Rogers Park 5-Bedroom American 4-Square Reduces $25,000: 1225 W. Pratt
We last chattered about this 5-bedroom American 4-Square at 1225 W. Pratt in Rogers Park in April 2011.
See our prior chatter here.
Listed at $525,000 in April, it has been reduced another $25,000.
Built in 1903, it has a much sought after double lot measuring 50×139.
However, if you’re a vintage lover, you’re in for some disappointment as none of the original vintage features remain.
The kitchen has been updated with granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.
4 of the 5 bedrooms are on the second floor with the 5th on the 3rd floor.
The house has a full basement and new HVAC.
Back in April, several of you wondered why a buyer wouldn’t just buy in Evanston.
Several others thought it was way overpriced and one said that with the way the market was deteriorating in the neighborhood, it might not find a buyer until it was priced in the $300,000s.
What will it take to find a buyer for this property?
Mark Zipperer at Re/Max Edge still has the listing. See more pictures here.
1225 W. Pratt: 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage, no square footage listed
- Sold in June 1997 for $185,000
- Originally listed in August 2009 for $599,000
- Withdrawn in November 2009
- Re-listed in January 2010 for $639,000
- Reduced numerous times
- Was listed in April 2011 at $525,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $500,000
- Taxes of $8935
- Partial central air
- Bedroom #1: 14×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 15×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 14×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 11×10 (second floor)
- Bedroom #5: 29×17 (third floor)
WoW, a 4.7% reduction after 5 months. it’s like the sellers are giving away this vacant house! snap it up before it’s gone!
according to the listing sheet “RECENT PRICE IMPROVEMENT”
Laura, I think you said you lived around here or across the street…what is the street parking like?
Read the RedFin agent’s comments. This guy is the anti-agent. He would like no homes to sell.
With this large of a house, I would have thought there would be 2.5 baths – two bathrooms upstairs and a powder room on the main level.
Otherwise, it’s a nicely done large house. I wouldn’t want to live this far north, but it seems like a very large house for the price.
Rogers Park may be too ‘dicey’ for SFH buyers.
Yeah, the Redfin agent comment of “sloppy workmanship and water in basement, through foundation wall?” is not going to help sell this place. I’m sure he wants homes to sell, but this one may be a serious mess.
I’ve long been surprised that east Rogers Park is dicey. Whenever I’ve driven through it, there seem to be a lot of nice, large SFHs. You’d think people who want an SFH in the city would be attracted here, but guess not …
“You’d think people who want an SFH in the city would be attracted here, but guess not …”
The large number of cheap slummy rentals attract a higher crime component. I lived there for 5 years of my life so I have familiarity with the area.
“Yeah, the Redfin agent comment of “sloppy workmanship and water in basement, through foundation wall?” is not going to help sell this place”
you realize this is not the listing agent, right? I’d rather have an honest disclosure before i waste time looking at a property.
I’ll see YOU (1225 W. Pratt) at 300k
“you realize this is not the listing agent, right? I’d rather have an honest disclosure before i waste time looking at a property.”
Honest disclosure is one thing. Some of the Redfin comments seem over the top, if not maybe a little uninformed. The idea is great and it gives buyers some things to look at if they choose to see the home in person. But I wouldn’t bank on the comments to guide my own decisions.
“you realize this is not the listing agent, right? I’d rather have an honest disclosure before i waste time looking at a property.”
These redfin agents are no more informed than you or I. They use that comments space to bash properties (rarely positive). Completely irresponsible and unprofessional. It’s their cribchatter moment.
I do realize that the comments from the Redfin agent are not comments from the listing agent.
“They use that comments space to bash properties (rarely positive). Completely irresponsible and unprofessional.”
My experience is that their comments often are either wholly positive, or they say three things positive in their comments and one thing negative. This is from looking at places in LP and North Shore, so maybe they are harsher on homes in other areas (though of course their concerns may well be justified).
Laura had some insight to this building the last time Sabrina posted it. I’d go read that post to get an idea as to why there’s no love for this property.
“It’s their cribchatter moment.”
except they use their real names. Wouldn’t they open themselves up to a whole can of whoopass if they said something that wasn’t true?
Street parking around here is HORRIBLE. I live in a 42 unit building and half of us own cars; next door is 1200 with 81 units and substantial car ownership. Down the street at the corner, the Seville has 100 units and many car owners, and Astor House has about 110 units and numerous autos. No off-street parking for any of us. After 6 PM you CANNOT find a parking space for blocks.
This house is nowhere near worth $500K. As you can see from the photos, all the vintage charm was stripped away long ago as the house was used as a school for a couple of decades. The baths are awkwardly located and there is none on the third floor.
You DO have a lot of space, and you are close to good private schools. Lakeside Academy is two blocks west on Pratt and Sacred Heart is a short bus ride on Sheridan to the 6300 block N Sheridan. But these schools are very difficult to get into, especially Sacred Heart, from what I’ve heard.
This is a great block of Pratt, but you don’t want to go too far west. West of the el tracks the scene changes for the worse. This corner is great, though-we have RoPa across the street, a first-run movie theatre (the 400)and Morse is sufficiently clean to have a glossy new bar, Chickie’s, in addition to the Mayne Stage dinner theater.
The Pritzker family is shoveling mucho bucks into Rogers Park, and has recently purchased a lot of property, including the Emil Bach House by Frank LLoyd Wright, and the Cat’s Cradle B&B next door. The Pritzkers own the Mayne Stage and are buying more property in the area.
But it still isn’t quite Edgewater and the area as a whole has public safety problems that Edgewater has mostly overcome. We still have a number of shaggy rentals that need badly to be vacated and rehabbed. But this part of the neighborhood on south to Devon is mostly very clean, very pretty, and has a lot of amenity.
$400K tops.
The kitchen looks way too small for a house this size. In a place this big the kitchen should be the centerpiece. What they have here looks like a small galley kitchen.
“Wouldn’t they open themselves up to a whole can of whoopass if they said something that wasn’t true?”
Not really. Like you said before they are not the listing agents. They can’t be fired. Simply MLS vultures.
Laura I am surprised you did not mention proximity to the Oasis on sheridan as a perk
Maybe Sonnies is right, maybe $300K really IS more like it, based on SF homes I see in Edgewater Glen, which is a better area.
However, I believe RP is a good bet for the future. This was a fine nabe until the 70s, when it was destroyed by Section 8 whore landlords. I feel that formerly elite West Rogers Park is a very, very good bet for the future even though it looks very threatened right now.
Most of you are too young to remember how really terrible nabes like Wicker Park were as recently as the 80s. WP, Bucktown, and the west side in general were the absolute Badlands. If these nabes can become “green zone” and their shabby worker-housing cottages be tarted up with new rehabs to sell for $750K, anything is possible.
