Short Sale Deal in the South Loop: 1101 S. State
Apparently, this two bedroom unit at 1101 S. State in the South Loop is another one of those where the price has evoked a feeding frenzy. Thanks to the tipster who sent me info on this unit (and told me that a bunch of buyers flocked to see it last weekend.)
1101 S. State was built in 2005 and is near the popular Roosevelt Road area with good transportation, restaurants and the grocery store.
Unit #1302 is a 2/2 with the parking included in short sale – listed for only $249,900.
From the listing:
WOW!!!! A DEAL OF A LIFETIME. THIS PROPERTY IS IN FORECLOSURE AND COULD BE PURCHASED IN SHORT SALE TRANSACTION IT IS LISTED AT LEAST $100K UNDER VALUE. IT IS A GORGEOUS 2 BED 2 BATH IN PERFECT CONDITION.
HUGE MASTER CLOSET, BALCONY IN-UNIT W/D. CITY VIEWS, HARDWOOD FLOORS. FULL AMENITY BUILDING: OUTDOOR POOL & SUNDECK. HEATED INDOOR PARKING INCLUDED! DON’T MISS THIS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY!!!!
There are no interior pictures of this particular unit.
Unit #1302: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1100 square feet
- Sold in July 2007 for $415,000
- Currently listed as a short sale for $249,900 (includes the parking)
- Assessments of $550 a month
- 4 Sale Realty, Inc. has the listing
Unit #1002, three floors below, is also currently on the market. I’m sure the layouts are the same:
Unit #1002: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths
- Sold in March 2005 for $331,000
- Sold in May 2006 for $352,000
- Sold in August 2007 for $360,000
- Currently listed for $364,900 (parking included)
- Assessment of $609 a month
- USA Real Estate has the listing
Good price, but definitely not the deal of a lifetime. No need to rush to see this one. This price will be common in the future.
Double check association’s financial status to make sure you’re not buying into the Titanic.
The history on both these properties looks interesting.
#1002 — it’s been flipped annually since it was built, and I don’t think that anyone actually made money with it (only $21K and $8K on paper). The last buyer is going to get hurt badly by this short-sale comp.
#1302 — why did the last buyer pay $55K more for this unit than for #1002 (which closed a month later in 2007)? And how did they get this deep into foreclosure this fast? I wonder how fraudulent this purchase was…
There was more money down on #1302 than I would have expected — first mortgage of $332,000 (80%) and second of $62,250 (15%) means that the buyer had $20,750 down payment (exactly 5%).
Probably not fraud then.
Both mortgages are recorded through MERS, and the lis pendens is attached to the first.
There was also a mechanics lien (and lis pendens) against the association by an “Iron Works” — not a reassuring sign.
I don’t think we should get all excited about these short sale prices that seem to be priced below the market currently. Chances are it will get bid up above the 255k. I don’t trust short sale numbers until a deal actually closes as a situation like this will probably invite multiple bidders.
Also, this price seems like a bargain now but may not once the South Loop market has fully corrected. Roosevelt’s a pretty good location, but it’s not Streeterville.
Did you guys read the suntimes article in Business called “condominium confidence”? It was this weekend I think. It was HILRARIOUS. Here it is:
http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/1015762,CST-FIN-central20.article
hilarious. Sorry……
Thats the absurdity of the bubble. You had neighborhoods like the South Loop with essentially nothing in neighborhood amenities approaching $/sf values of neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, with basically everything in neighborhood amenities.
Now before the SL fanboys talk about Grant Park being a neighborhood amenity, I’d take a grocery store, tavern or anything that makes everyday living easier than a park that lacks even grown trees.
Jewel at State/Roosevelt (right across the street from this property).
Dominicks at Roosevelt and Canal.
Whole Foods at Roosevelt and Canal.
Take your pick, and so many taverns you trip over them.
Plus the Target just up the hill at Clark/Roosevelt.
This is one of the few areas we considered when apartment hunting last year — we wanted to be close to the loop, but with good grocery and restaurant access. We ended up in river north, because it is a bit closer to work and has more grocery.
I live in the South Loop and there are three grocery stores with in a mile of my place. There’s also a nearby vet and a Petco. There are plenty of office supply stores, a Home Depot, Target, Best Buy, cafes, banks,and plenty of restaurants. I prefer the South Loop because the traffic is no where near as bad as in Near North neighborhoods. Yes, the North Side neighborhoods are prettier with their fully grown trees, but for me the traffic is unbearable. Getting to my job in River North is very easy because I can just take Lower Wacker almost the entire way.
