distressed properties are driving sales, putting pressure on the overall median price of homes sold in today’s market. A positive indicator that our market is moving as it should can be seen with a steady pace of units sold and existing inventory being absorbed,” said Mabel Guzman, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS® and a REALTOR® with Su Familia Real Estate, Chicago. “With condo sales in the city of Chicago up over 11 percent year-to-date from the same period in 2009, we see an expansion of choices for potential buyers to jump in the market now and find great value for homes they may have not otherwise been able to afford.”

The expiration of the tax credit has also squelched demand.

“It’s clear the housing market benefited from the tax credit through the first half of the year and now we are feeling the withdrawal symptoms in the form of slower sales. Still this extraordinary buyer opportunity should continue as mortgage rates remain in rock-bottom territory as they were just last week averaging 4.19 percent for our region,” said REALTOR® Sheryl Grider Whitehurst, ABR, CRB, GRI, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS® and the Development and Operations Coordinator for Traders Realty in Peoria. “Bottom line, home sales will struggle until jobs return to the economy, consumer confidence improves and foreclosures work their way through the system.”

We’ve also chattered about how continued high unemployment will put pressure on the housing market.  The Illinois unemployment rate was still 9.9% in September, though that was down 0.2% from the year before.

“The slow pace of employment recovery is certainly dampening housing demand,” said Geoffrey J.D. Hewings, the Director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory at the University of Illinois. “In particular there is increasing concern that an employment rebound may not occur to any significant degree until late 2011. Forecasts for Illinois unemployment over the next 12 months continue to reflect the uncertainty in the economy; job growth is anticipated to be between a positive 24,000 and a negative 31,000.”

For some local Chicago context, “G” was nice enough to post the statistics over the last 22 years for closings of condos/townhouses in Lincoln Park in the month of September.

You can clearly see September 2010’s weakness in these numbers.

1988 104
1989 111
1990 72
1991 93
1992 109
1993 128
1994 140
1995 141
1996 132
1997 149
1998 119
1999 116
2000 130
2001 111
2002 136
2003 170
2004 182
2005 213
2006 104
2007 124
2008 73
2009 82
2010 45

Hewings added: “This has been a difficult quarter for the housing markets in Illinois and Chicagoland. The forecasts for the final quarter of 2010 suggest more of the same.”

High Affordability Conditions for September’s Illinois Housing Market; Sales Down for the Month, Stronger Year-to-Date [Illinois Association of Realtors Press Release, October 25, 2010]

We chattered about this newer construction 3-bedroom duplex penthouse at 1131 W. Addison several times in the last few months.

See our early October 2010 chatter and pictures here.

It recently sold for $100,000 under its original October 2009 list price and $22,000 under the 2007 purchase price.

If you recall, the unit had a private rooftop deck complete with a hot tub and electricity which basically overlooks Wrigley Field.

Did someone get a deal for the square footage and finishes?

Nancy Gaspadarek and Catherine Brennan at Sudler Sotheby’s had the listing.

Unit #3: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1 car parking, 1500 square feet

• Sold in June 2007 for $552,000
• Originally listed in October 2009 for $629,900
• Withdrawn
• Was listed in March 2010 for $609,000
• Reduced
• Was listed in May 2010 for $589,999
• Reduced
• Was listed in October 2010 for $579,999
• Sold in October 2010 for $530,000
• Assessments of $176 a month
• Taxes of $7605
• Central Air
• Washer/Dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 12×12
• Bedroom #2: 10×9
• Bedroom #3: 20×11

This 4-bedroom Victorian at 847 W. Lill in Lincoln Park has been on the market since May 2010.

It has not had any price reductions.

Built in 1888 on a standard 25×125 lot, it has many amenities home buyers look for including central air and a 2-car garage.

All 4 bedrooms are also on the second floor.

The kitchen has stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops.

The house also has a double staircase.

What will it take to sell this house?

Paulette Rodriguez at Jameson has the listing. See the pictures here.

847 W. Lill: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, no square footage listed, 2 car garage

• Sold in July 1998 for $554,000
• Originally listed in May 2010 for $900,000
• No price reductions
• Currently listed at $900,000
• Taxes of $12,008
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 21×14
• Bedroom #2: 17×13
• Bedroom #3: 12×10
• Bedroom #4: 12×10

Both the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times reported yesterday on the new foreclosure data compiled for Chicago and the Chicagoland area by the Woodstock Institute.

Some of the data was for the third quarter and some of it was for the first 9 months.

But what both articles point out is that foreclosures appear to be increasing at a more rapid rate in Chicago’s more affluent neighborhoods rather than those that had, until now, been hardest hit.