I consider it a good sign that the Pritzkers are investing so much money in this area right now. However, I strongly feel that all city nabes with decent architecture or proximity to the lake and transit will experience stunning revivals in the next twenty years. AS that happens, the schools will suddenly improve drastically as they fill with middle class students with parents who care about their future. Crime will drop as troubled populations move elsewhere, to cheaper places in burbs as the suburbs experience massive disinvestment comparable to what happened in the cities in the 50s and 60s.
Laura, that’s the exact opposite scenario of what is actually happening, per Census figures. The city proper is emptying out, and the suburbs are growing.
Yes, the Green Zone is the exception (and there are certainly many suburban exceptions), but the overall rule is that the city proper is declining, the suburbs are growing, and there’s no evidence these trends are reversing. In fact, there’s considerable Census-based evidence showing that city population loss is accelerating.
I don’t doubt that the GZ will grow in coming years, but there’s little evidence to suggest that the city proper will start growing anytime soon.
“I consider it a good sign that the Pritzkers are investing so much money in this area right now.”
Why’s that?
“However, I strongly feel that all city nabes with decent architecture or proximity to the lake and transit will experience stunning revivals in the next twenty years. AS that happens, the schools will suddenly improve drastically as they fill with middle class students with parents who care about their future.”
Define “middle-class”.
“Crime will drop as troubled populations move elsewhere, to cheaper places in burbs as the suburbs experience massive disinvestment comparable to what happened in the cities in the 50s and 60s.”
What if the current trend continues, which is people with the means just leaving Chicago altogether?
When we were looking to buy it came down to a 2-flat in Rogers Park and a 2-flat in Logan Square. Wish we didn’t buy at all but very glad we chose LS over RP.
“What if the current trend continues, which is people with the means just leaving Chicago altogether?”
I can see that. My whole family has left along with a number of friends for various reasons.
If I was renting instead of paying a mortgage I might be thinking of leaving as well. Not that I don’t like Chicago, just that maybe the grass in greener elsewhere.
PLA, I don’t think that you and Laura are making conflicting assertions, i.e., she’s not saying that there isn’t a move to the burbs happening (“troubled populations move elsewhere, to cheaper places in burbs”). You are saying that “the city proper is declining, the suburbs are growing.” It seems that you’re both saying the same thing, though you may be forecasting different eventual outcomes (i.e., she’s saying that the GZ might expand a little bit, and all of the GZ will improve as far as quality of life goes, while many now living in the city, yet outside the GZ, will opt for less expensive housing options out in the sprawling, overbuilt, boomer-heavy burbs).
Are you predicting that only middle and upper-middle class folks will be leaving the city for the burbs, as was the case in the 70’s?
I’ll throw my hat for the most part into Laura’s ring on this one. I’m not sure just how glorious the entire GZ and marginal GZ areas will remain and/or become, but I’m pretty sure that the marginal and merely middle class burbs are going to see a steady downward spiral over the next 10 – 20 years – basically the opposite of what happened in the 70’s.
“What if the current trend continues, which is people with the means just leaving Chicago altogether?”
Is that really true? I think the City has gotten richer even as it lost population the last decade. A good portion of the population loss was related to CHA demolition.
PLA, you mean that what you are describing is what WAS happening. The EZ money for cheap tract houses in the distant exurbs pulled a lot of lower-middle people out of the city.
And, yeah, that is happening still, but much less.
I’m talking about what is about to happen, as oil becomes permanently expensive and scarce. The trend of the past 60 years of aggressive suburban expansion peaked in about 2006 and the reversal has already started, even though you won’t see it happen in earnest for about another 5 years or so, just like the titanic disinvestment in the cities and mass exodus to the burbs was only beginning in 1945, though everyone knew it would happen.
Distant suburbs like Yorkville and Woodstock and other country towns that went frenetically suburban in the past 20 years are already experiencing a much steeper loss of value in the housing bust than closer-in, established suburbs, and the city.
Mind you, we will always have some suburbs. But they will either be elite pockets like Oak Brook, or Winnetka, or Lake Forest, or Wilmette, or a few others; or they will be slums on their way back to being farmland. Schaumburg and Rolling Meadows, for example, are deteriorating rapidly and it shows in both their housing and their crime rates. My feeling is that withing 20 years, you will live in the city, or in a small town close to the square, or a farm. Only the elite or the poor will live in far suburbs. And you will be surprised how fast this happens.
Think on this: when the cities went through the tsumami of disinvestment and depopulation in the post-war years, they at least had their libraries, their downtowns, their transit lines, their musuems, and other city amenities, even in reduced form, after the destruction had run its course. St. Louis still has one of the best symphany orchestras in the world and its old library has one of the finest archives of drawings and architectural renderings in the country, and it has a massive stock of beautiful old buildings. Chicago, of course, is still the nation’s foremost treasure trove of great architecture and it SILL has a decent transit system, though much reduced from what it was. But what will places like Schaumburg and Aurora have, besides a bunch of empty malls and big barn stores? It will be a lot easier to rebuild our transit system and our schools here than it will be to salvage anything of value at all from all the seas of plasterboard houses and concrete slab commercial buildings in most of our middle-income suburbs. This stuff will have no value at all in a time where most people can no longer afford to drive 20 miles a day or more.
Laura should add Plainfield to that list. It’s a complete and utter disaster out there. I’ll stick to the City.
I agree with Laura here. The price of oil is making it almost impossible to commute the 30-40 miles each way if you have to drive unless you are rich, and then you have to get up at 4am to avoid the awful gridlock. Public transit works for some, but it’s the areas that are a 15+ minute drive to metra that will be hurt more. Not everyone works downtown, and not everyone that works downtown has an office within 5 minutes of the train station. Long-term success in Chicago depends on the ability of the city and state to somehow reduce their long-term pension liabilities without having to significantly raise taxes. This is not easy to do without high inflation, a growing population, and cutting of benefits for current employees.
The city has gotten more expensive, but it certainly hasn’t gained population. Most figures I’ve seen say Chicago proper lost ~7% of its population between 2000 and 2010. I *really* doubt those were all CHA folks.
Laura-
I dig what you’re saying: “I’m talking about what is about to happen”
I’m reminded of the Wayne Gretzky quote “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
I hope you’re right.
I didn’t say all CHA folks made up the loss. A lot of it though. 10,000 housing CHA housing units were demolished in the last decade. A large portion of which have yet to be rebuilt. Remember all those high rises along the Dan Ryan?
IIRC the city lost 200,000 people. the city has been losing people since the 1950’s and the 2010 census with a ever so slight increase in population was merely a blip in the long term abandonment of the city.
the problem with the cities is schools and the cost to live in those areas with the good schools. Edgebrook/wildwood with their ‘good schools’ are expensive as hell, $380,000 for a 1950’s, needs updating, three bedroom ranch with one of the ‘bedrooms’ in the basement next to the washer/dryer. and that’s one of the cheaper – good areas. $380,000 for a family in the LP is a near impossibility.
I also expect the trend to continue, and the current generation of underwater bagholders will find that the following generation is poorer, and heavily indebted, and has little interest, or ability, to pay a high housing costs. sure, there will be exceptions and trust fund kids, but, i predict, in less than 10 years, the owners of $1,000,000 homes in Bell will find that there are fewer and fewer families interested in paying that kind of money to live *there*.
