Reductions on East Lakeview 1Bds: 711 W. Melrose
We chattered about a bunch of one bedroom units on the market at 711 W. Melrose in East Lakeview in June that were originally sold in 2005, at the peak of the housing boom.
3 out of 4 are still on the market.
2 of those have been reduced.
Dream Town Realty has the listing for Unit #F1 (must be registered to see the listing.)
Unit #F1: 1 bedroom, 1 bath
- Sold in August 2005 for $262,500
- Was listed in June 2008 for $268,500 (parking $20k extra)
- Reduced
- Now listed for $263,500
- Assessments of $187 a month
- Taxes of $3,295
@Properties has the listing for Unit #B2. (The link is to their website- they don’t have a “search by address feature”.)
Unit #B2: 1 bedroom, 1 bath
- Sold in August 2005 for $245,000
- Was listed in June 2008 for $259,900 (parking $20k extra)
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $249,900
- Assessments of $150 a month
- Taxes of $2,821
Unit #D2 sold in only a few weeks.
Unit #D2: 1 bedroom, 1 bath
The layout of these units seems weird. None of the pictures show the fireplace as being the focal point of the room, so can you even sit in front of it and enjoy it? Also, the exterior reminds me of the housing at U of Illinois – Champaign. It’s depressing. I’m sure there are much better 1 bed units at that price point.
Was this once a prison?
Agreed – reduce the price all you want; it still looks like a prison.
What I like about this unit: the location and the interior.
What I dislike about this unit: just about everything else. If the seller thinks a token reduction is going to do the trick they are in for a long wait. No way this thing is worth 263k…try 200k.
So, D2 threw in the parking for $100? Tho I guess they got it sold. But it sure looks like you should put the w/o parking price at what you’re willing to sell.
So they notched the prices down a bit from their previos listing.
They are still higher than 2005 prices, which were about peak.
What would a comparable have sold for in 2002? That would be the correct price.
And, yeah, it looks like a prison.
It’s no prize pig in the flesh, but that really is an unflattering picture of the exterior. If there were just a little more glass on the street side, people wouldn’t hate on it so much.
It’s possible there’s plenty of natural light inside the unit, but the appearance of the building from the street is a deal breaker. Subdivision-like developments built without the neighborhood in mind are just not cool.
What a disaster. If you lean 2 tires against the wall, it would look like a bus.
200, tops, with free parking.
The exterior is very depressing. What is even more depressing is that a lot of places in Chicago are like that. There seems to be a large aversion towards large open windows especially in the older homes. Since I’ve only just moved here I have to ask, Why is that? Is that some kind of “Chicago style”? It’s very depressing. I’m getting knocking out a wall and putting in a large window would not be approved huh?
Tim,
The reason is apparently in the 1970s either everyone was high, city government was even more incompetent or economic conditions were such that building crap like this made sense.
My guess is that consumers were a bit of #1 and developers were #3. #2 was probably a byproduct.
And the sad truth is in 25 years people will be accusing society of being just as high/inattentive of our real estate bubble. Fortunately this all might be preserved for them to read 🙂
Tim,
I’m thinking more that in the 70’s we began worrying about energy costs. Big, inefficient windows mean huge heating and cooling costs. Maybe there was also some kind of trend towards more “privacy” in these properties? Finally, probably some architectural trend or other took hold?
Tim:
You’ve seen what was built on college campuses in the 70s, right? Same sort of thing–lots of brick, little natural light; basically bunkers. some of it misguided architecture, much of it in response to energy costs in a period without good, affordable high r-value windows. Sure, it was nuts to translare institutional architecture to residential, but one informing the other has a very long history.