Its not a bad neighborhood at all. In fact if the prices approach these short sale values I might be moving there soon. But most of the stores are the same stores you find in suburbia. Not a lot of mom and pop stores (yet). I wasn’t aware of all of the grocery options but I guess it has expanded quite a bit in the past couple of years.
I am surprised that with the population density there are no traffic issues–what will happen when more high-rises are built and they fill up?
One thing going for it other than locatoin is in terms of architecture few other neighborhoods are comparable (only River North comes to mind).
The main issue might be its still a transition neighborhood and the bubble and fallout did little to help it settle down more. I think it might be a transition neighborhood for quite a while longer until all this RE and overbuilding fallout is behind us.
I lived there for a year. Traffic on Roosevelt can be a bear. I didn’t use my car alot given the proximity of good bus routes and the Orange Line.
What do people think of the prospects of South Loop Elementary? It seems to have gone through some upheavals. First with school boundaries/Hilliard Homes and more recently with whatever the fence/traffic issues were (which I still don’t really understand). Interested in any opinions and information. Would you/do you send your kids there?
We’re looking at Dearborn Park seriously, for many of the reasons listed here. Prices don’t seem as inflated there as they do elsewhere, but maybe I’m wrong on that.
It does bring up a good point about the area.
Traffic stinks and you’re close enough to downtown not to need a car. Yet city code dictates that all units in the area must offer a space. Is there any market for rented parking spaces in buildings such as this? Additional income potential anyone?
From looking at Craigslist ads, there is a fair market for parking space rentals in this general area. The going rate seems to be in the $200/month range. One issue is that some buildings don’t allow outside renters for parking (must be rented to someone else in the building), but it seems that those rules are hard to enforce. I don’t know about this particular building, although I do remember that when we looked here last fall we noted that the parking was secured separately from the rest of the building.
Traffic on Roosevelt is indeed terribly, and even worse on Sunday when the Maxwell St. Market is up and running. The good news is that the market is scheduled to move again soon. But, the reality is that we walk everywhere down here and seldom use the car for errands. The car usage is primarily for longer distances, and it is a 3-4 minute trip to get onto either LDS or Congress. The streets south of Roosevelt are usually free and clear, and Clark in particular is normally great.
DZ:
The whole “fence issue” was on levels of stupidity too great for us mere mortals to understand, so please do not judge the school based on that. SL does offer a tour of their facilities to parents who are interested so you can check it out and talk to the faculty there.
“Getting to my job in River North is very easy because I can just take Lower Wacker almost the entire way.”
Or the Red Line. Is the appeal of the South Loop really that it’s easier to drive there than in River North? If so, it’s going to be the least desirable place in town once the ample parking supply floods the streets with traffic.
“Getting to my job in River North is very easy because I can just take Lower Wacker almost the entire way.”
Or one of about a hundred bus routes – or walking or riding a bike! I can’t conceive of driving from the South Loop to River North on a daily basis. It would take longer to get the car in and out of garages than to just hop on the bus.
Welcome to America….
SL is getting there when it comes to amenities, but the problem is that it’s competing with much more complete neighborhoods. Why would you pay the same in the SL as River North or Streeterville? SL doesn’t hold a candle to them and in an over-built market, the South Loop is probably one of the most likely areas to drop.
D
Well DB from the counter perspective:
I’ve never seen the allure of RN or Streeterville. Perhaps I’m not enough of an ‘artiste’ but I really don’t hold RN or SV in higher esteem than SL. Both appear to be “neighborhoods” in quotations only. Very transient but with very modern architecture.
So I guess I’ll go devil’s advocate here and ask why RN or SV is perceived as a better place than SL? Is it the fireworks (that can be seen from some SL units and not from all RN units) or the view of the ferris wheel?
In all honesty the traffic in RN & SV is probably bad between the hours of 7-11ish due to the touristy/suburban crowds. I doubt SL approaches that and its barely 1.5 miles away.
Yes SL is likely to drop and I’m a fence sitter on that one 🙂
I’m probably not the right type to ask, as I’ve never been a fan of modern skyscrapers. Ooh — that glass-and-steel tower is slightly different from the one down the block. And I have a general concern about large condo associations — too much potential for a bad board to remain through apathy, and probably psychologically harder to maintain appropriate reserves (“do we really need $1M in the reserve account?”).
That means that I throw out Streeterville and much of the South Loop first. The remaining bits of the South Loop (loft-heavy areas like Printers Row), River North (essentially west of Dearborn), and Gold Coast then are more reasonable in my eyes.