“#Vlajos on September 19th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
I didn’t say all CHA folks made up the loss. A lot of it though. 10,000 housing CHA housing units were demolished in the last decade. A large portion of which have yet to be rebuilt. Remember all those high rises along the Dan Ryan?”
I guess we’ll see. But I think I’m right.
Re: The 2000 – 2010 city population drop, glean what demographic/housing predictions you will from this:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-africanamerican-aldermen-propose-new-chicago-ward-map-20110919,0,755048.story
I must not be as old as I think/feel because I don’t know what evidence i’m supposed to be seeing to support this.
“The trend of the past 60 years of aggressive suburban expansion peaked in about 2006 and the reversal has already started, even though you won’t see it happen in earnest for about another 5 years or so, just like the titanic disinvestment in the cities and mass exodus to the burbs was only beginning in 1945, though everyone knew it would happen. “
Anonny – Yeah, the folks with means bailed to Atlanta. Fact.
Not much to glean.
Long-term success in Chicago depends on the ability of the local economy to remain able to attract enough new talent to keep pace with the housing market.
Consider this: The green zone *needs* the fresh wave of Big Ten grads that come here every year to keep rents up on all the crappy rentals, and support all the bars, restaurants, and shops that cater to them on their way to eventually becoming the people who support the rest of this city.
Just picture what would happen if three or four waves of Big-Ten kids decided it was more attractive to work in Texas, Florida, and Colorado instead of Chicago. What if the people that didn’t move to the above discovered that Indy, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and KC offered a watered-down Chicago experience at a fraction of the price.
The bottom would would drop out, and it would take 5 years to happen.
We should probably stop thinking that the Millennials think or act like the boomers or Gen-Xer’s did.
Chicagobull, that is an interesting theory. I can see smaller cities aggressively recruiting young professionals. Many smaller cities are working diligently to improve their downtowns to make them more attractive. Most of the small cities I have visited actually aren’t as bad as people think – plenty of art, culture, restaurants, etc.
The one thing I find though is that living within the comparable green zones in smaller cities is not dramatically cheaper than a city like Chicago.
“The one thing I find though is that living within the comparable green zones in smaller cities is not dramatically cheaper than a city like Chicago.”
Indeed. For instance, the best hoods in Atlanta: cheaper, but not dramatically so, than Chicago. Same goes for Colorado (at least in the nicest couple of hoods in Denver; Boulder is similar if not more expensive than the nicest hoods in Chicago). Those are places I’d live, but I wouldn’t do so at more than 10%, 15% at the most, of a pay cut from Chicago. Chicago offers opportunities (career, cultural, etc.) that are for the most part on par with NYC (give or take, depending on the industry), at a fraction of the (housing) cost of living. I just don’t see the second (e.g., Denver or Atlanta) and third (e.g., Indy, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and KC) tier cities presenting any sort of paradigm-shifting challenge to Chicago. If anything, I can see more young people saying “I don’t need to slum it in NY, I’ll head to Chicago.”
“If anything, I can see more young people saying “I don’t need to slum it in NY, I’ll head to Chicago.””
Totally anonny! This is why I love Chicago. And if you’re an artist/musician type- you can really live well here. I met a painter working in a Ukranian Village coffee shop the other day. At least there are some decent rents there and it’s a great neighborhood.
It always amazes me that there are nurses and school teachers who are paying like $2500 a month just to live in NYC (even in Brooklyn). How do they save ANYTHING? How do they live?
Chicago is a tremendous deal. AND it has great architecture and neighborhoods to boot.
I disagree, atlanta has significantly cheaper housing in great locations. i was really surprised at how nice a friends house was in buckhead and he paid 600k at the peak
Great discussion based on a house nearby where i live.
RP and Chicago has a bright future.
Laura Louzader has it right.
That stretch of Pratt is on one of my trash routes.
I called the listing agent early this spring and told him
that he should have the lawn mowed. Hard to believe that the neighbors there were so lazy they couldnt bother to mow 1225’s parkway. How unneighborly. I routinely mow my neighbors parkway.
Why doesnt he mow it? I have no freaking clue, but there is no point in not mowing it.
“disinvestment comparable to what happened in the cities in the 50s and 60s.”
Dream on. Read this for a reality check, latte’ sipping poseurs: http://www.newgeography.com/content/001722-urban-legends-why-suburbs-not-dense-cities-are-future
“the price of oil will make people move back…”
Move back where? To $1M+ SFH’s? Only the idle rich can afford “the city experience, without those dark people”. And, who still thinks “all the jobs are in the Loop”? Not too many drive into the Loop everyday. We got Trains, duh!
What makes you think that the current Mayor is going to force his loyal constituents out of the city?
“And if you’re an artist/musician type- you can really live well here.”
Not for much longer. Artists/musicians need to get a day job, they can’t expect the gov’t to pay for their ‘creative life’, [also known as slacking.] With Border’s and other retail places closing where the ‘creative class’ work, they need to find marketable skills, and not think you are ‘entitled to a singing career’, get in line with the thousands of others who think so since their ‘self esteem’ says so.
With more working people leaving the city proper, there won’t be enough tax base for flower boxes, street fairs, concerts in parks, and other things white hipsters love.
“Not for much longer. Artists/musicians need to get a day job, they can’t expect the gov’t to pay for their ‘creative life’, [also known as slacking.] With Border’s and other retail places closing where the ‘creative class’ work, they need to find marketable skills, and not think you are ‘entitled to a singing career’, get in line with the thousands of others who think so since their ’self esteem’ says so.”
What are you talking about? Both the music and acting scene in Chicago is very vibrant. There actually are quite a few well paying jobs in those fields (even if it means you are teaching kids to play the trumpet during the day and playing in a band at night.)
I don’t know what you’re talking about with “the government” paying for their lives. Didn’t you read what I said? The painter was working at the coffee shop so that he could make money to paint! That is what Chicago allows you to be able to do because the standard of living is lower. You can actually live the artist life here.
Sure- you’re not living it up in Lincoln Park on a musician’s salary (for the most part.) But there are plenty of other great neighborhoods.
And by the way- if Homedelete is any indication- not a lot of people fleeing the city on the north side of town. The tax base looks pretty intact to me. He can’t find a house in his target neighborhood that is move-in-able under $300,000. Heck, the nicer houses are selling for $300,000 to $400,000 even in Avondale now. Those are NOT middle class houses at that price point.
Most of the population loss in the city in the past decade was middle-income people chasing the cheap tract houses and miracle pay option ARM mortgages in Will and Kendall counties, the two places that experienced the biggest influxes of new residents. You could buy a spanking new chipboard-and-fake stucco 4-bed 2.5 bath tract house for about $275K, and so what if you and your spouse had a combined income of only $80K, because you could get a 5-1 pay option ARM to help you pay (hopefully) for the house.