Chicago’s once-hot neighborhoods are getting hammered by foreclosures.

In Chicago’s Loop, for instance, 73 foreclosure filings were made during the three months ended Sept. 30. Combine that with filings made earlier in the year and foreclosures are up almost 77 percent from the first nine months of 2009, to 205 properties. The Near North, Near South and Near West sides, as well as Lincoln Park, also saw double-digit increases, according to a third-quarter foreclosure report scheduled to be released Thursday by the Woodstock Institute.

Many of the buildings with the most foreclosures in Loop and the South Loop are familiar to Crib Chatter readers. We’ve been chattering about distress sales in these buildings for several years now.

Of the 73 new foreclosure filings in the Loop, 16 were at River City, 800 S. Wells St.; nine at Century Tower, 182 W. Lake St.; and six were at Park Millennium, 222 N. Columbus Drive, the report found.

Meanwhile, buildings responsible for two-thirds of the filings on the Near South Side during the quarter included 1620 South Michigan Ave. with 12; Vision on State, 1255 S. State St., with 11; and 1720 South Michigan Ave., with eight filings.

“The reason (the South Loop) is getting crushed is it’s only the South Loop in a good market,” Greco said. “In a bad market, it’s no man’s land. In a good market, people assume neighborhoods will be expanding. When the market crashes, it’s like the Sycamore or Moline of Chicago.”

Below is some third quarter data for those who argue that the “overall” percentage increase is irrelevant to the argument because in some neighborhoods there are few foreclosures to begin with.

Lincoln Park: up 94.7%

• 2009: 38 foreclosures
• 2010: 74 foreclosures

Near North Side: up 42.9%

• 2009: 126 foreclosures
• 2010 180 foreclosures

Loop: up 30.4%

• 2009: 56 foreclosures
• 2010: 73 foreclosures

Near South Side: up 102.4%

• 2009: 42 foreclosures
• 2010: 85 foreclosures

Near West Side: up 48.6%

• 2009: 72 foreclosures
• 2010: 107 foreclosures

For the first nine months of the year, foreclosures rose 14% for Chicago but were up 28% for the entire Chicagoland area.

The Near North Side neighborhood now ranks #4 as the neighborhood with the most foreclosures in 2010 with only Austin, Belmont-Cragin and West Ridge beating it out.

Here are some 9-month statistics from various neighborhoods of interest.

Only one neighborhood, West Town, of those that we actively follow on Crib Chatter, actually saw a year over year decline in foreclosures.

Austin: up 0.5%

• 2010: 663 foreclosures
• 2009: 660

 Belmont-Cragin: up 9.4%

• 2010: 662
• 2009: 605

West Ridge: up 6.9%

• 2010: 525
• 2009: 491

Near North Side: up 41.5%

• 2010: 515
• 2009: 364

Rogers Park: up 55.3%

• 2010: 368
• 2009: 237

Logan Square: up 10%

• 2010: 362
• 2009: 329

West Town: down 1.3%

• 2010: 299
• 2009: 303

Albany Park: up 17.5%

• 2010: 269
• 2009: 229

Edgewater: up 58.9%

• 2010: 267
• 2009: 168

Lakeview: up 21.2%

• 2010: 223
• 2009: 184

Lincoln Park: up 63.9%

• 2010: 195
• 2009: 119

Lincoln Square: up 20.3%

• 2010: 166
• 2009: 138

Jefferson Park: up 59.6%

• 2010: 158
• 2009: 99

North Center: up 30%

• 2010: 91
• 2009: 70

Beverly: up 4.8%

• 2010: 87
• 2009: 83

Hyde Park: up 17.8%

• 2010: 53
• 2009: 45

Remember, these stats are for those properties that actually went into foreclosure and does not include short sales, which I have argued, are the much bigger “story” in the more affluent neighborhoods in 2010.

Does this data confirm what several posters have commented over the past year- that the foreclosures will come to the more affluent neighborhoods as it’s only the larger resources of the owners which have “delayed” the foreclosure?

On a side note, this data seems to confirm that, at least in Chicago’s affluent neighborhoods, the housing market is far from stabilized.

Foreclosures put chill on hot neighborhoods [Chicago Tribune, Mary Ellen Podmolik, October 21, 2010]

Foreclosures moving into once trendy neighborhoods [Sun-Times, David Roeder, October 21, 2010]

New construction single family homes have popped up in every neighborhood of the city including this 5-bedroom home at 5692 N. New Hampshire in Old Norwood Park.

Located in the Old Norwood Park circle, it has all the bells and whistles of new construction but is set amidst an established neighborhood.