We ended up renting in River North rather than the other areas because of a perception that downtown closes rather early. We’d visited too many times on conferences and found that nothing much remained open late. That may change as you get closer to Roosevelt, however.
We are now buying in Gold Coast because it is close to things without being completely burdened with traffic. The neighborhood schools are also better than either River North (good elem only) or South Loop (elem is rapidly improving, high is bad).
Another factor which may come into play in comparing South Loop to River North is distance. The big office buildings in the loop seem to be roughly balanced around 0N, which means that River North (roughly 300-800N) is about a half-mile closer than Printers Row (perhaps 800-1200S) and much closer than South Loop (mainly 1200S and way further). The “sexy” buildings all seem to be similarly far east, with “East Loop” (north of Grant Park) being rather closer than either Streeterville or South Loop. I also like being on a grid of one-way streets (River North) rather than mostly two-way streets (South Loop or Gold Coast), because it makes biking a bit safer and traffic a bit easier to manage.
I’d rank the South Loop very highly on cultural amenities, and River North/Streeterville highly on high-end shopping. The South Loop does much better on big-box shopping, but I think that River North is a bit better on smaller shopping (especially “alternative” grocers). For my tastes, it is important to have several grocers in walking range, but I am fine being forced to bike (or take a cab) to get to museums, Target, or big box stores. Streeterville is out because I (and, fortunately, my wife) loathe high-end shopping. [Although organized runs out of the Niketown and Garmin stores are worth it.]
Long ramble, but some ideas here.
DZ, regarding South Loop Elementary: my impression is that it is on a very positive trajectory…but still not yet a place I’d be excited about sending my kids given the test scores, etc. This is based on small amount of research, so I am by no means an expert on this.
“The big office buildings in the loop seem to be roughly balanced around 0N, which means that River North (roughly 300-800N) is about a half-mile closer than Printers Row (perhaps 800-1200S)”
Kevin, I always enjoy your thorough analyses but wanted to point out that the south side street grid is not as perfect as the north.
Roosevelt (1200S) is one mile from Madison (0N)
Cermak (2200S) is two miles
31st Street is three miles
39th Street commences standard 8 blocks to the mile
Interesting comparisons between RN and SL areas. I am a South Loopie, and when we bought our unit we felt that we were getting a better value. For the same amount of money we got a larger unit and a huge terrace. We weren’t finding anythng comparable in RN. Maybe values have evened out, but it wasn’t true at the time we purchased. When we DO drive, which is seldom, we can pull out of our garage and be on the Eisenhower or Lower Wacker in 2 minutes or less, in RN we’d still be stuck at the first stoplight.
We personally liked the feeling of the SL which is turning into a sort of neighborhood, with small restaurants and shops where they now know us by name. I’m sure the same would happen in RN, but there seems to be a much larger percentage of tourists and occasional shoppers/diners up there.
The other advantage I see in the north part of the SL is the convenience of transportation. From Printers Row, you are no more than a 5 minute walk from every single CTA line (except Yellow, of course), this combined with the many buses that run down Michigan and State really makes getting anywhere very easy. The south part of the SL is a bit of a CTA rail dead zone, with no stop between Roosevelt and Chinatown.
If we want to go to RN we either walk – 20 minutes and good exercise – or hop on the Red Line and we’re at State/Grand in 10 minutes or less. The 145 stops right outside our door and takes us right up to NoMi in no time flat.
To us, getting more and nicer space for the money was worth it. We did need to sift through a LOT of units, since there is a lot of crap being built down there.
“Kevin, I always enjoy your thorough analyses but wanted to point out that the south side street grid is not as perfect as the north.”
Thanks G — as someone new to the area, this is good to know. Explains why it feels like Monroe and Balbo are closer than they should be when I run or bike the lakefront.
It means that Printers Row and the shorter part of River North are similarly far from 0N. That also puts the South Loop and Gold Coast at a similar distance (Roosevelt=Chicago, Cermak=North).
JB…
I live in RN and before we bought our condo here, we also looked at South Loop and West Loop. I think SL is/will be a great place to live especially if you are closer to Roosevelt than 18th st. Lots of stores and shops opening up.
I agree with you that the touristy area of RN does get a little annoying, and that’s why we ended up in the western part of RN which has a great neighborhood feel as well as a lot more green space and riverwalk. Brown line is right there as well as the Chicago and Grand buses. We also simply walk to go shopping and Whole Foods (10-15 minute walk) and to the lake path (~20 minutes).
The western part of RN will again be completely different (already starting to get congested!) after the entire Cabrini Complex is redone. The ever changing landscape has been very interesting to watch over the past 5 years… I think the same can be said with SL.