But that’s all over now. Needless to say, the foreclosure rate in these places is now impressive, and methinks that a substantial percentage of these newly coined suburbinites will be coming back to places closer in when the sheriff puts them out of the houses they never really could afford, especially when gasoline starts inching over $5 a gallon. I really do believe that the day of immense new tract houses, 2 SUVs per household, and 50 mile per direction commutes are OVER for middle income people.
“Sure- you’re not living it up in Lincoln Park on a musician’s salary (for the most part.) But there are plenty of other great neighborhoods.”
It’s entirely possible to live in LP on this wage. Maybe not “live it up”, but I know enough people that work odd jobs and have a great quality of life vs. third world standards living in LP.
“With more working people leaving the city proper, there won’t be enough tax base for flower boxes, street fairs, concerts in parks, and other things white hipsters love.”
But its more the “undesirable darkies” moving away.
“Artists/musicians need to get a day job”
Always have and always will need to. They’re like human rat hybrids–they get by. They’re likely to get less impacted by this economy as they’re used to being poor. Going from poor to poor isn’t as much of a transition as going from working or middle class to poor. They’re like the cockroaches with enough redundancy in their DNA to survive the fallout better than other species.
“I really do believe that the day of immense new tract houses, 2 SUVs per household, and 50 mile per direction commutes are OVER for middle income people.”
Or howabout just a reset in the definition of “middle income people”. Methinks future generations are learning what a bag of goods they’ve been sold by having wifey head off to work. And the capitalists exploited the increased supply of labor by promoting feminism and the other garbage the libtards clung on to. What would ever make a mother not want to be with her young children other than economic constraints? But they billed a “career” as some sort of personal fulfillment.
Newflash to libtards: if you can’t get personal fulfillment from your family life and you’re in any sort of job interaction with people at all you should just kill yourself.
“Artists/musicians need to get a day job”
“Always have and always will need to. They’re like human rat hybrids–they get by”
And they always have hot girlfriends.. go figure.
The kendall county buying posuers are not city transplants. They’re mostly younger suburban transplants priced out of the suburbs.lakeview to plainfield was probably prtetty rare.
ConAgra lifted its 2012 inflation estimate for its Consumer Foods unit to 9% to 10%, from 7% to 8% and said it raised prices during the first quarter
Bob.. our lil disagreement on prices… looks like you’re literally going to have to eat it! 🙂
“And by the way- if Homedelete is any indication- not a lot of people fleeing the city on the north side of town”
EXACTLY – and the same reason that boomers are not going to flock to the city or sunbelt – studies have shown that people stay with what they are familiar. They DON’T move out of their comfort zone. There is going to be no mass exodus into or out of the city. There won’t …
“Bob.. our lil disagreement on prices… looks like you’re literally going to have to eat it! ”
The other day I got some cookies on sale..CVS brand Absolutely Divine. $2 for $5 with a $3 rebate is the reason I got em. Hadn’t had them in awhile.
Turns out they totally fucked up their cookies with inferior ingredients and made them smaller. Hope these companies are ready for the sales hit when consumers run to the competition when they pull stuff like this.
Contrary to your belief CPG doesn’t have a lot of pricing power in this climate. Let some marketeer at ConAgra talk the brass into believing they can push through a 9%+ price increase. And let’s see what happens to ConAgra going forward.
“Hope these companies are ready for the sales hit when consumers run to the competition when they pull stuff like this.”
Run to whom? They are all doing it (see below). Consumers choice will be to pay up or move down the food scale.
“Coupled with rising cost of cheese, pizzerias have gone so far as to experiment with other “pizzas that aren’t so flour and cheese dependent, such as thinner crusts that might cut the use of each in half”
wait wait wait – so Bob, you are basing your opinion on the global economy on a bad purchase of cookies you recently made? Please go back to watching Sesame Street and leave the adult talk to adults…
3 parts. First, people are not fleeing generally because few homes are selling and no one can leave. But they will leave for naperville when they get a chance. They’ll just ‘rent’ out their condo. Secondly, clio is right, few boomers actually leave the geographical area. They did a study a few years ago and found out that IIRC less than 10% of boomer households actually left because they want to stay close to their family and friends. 3rd, the death of the city comes from teh schools. Outside of a few GZ neighborhoods and wealthy people who can afford the ‘ultimate urban lifestyle’ in LP or the Bell district, they’re all fleeing, either southwest, or west, or north, or northwest, to the suburbs. I plenty of plenty of people renting out their condo so taht junior or princess can go to school in naperville rather than paying for private school in the city.
This is the slowest real estate market in a generation. There are so many expensvie homes out there for sale that quite frankly just aren’t selling. Sort of funny how some people claim it’s my budget that’s a problem, but in reality, its the sellers’ pricing. In many neighborhoods there is no longer a market for $500+ homes. WIldwood, edgebrook, hell, nothing has sold on the ‘circle’ in norwood park for years now. Even in some suburbs there are a glut of $500k+ homes; few sub $400’s and those in livable condition go quickly.
It’s a shame, it really is.
“clio on September 20th, 2011 at 6:13 am
“And by the way- if Homedelete is any indication- not a lot of people fleeing the city on the north side of town”
EXACTLY – and the same reason that boomers are not going to flock to the city or sunbelt – studies have shown that people stay with what they are familiar. They DON’T move out of their comfort zone. There is going to be no mass exodus into or out of the city. There won’t …”
You all are confusing moderate food inflation (caused by a rush of hot money into commodities) with the long term deflation the economy is experiencing. Do you think that the inevitable greek/portugeses/italian default will make food prices lower or higher? During the great depression they were wasting milk and grains because they would not sell at a high enough price. The government bought up grain and let it rot in warehouses to support prices (which didn’t really work). What happens when China slows? what will that do for oil/steel/grain prices? Seriously folks, seroiusly.
“Bob, you are basing your opinion on the global economy on a bad purchase of cookies you recently made”
Yep, should make it based on the slice of pizza instead.
HD –
you are wrong – people in general don’t move farther than a few miles from where they live. This is why I find those rankings of towns (ie Money magazine – best places for singles, best places to retire, etc.) such a frickin joke. ARE U KIDDING ME?!! As if someone is going to pick up the magazine and say, “oh, honey look – Pipsqueak, Arkansas has the lowest housing costs – let’s move there!!). Ridiculous – and you morons eat it all up. I swear, I wish I was dumber….life would be so much easier
What happens when China slows? what will that do for oil/steel/grain prices? Seriously folks, seriously.”
If you had your money behind those words, the last year and a half, you’d da been flattened like a pancake.
To turn a phrase… what happens when they speed up the next time? It’s all a cycle, right? On that, you and I have never disagreed.
No worries, clio, our bet proved how dumb you really are. Proved your word is no good, too.
“No worries, clio, our bet proved how dumb you really are. Proved your word is no good, too.”
Good God, drop it already!! I can’t believe that the majority of people on this site are married. who the f would put up with such idiotic obsessive compulsive, cheap ass, morons?