Built in 2007, the house has 12-foot ceilings and 5 fireplaces.

There are Brazilian walnut wood floors throughout as well as a 12 seat home theater complete with leather reclining seats.

The kitchen has unique stone work, custom cabinets and onyx counter tops.

Built on an oversized 50×200 lot, it has a rare city 4-car garage.

The house has been on the market for 20 months and has been reduced $495,000.

What’s the market for a million dollar home in Old Norwood Park?

Chaz Walters at Sudler Sotheby’s has the listing. See the pictures here.

5692 N. New Hampshire: 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4 car garage, no square footage listed

• Sold in September 1994 for $240,000
• Built in 2007
• Originally listed in February 2009 for $1.895 million
• Reduced
• Currently listed at $1,399,900
• Taxes of $6,000
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 24×13 (second floor)
• Bedroom #2: 14×14 (second floor)
• Bedroom #3: 14×13 (second floor)
• Bedroom #4: 14×13 (second floor)
• Bedroom #5: 18×12 (lower level)

We last chattered about this 2-bedroom Lakeview condo at 3535 N. Reta in August 2010.

See our prior chatter and pictures here.

The price has been aggressively dropped on this unit. It is now listed for $65,100 under the 2006 purchase price.

If you remember, the unit has upgraded finishes you may not find in a typical north side 2 bedroom unit including crown molding, a tray ceiling, and solid core doors.

The kitchen also doesn’t have just any stainless steel appliances, it has Subzero and Bosch plus a wine fridge.

The unit has natural stone baths with a steam shower.

Is the era of the $450,000 2-bedroom Lakeview condo now gone for good? 

Matt Garrison at Coldwell Banker still has the listing. See more pictures and a floorplan here.

Unit #2: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1 car parking, no square footage listed

• Sold in May 2006 for $480,000
• Originally listed in January 2010 for $475,000
• Reduced
• Was listed in June 2010 for $439,900 (parking included)
• Reduced
• Was listed in August 2010 for $429,900 (parking included)
• Reduced
• Currently listed for $414,900 (parking included)
• Assessments of $150 a month
• Taxes of $6620
• Central Air
• Washer/Dryer in the unit
• Bedroom #1: 17×12
• Bedroom #2: 12×12

We last chattered about the landmarked “Race House” at 3945 N. Tripp in Old Irving Park in May 2009.

See our prior chatter here.

It has been on and off the market since August 2007.

Built for Stephen Race, one of the members of the founding family of Irving Park, the Victorian Italianate house was designated a Chicago landmark in 1988.

According to Wikipedia, the house originally cost $12,000 to build in 1873.

It has been fully renovated and now has a chef kitchen with double oven and custom cabinets.

There is a full english basement and a 3000 bottle wine cellar.

Built on a 50×75 lot, it has central air and 2-car parking- looks like on a side driveway.

Since January 2009, it has been reduced $252,000.

Is this now a deal for the neighborhood?

Heather Lange at Koenig & Strey Real Living has the listing. See the pictures and floorplan here.

3945 N. Tripp: 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 half baths, 5800 square feet, 2 car parking

• Sold in November 1997 for $285,000
• Sold in January 2002 for $639,500
• Originally listed in August 2007
• Was listed in January 2009 for $1.199 million
• Reduced
• Currently listed for $947,000
• Taxes of $3881
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 30×18 (third floor)
• Bedroom #2: 16×15 (second floor)
• Bedroom #3: 17×14 (second floor)
• Bedroom #4: 17×10 (second floor)

We first chattered about this 4-bedroom renovated brick Bucktown cottage at 2235 W. Homer in July 2010.

See our prior chatter here.

It has been reduced $20,100 during that time.

The house is now listed $1600 under the 2008 purchase price.

Built in 1878, the home has modern amenities alongside its vintage features, such as original stained glass windows.

It has central air and a 2-car garage on a smaller than standard Chicago lot of 24×100.

But it also has a feature rarely found in vintage homes of this size: 4 bathrooms.

This house is in a “hot” part of Bucktown- near Erhler Park. Is it now priced to sell?

Robert John Anderson at Baird & Warner has the listing. See more pictures here.

2235 W. Homer: 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 car garage

• Sold in June 2001 for $250,000
• Sold in May 2005 for $648,500
• Sold in July 2008 for $831,500
• Was listed in July 2010 for $850,000
• Reduced
• Currently listed for $829,900
• Taxes of $7930
• Central Air
• Bedroom #1: 19×16 (second floor)
• Bedroom #2: 15×14 (second floor)
• Bedroom #3: 12×7 (second floor)
• Bedroom #4: 16×11 (lower level)