Clio- you and I were in agreement, no need to tell me I’m wrong
Gringo- like chuk says, timing is everything. just because I beleve in a position that doesn’t mean it’s the right position to take today.
HD – reading comprehension issues, I guess….(anon where are you?)
“Good God, drop it already!!”
Well, you could have settled the bet as you agreed. Alas, your word is no better than your RE knowledge. It is important to remember this as long as you are here.
“I can’t believe that the majority of people on this site are married. who the f would put up with such idiotic obsessive compulsive, cheap ass, morons?”
Yeah, you got it all figured out. Didn’t you say your wife raised your kids far away from you?
“Yeah, you got it all figured out. Didn’t you say your wife raised your kids far away from you?”
LA is only a four hour plane trip….not that far
“Gringo- like chuk says, timing is everything. just because I beleve in a position that doesn’t mean it’s the right position to take today.
”
You have it on. You are short. Your family eats. Buy ’em a pizza in 10 years, at todays price.
“Buy ‘em a pizza in 10 years, at todays price.”
He’ll use a Jim Baker fin.
Interesting thread regarding the comparison of Chicago to other cities…Atl, Denver and NYC. While there ‘might’ be some valid points (cheaper rents, similar career ops, etc.) there is not now nor will there ever be a shift in desirability for NYC to these cities..EVER.
NYC is a city alone in it’s standing. None of the mentioned areas can compare in any way to it. NEVER. Sure NYC is expensive but like everything else, you get what you pay for. As far as Sabrina wondering how people live in NYC or Brooklyn for that matter (which if you do enough searching you can find some fantastic and affordable new condos in some great areas in Brooklyn) you have to remember with the high cost of living in the city comes higher salaries.
I have lived in and/or spent a lot of time in the cities mentioned and I have spent a lot of time seeking out the ‘amenities’ in these places that NYC has in abundance…and I have to say while they are there in some small extent, these draws will never be replicated anywhere.
Regardless of how much money is invested in RP, over the years it has been allowed to deteriorate to the point of no return. Sure it has some nice SFH and some great vintage buildings but 75% + of them have no chance of being renovated. That ‘element’ that has moved into the area will never leave and without them finding other affordable housing those few places that have a chance of being renovated will never find people willing to invest in them. Even in the nicer areas of Chicago nothing is selling…who would be stupid enough, in this economy, to throw away their money trying to revitalize an area this far gone?
Many here in NYC had the same dreams of revitalizing Harlem and parts of Bronx. While there has been a tiny rate of success in doing so, 70% of renovated units are languishing on the market now. No one wants to live in a nice place that is surrounded by lower income households and those who inhabit them.
When the revitalization of Harlem first started, many people had such lofty dreams of extending the boundries of the wealth of the Central Park crowd into that area. Those same people are now sitting on renovated properties that are being price chopped on an almost constant basis…still no buyers. Even in a Robert AM Stern building in the high 90s on 5th is not seeing any activity.
Brooklyn had much better success of becoming a desirable place to live as lower Manhattan did not have the cache that Central Park/UES/UWS does. The proximity of Brooklyn to the lower income areas of the LES made the revitalization of that area more attainable. Much in the same way Bucktown has seen success.
So as much as you all want (I will say even I would like to see lower performing areas of Chicago rise…RP in particular) Chicago to be able to compete with NYC, sorry to say it is just not going to happen.
That in itself is not at all a bad thing. As I stated earlier in this post, Chicago will never be considered in the same league as NYC but it will remain a city that midwesterners flock to in search of their dream life. I think it is more of a be happy with what you have situtation instead of dreaming of an entire makeover.
Just be happy where the city is and don’t expect it to become anything else. As much as Laura would love for RP to become the next LP, it will never happen…not even in the slightest. Now RP becoming the next South Chicago….now that is a strong possibility.
**Now don’t start jumping on me saying I think I’m all that and go on to say NYC isn’t all that. But if you want to compare the two cities, you have to be ready for a reality check. I still do really LOVE Chicago and I have invested a good amount of money thinking that it could be a great place for someone in my industry to make some good profits. Unfortunately I guess I came in at the wrong time.
Let’s just hope it all turns around and Chicago once again becomes a desirable place to live. As it is now, economically and housing based speaking, there are just too many negatives for that to happen.
“LA is only a four hour plane trip….not that far”
Yet it was only a few months ago that you had made your first trip there and boasted about how fabulous it was here on CC?
Sorry I had vowed to never respond to any of your posts again…just had to get that one out of my system.
Now back to my vow…
“Buy ‘em a pizza in 10 years, at todays price.”
I’d say it’s likely. Sure, it might be smaller – but calories are one place the US could cut back and truly save.
blow it out your big apple ass westloop
“That ‘element’ that has moved into the area will never leave ”
Nah, the “element”, in all its various forms, has moved around Chicago a *lot* over the past 100 years. All one needs to know if that Little San Juan was at Armitage and Halsted in your life time, WL. And Roscoe Village was a gang infested dump in the early (and to some extent late) 80s.
It (likely) won’t happen organically, but there is no doubt that it is *possible*. If the extension of LSD ever occurs (not likely, exactly), it’ll be a slamdunk.
“Yet it was only a few months ago that you had made your first trip there and boasted about how fabulous it was here on ”
ARE U KIDDING ME?!!! My kids have lived there their entire lives – I have been there more than you have been to chicago, moron. I don’t lie about my life.
“As I stated earlier in this post, Chicago will never be considered in the same league as NYC but it will remain a city that midwesterners flock to in search of their dream life. I think it is more of a be happy with what you have situtation instead of dreaming of an entire makeover.”
ok – everyone read this and tell me how the fuck can westloop call ME arrogant and snotty (while bragging about how he is so humble and all the rich people he knows – including him- would never be rude, etc. .. – unfuckingbelievable!!)
“I don’t lie about my life.”
I see that changed from “I DON’T FUCKING LIE” since you have, in fact, lied.
“ok – everyone read this and tell me how the fuck can westloop call ME arrogant”
You are both 100% correct.
G – I have never lied about facts of my life – ever. I did back out of our bet – I acknowledge that and learned my lesson. Let’s get over it.
“I have never lied about facts of my life-ever.”
What about when you claimed to have sold your St Charles land near the sewage treatment facility for a loss, then later claimed to never have had a RE loss? Take your pick – one of those was a lie.
“I did back out of our bet – I acknowledge that and learned my lesson. Let’s get over it.”
Good to see you confirm that your word is no good. In fact, you never intended to live up to your word, which again makes you a liar. As long as you are here, I will be sure to remind all of this fact. You see, the bet is still a winner for me.
“What about when you claimed to have sold your St Charles land near the sewage treatment facility for a loss, then later claimed to never have had a RE loss? Take your pick – one of those was a lie.”
Contract sale – it ain’t over till it’s over (kind of like a contingent sale) – not yet completed.
“Contract sale – it ain’t over till it’s over (kind of like a contingent sale) – not yet completed.”
So, it wasn’t sold at all although you claimed it was. Lie confirmed.
“So, it wasn’t sold at all although you claimed it was. Lie confirmed.”
G- check it out moron:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Saint-Charles/3N645-Ponderosa-Dr-60175/home/17970713
ok G… We trade the sept 2022 deep dish future contract. Loser has to leave CC, but only after killing the winner, for still being on CC.
I feel obligated to disclose, i already have a large sausage and pepper vs mushroom and spinach spread on. Of course if it goes against me, i’m willin to take delivery.
Now i think sushi, a block off the praia sounds lovely. Since it’s all going to end soon. Might as well enjoy!!
“ARE U KIDDING ME?!!! My kids have lived there their entire lives – I have been there more than you have been to chicago, moron. I don’t lie about my life.”
Seriously, a few months ago you wrote from LA saying how fab it was and why hadn’t you been there before? Right?
I know others remembering this post. Just wish this site was a bit more developed that you could find past posts by clicking on a posters name. Man if we did that we could find so many of your fables to be lame words.
If you would stop calling others moron idiot etc maybe….just maybe your posts would be taken more seriously.
Nah, who am I kidding an ass is an ass is an ass….
“If you would stop calling others moron idiot etc maybe….just maybe your posts would be taken more seriously.”
Second. All in favor …?
i
“Seriously, a few months ago you wrote from LA saying how fab it was and why hadn’t you been there before? Right?”
uhhh – those posts were talking about the andaz and west hollywood (where I usually don’t stay). I really had only briefly visited that area as my children and wirf live in orange county (and, in case you don’t know anything about LA – being in Orange County is VERY DIFFERENT and VERY FAR from West Hollywood – in both distance and “feel”). Again, I don’t lie about the facts in my life, moron.
“Nah, who am I kidding an ass is an ass is an ass….”
wait….are you hitting on me?
Fwiw a successful trader called me 15 – 20 years ago and advised he & his wife had just decided to sell their condo in GZ and move to Madison, WI having read Money mag ratings saying Madison was 2nd best place in US to raise kids.
“you are wrong – people in general don’t move farther than a few miles from where they live. This is why I find those rankings of towns (ie Money magazine – best places for singles, best places to retire, etc.) such a frickin joke. ARE U KIDDING ME?!! As if someone is going to pick up the magazine and say, “oh, honey look – Pipsqueak, Arkansas has the lowest housing costs – let’s move there!!). Ridiculous – and you morons eat it all up. I swear, I wish I was dumber….life would be so much easier”
“are you hitting on me?”
For someone as homophobic/racist as you, you sure do like to throw this statement/thought around.
I’m a pretty good judge of character through a face to face or by reading internet postings. Believe me I would NEVER ‘hit on’you or anyone like you.
Again, an ass is an ass is an ass…in real life or on the internet.
And you, little one, are an ass.
Laura L – I believe that the building in the 1200 block of Pratt that went by the name “Astor House” had to change its name several years ago. There’s a deluxe apartment building in the Gold Coast by that name and they were not happy being confused with a much more downscale namesake in Rogers Park.
wow, very lively strange discussion.
westloopelo, Rogers Park will be the next South Chicago?
that doesn’t even make sense. South Chicago isnt doing so good right now. Everyone who would rather live in South Chicago right now rather than Rogers Park please raise your hand….
yep westloopelo is wrong.
I think the truth is inbetween westloopelo and laura
you have one being overly pessimistic and one being overly optomistic. Very hyperbolic and crazy discussions guys.
Also its obvious that its not being monitored. Thats okay though.
Some crazy unmonitored discussions must go on.
Westloopelo never counted me into the the Rogers Park equation.
Big mistake. Thats okay. Things are improving in RP even with
the recession. Ive got two trash routes and a third is in the works.
“Also its obvious that its not being monitored. Thats okay though.
Some crazy unmonitored discussions must go on.”
I bet big brother is watching!
I don’t think RP will become the next LP and it doesn’t need to.
But I really don’t think it will become the next south side.
What it will become is what it was before Section 8 rentals and the deliberate destruction of our cities by HUD policy- and by the way, the destruction of the schools came AFTER the destructive policies of the 50s started the decimation of our city neighborhoods- is a mostly moderate-to middle-income neighborhood with a few expensive houses (like those on Albion by the lake) on one hand and a few less expensive buildings, but no hard core poverty…
… except the dismal North of Howard nabe, which I believe will remain a pit for at least the next 25 years because that’s how long most of the rentals there have to remain low-income “project Section 8” buildings under the terms of the loans their owners got to buy them and rehab them.
The destruction of Rogers Park and so many fine urban neighborhoods just like it in all the older U.S. cities owes strictly to HUD and FHA policy. This didn’t happen as a function of the market, folks. It was policy-driven all the way and financed by our taxes. The FHA had a huge hand in it, in “redlining” fine, intact city neighborhoods while handing out cheap 3% down loans for crackerbox houses in the cheap new subdivisions that were popping up allover corn fields across the country. My parents bought one of these new houses because they could get a no-down VA loan, which they could not for the houses they would have preferred in St. Louis’ west end. Then, the highways went in, and made it easy and cheap to commute 20 miles a day. The transit agencies, previously profitable, started to bleed money and cut service drastically, and the streets became deserted and dangerous. And the schools lost their middle class students AND the middle class parents who always take an interest in their childrens’ education and are involved in efforts to better their schools and communities. When I was a high school kid in another city, Sullivan and Senn High Schools were known nationwide for their academic excellence. You were proud to say you went to these schools. The schools did not drive people out so much as the loss of the middle class to auto suburbs gutted the schools.
The trends that destroyed our cities will most likely reverse on our way down the slope of oil depletion. People will no longer be able to afford to live miles from shopping, services, and schools. They will want and need to live in cohesive, walkable neighborhoods with proximity to transit, retail, and services, and by “proximity” I don’t mean a mile’s drive. I mean within a few blocks. If you are a middling earner, you will not want to be stranded in a place where life was only possible by means of 11 auto trips a day, which is what the average American makes- and most Americans live in suburban-type communities. The only suburbs that will make it in the next twenty years are those with a rail stop, or are already elite pockets, like Hinsdale and Oakbrook.The north shore suburbs with their lovely downtown areas oriented to the METRA and their fine older homes will always be prime areas. Some municipal leaders see this and perhaps that’s why Arlington Heights and Palatine, just to name a couple of outer burbs, have developed attractive “downtown” areas with large, attractive multiuse buildings and retail close to their METRA stops, while the houses and apartment complexes built on the outer edges of town on the 50s and 60s model, whither.
jeffo, how are ya? Haven’t heard from you since I saw you post on Uptown Update.
The reason the neighbors don’t mow 1225 W Pratt’s parkway are twofold. One is rather obvious- the lady in the house to the east is very elderly. She’s a lovely, intelligent woman, but she is not up for mowing her neighbor’s lawn. She almost never leaves the house. And the man to the north is older, as well, and very busy maintaining HIS property.
And maybe they both figure that an owner wealthy enough to shovel $150K in improvements into the place AND sit on it for two years without selling at a ridiculously high price is perhaps well-off enough to pay to have the property cared for himself. Shame on him!!
You might note that 1200 W Pratt, which was renovated into an overpriced condo that failed and became rentals, usually has a lot of litter on its parkway. Now, I happily pick up every scrap of litter I see on our beautiful lawn at 1216-1228 W Pratt. I carry an extra plastic bag so I can do this. But I will be DAMNED if I will go over to pick up garbage off 1200’s parkway. I actually DID pick up some of their litter for a while but began to feel a little exploited- why should I take an hour out of my life and chosen activities while their tenants and manager just ignore the situation? Let their lazy management do this. Instead, if it annoys me, I call 311, which i have done a couple of times for 1200 because their dumpsters were spilling over.
Laura will it really take 25 more years for NOH to improve?
Say it aint so… I have a family member who live on a nice pocket of fargo nearby.
I was thinking howard was and NOH was going to turn around
fater than 25 years.
Im ok laura, i post on everyblock rogers park a whole lot.
1200 w Pratt is that the one with Isam’s liquors?
I used to post on broken heart RP as well. Yeah I figured that the people living there were really old by 1225 pratt.
This past spring I worked very hard on the former synagogue site. My posts were on the broken heart site just before it shut down.
I cut up all the wood and threw some out in the pratt/columbia alley. I got in hot water because some neigbhor got pissed I was taking up some much room in his dumpster and he called the cops, so I just put the rest of the wood and crap in my car and threw it out in my own trash. A couple weeks previous to that I picked up 100 gallons of trash of the synagogue site.
After all that in march/april someone finally decided to take care of the site. put a fence up and has keep it mowed and such. what a relief. I had also called in for the dead tree on the south side of pratt by the alley by the first house to get cut down last fall.
Interesting survey..
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/the-future-of-home-urban-and-smaller-but-still-owned/245394/
Yeah, jeffo, you and I used to talk together on the Broken Heart alot.
You remember me as The North Coast. My blog is still up and I’ll be posting on it much more next year, but right now I’m posting hardly at all because I have a business project going that is consuming most of my mental energy. So I have no time or energy for a real article, only comments on other people’s site.
I feel for your relative on Fargo. I believe that area is coming along, but not fast enough for me, mainly because of the proximity to Howard. The areas along Clark from Howard to Lunt, and on Howard from Sheridan to Ridge are still dodgy and dangerous. But Morse has improved a great deal and is almost completely clean. Best of all, two really bad rental buildings, one at Greenview & Morse and one on Greenview between Morse and Farwell, have been completely cleaned up and beautifully renovated. This is very encouraging.
Problem with NOH is all the project Section 8 buildings. As I said, they’re not going away anytime soon. Thank You HUD for maintaining this slum in my area and paying landlords to blight their buildings. What’s most unfortunate is that it’s difficult for a building buyer to get financing that isn’t backed by HUD and it comes with conditions. HUD is directly responsible for the slummifying of our cities and if there is any federal agency I could sunset, this one would be at the top of my list.
“wait wait wait – so Bob, you are basing your opinion on the global economy on a bad purchase of cookies you recently made?”
I actually have more info than this but I can’t get into it. Can just say that CPGs are hurting..big.
“Yep, should make it based on the slice of pizza instead.”
No and this is what you Peter Schiff fanatics who are constantly wrong keep clinging to. Don’t confuse some businesses that are hurting due to this downturn’s pains with all businesses. A lot of businesses are going to go under in this downturn. The business owner and their banker may not want it to happen and may not even know it yet but its a fucking certainty.
A lot of businesses that could’ve survived pre-2008 can not in this new environment. Your sporadic examples pointing to the inflation boogeyman right around the corner have been flung around by the financial press and traders betting their books for the better part of three years now. I haven’t seen much inflation yet..at all.
Bob, that was one of your less cohesive explanations. Input prices increasing and squeezing margins with confusing why businesses are hurting? Sounds like a reason CPG’s might be hurting.
“traders betting their books for the better part of three years now.”
And congrats to them. It was a nice bet. I am certain any trader long commodities the past 3 years has been rewarded very handsomely, and very deservedly, for it.
Inflation traders haven’t fared so well.
What have TIPS done?
The commodities bubble only formed because the global pool of money is fleeing real estate and needs somewhere to go. Commodities as an asset class actually have bubbles quite frequently. Yet you didn’t see crazy inflation in the early 80s when gold peaked in real prices.
There are some differences this time around but not many. And just wait until these third world countries realize that the first world one’s have been exporting our economic problems via a weakening our currency.
The Brazilians are too stupid to figure that out but the chinamen are on top of things.
“Input prices increasing and squeezing margins with confusing why businesses are hurting?”
They’re actually not up significantly. Maybe there’s FX at play in there. I don’t believe for a second Mr. Pizza shop owner’s explanation on the margin squeeze.
It is a great way to scapegoat away responsibility for a failing business in this economy, however. Afterall management is about staying in management as long as possible to extract value from the owners.
“Yet you didn’t see crazy inflation in the early 80s when gold peaked in real prices.”
You saw it before the peak, one would not expect after.
“I don’t believe for a second Mr. Pizza shop owner’s explanation on the margin squeeze.”
I know you on’t. That would require you to look at dairy prices doubling since 09, same with grains. Why would all these higher and higher prices ever flow through the system? They aren’t used for anything.
It’s interesting how your predictions always match your position in life.
“The Brazilians are too stupid to figure that out but the chinamen are on top of things.”
huh? do you know about what you are saying? Do you know anything about either countries? Tough, since China is basically a closed book. As for here, you would be surprised how detailed the news is about international trade stuff when your country once had to handle several thousand percent inflation. I’ll take the average uneducated guy here over a college educated guy there, when it comes to understanding what happens when your country borrows too much. Really you should listen to the President here, she actually told Obama, ya gotta stop spending and borrowing.
Basically you know dick! All your conclusions go exactly where you want them to go. Hope you don’t really waste time analyzing things. No need.
whats this then bob?
http://bpp.mit.edu/usa/
looks like about 3.75% inflation to me
“I know you on’t. That would require you to look at dairy prices doubling since 09, same with grains. Why would all these higher and higher prices ever flow through the system? They aren’t used for anything.”
They’re passing it through EVERYWHERE.
ConAgra just said today that it now expects inflation of 10% this year (had said a few months ago it would only be 8%)- because commodity prices keep rising. Also, it has raised prices on consumers 4% and would continue to do so in the next few quarters because it has no choice.
Just got back from grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. I spent $181.39 on just 4 bags of food. And I bought hardly any meat. I noticed the prices went up a few cents on everything, but percentage-wise, it’s a lot. For example, the bag of 4 small avocados used to be $3.99, but today it was $4.49. I also noticed this week, the bread I normally buy at Key Food for $3.99 had gone up to $4.39.
I’m not familiar with SFH prices around here but there are some super-cheap prices on condos in Rogers Park right now. You could definitely own a large apartment in the area for less than renting and maybe even have more square footage and a better layout than with a lot of SFHs. I hope more resident-owners move in, improve it and stay. The vintage buildings are gorgeous. I looked at a place up by the Juneway Jungle last year and it was WAY too rough for my taste, but if I was still in the market I would consider the better sections of RP which Laura mentioned.
Jeffo –
I thought at first you were a city sanitation worker, but are you just a concerned citizen using your own time to clean up the neighborhood? Great job, and thank you. You’ve restored some of my faith in humanity today.
Westloop –
Was that you on the downtown 2/3 train today around 5:30 PM? There was a contractor who trapped a hapless attractive older heavily botoxed commuter-woman and talked her ear off from Times Square all the way to Brooklyn, name-dropping about the job he just did for Kourtney Kardashian. Everyone had to listen to it all the way. The woman next to me raised her eyebrows like “Hmmm, he’s totally macking on her”. But I knew all you wanted to do was talk about yourself!
Did you just do an $800 paint job at the Peninsula Hotel? That was you, wasn’t it?!
“But I knew all you wanted to do was talk about yourself!”
(eyebrows raised): it’s funny how you come to clio’s defense with a conclusion like that.
Hi G –
You have a very nice lawn, btw. Don’t think I haven’t been eyeing it 🙂
Milkster,jeffo is a rental property owner and Great Citizen in the neighborhood, who contributes a lot of his time and effort to improving Rogers Park.
He is also a witty and humorous blog commenter.
jeffo, if i remember, aren’t you an MD? Or are you? Thought I remember you saying you were a few years back.
You can have asset deflation in combo with commodities inflation, which is what we have right now.
Everything I buy at the grocery store, whether Whole Foods, Dominick’s, Trader Joe’s, or Aldi’s, cost from 10% more to 30% more than it did last year. I’m a single, childless woman who could stand to eat less, and I also don’t run an auto, so I can adjust, but it’s a disaster for families in the moderate, middle, and even upper-middle income brackets. I notice most families are very tightly budgeted, juggling house payments and utilities and cars and gasoline and food costs for families of 4 or 5 people, plus school tuition and day care expenses. Those aren’t standing still, either. Placed against stagnating or falling salaries, the rising food and fuel prices mean a lot of misery.
Milkster, about those “rent parity” Rogers Park condos- be CAREFUL. Yes, we do have an impressive inventory of foreclosed condos up here, many of which are developer foreclosures that are becoming rentals. I’m looking at a number of these cheapo specials to buy, and most of them are unacceptable because they are stealth money pits. You have to beware of the liabilities that come with these units. Even though you can’t be hit with more than 6 months (!!) assessment arrears for the unit when you buy, any unpaid arrears beyond that are just that much less money the association has. That means higher monthly assessments for remaining owners to offset the loss from defaulting owners, and if there are enough defaults and foreclosures in a building, the amount of money owed can be staggering, which of course pushes more owners into default. People count on a given level of monthly expenditures when they buy, and most people buy to the limits of their borrowing power, unfortunately. This means they cannot handle a surprise expense of $100 to $200 or even $400 a month in extra assessments to offset the losses from defaults. This is a real disaster for the paying owners and you don’t want to be in this position.
Additionally, you have many “investors” buying units to rent out, so you also have a lot of rentals you have no control over, and amateur landlords who will rent to the first thing that shows up with a paycheck stub or Section 8 voucher. The associations are typically very new, badly regulated, and controlled by owners who have 2 or 3 units and are renting them out I saw beautiful old apartments being offered as condos, that had a refrigerator sitting in the living room as well as the kitchen, with massive piles of cheap plastic junk and clothes on every surface, indicating two families of poor, uneducated people occupying the unit. Is this a situation you want to buy into?
Hi Laura –
We are a couple with no children. Whole Foods has fallen by the wayside for us. Too expensive. Key Food – one of the local NYC supermarkets – is becoming too expensive and they don’t have the specials they used to. That bag of 4 avocadoes I mentioned was $10 at Key Food!! I shop at Aldi more, but it’s in Queens and I have to take 3 subways and I can’t carry a lot back. We love Trader Joe’s, but their prices have gone up too. I cook at home 6 nights a week and make healthy meals, but it’s getting harder to do.
On the in-town I bought recently, the seller tried to make me pay the assessment arrears but my attorney put his foot down and they paid. If you’d like his contact information, e-mail me at oakstbeachgrrl@yahoo.com
I was searching for some way to contact you awhile back, but could not find an e-mail address on North Coast. You had mentioned that some vintage condos were saving money by getting rid of their live-in supers. I proposed it to my co-op board in Brooklyn. They didn’t ultimately go for it unfortunately. My monthly assessments there went up to $1,400 a couple of months ago. That includes property taxes, but it’s still a LOT of money. They have doubled in the last 10 years.
Yep im internal medicine.
Laura I was thinking I understand why you dont pickup certain properties. But I believe things need to be attacked from multiple angles. I believe in partly shaming people/agencies into picking things up, I have a never give work ethic. The reason I do trash routes at all was because there was a driveby shooting on wayne easter sundary 2009. Thats where it started. Then it hit me, that I cant let this neigbhorhood fail. If even the landlords or whoever fail, I wont let it.
I have been able to cajole some landlords into taking care of their parkway/litter and lawn. Sometimes you have to speak with them several times. I got the RPBA or whoever manages 6957 n greenview/1448 morse to mow their lawn. The way I see it, hey, I will help out the guy a bit and I will let him know about it. It shows my commitment. I told RPBA, the aldermans office and someone who leases apartments about the situation. I picked up the trash, and WOW i was stunned that very same day(yesterday) they mowed the lawn. I also vow to not look out onto trash, thats another goal of mine.
Either way the trash does need to be picked up in order for anything to improve IMHO. If you look at it from a health care stand point. Trash/litter is a symptom of a disease. Apathy.
I heard on everyblock that Pillars Social Club is coming to that corner of Pratt/Sheridan this fall. Its about freaking time something cool came to that corner (Northwest).
We all have our limitations, but it behooves us all to do everything we can to make our neigbhorhood safer and cleaner and more interesting.
I have been mistaken for a city sanitation worker or something similar and that doesnt bother me, I dont correct people, some people thought I owned the synagogue site. Which wouldve been awesome, but alas not true. Haha. The cops partly thought I was a bit nuts but respected what I was doing by cutting up and getting rid of the branches/debris. And whats funny is that i actually used 1225’s garbage can and others to throw it out.
I knew for sure that I wouldnt get in trouble for using 1225’s trash bin as it was vacant.
Milkster, you and everyone else can reach me at:
lauralouzader@yahoo.com
Hey Sabrina, I know it’s two days too late, but didn’t you mean that the standard of living in Chicago is HIGHER (or the COST is lower) than New York?
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