The $2.1 Million “As-Is” River North Row House: 431 W. Superior
This 4-bedroom newer construction row house at 431 W. Superior in River North came on the market as an “as-is” sale in August.
It was recently reduced $275,000.
From the pictures, the kitchen and baths are intact. The kitchen is described as a chef’s kitchen.
There are 4 large terraces on a 27×110 lot.
It is also an enormous property, with 7342 square feet.
3 out of the 4 bedrooms are on the third floor with the fourth on the main floor.
Is this a deal for the location and square footage?
Henry Jones at Jones Realty has the listing. See more pictures here.
431 W. Superior: 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 7342 square feet, 2 car garage
- I couldn’t locate a prior purchase price
- Originally listed in August 2010 for $2.375 million
- Reduced
- Currently listed as “as is” for $2.1 million
- Taxes are “new”
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 17×20 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 22×13 (third floor)
- Bedroom #3: 15×12 (third floor)
- Bedroom #4: 18×12 (main floor)
Superior St. here is just stunning with all these huge homes.
Talk about a dream House! 2.1 is a steal, most of these places appraise over 3 mil!
Is that a cat in picture 10? Why would there be a cat in an abandon home?
The house is across the street from 400 W Superior, home of Chicago’s kangaroo court. It’s a bit of a busy street during the daytime.
I agree that the homes are nice. They seemed to be built to last instead of being a McCrapbox. I’m betting the developer is out of money to finish it off and that’s why they’re selling it as is.
Now, cue Clio to post about how his wealthy buds need to be buying this place.
Know this property well. Walk by it everyday (live around the corner) – I think it’s funny that they VPS’d it (typically you see this on Chicago-proper Boarded up apartment buildings). On a Price/SF basis, under $300/SF is pretty remarkable. I have to think though they are counting basement space as well. Though if 1100 SF condos in the area are beginning to sell under $300/SF (500 W Superior/700-720 N Larabbee/River North Commons/451 W Huron, I’d have to imagine a 7000 SF house on a $/SF basis should sell under $300/SF. I wonder if it’s lender owned already or the current borrower is looking to do a short sale. Note is/was $2,184,373 according to my research. This property couldn’t have been built for less than $250/SF including land. As far as the area is concerned, people buying these homes made a decision to forgo a 2500+SF condo in RNorth/Gold Coast for a ton more space, but also, much higher taxes. SF #’s on these homes seem to be greater than the typical 25×150 SFH’s in LPark, but are a little more cookie-cutter. Being on the Huron side of this single family home development is better than being on the Superior Side – but it’s all preference. Also, if you like cars, standing at Chicago and Larabbee on a fall Saturday afternoon is unreal…
This home was occupied for a while – this development was sold out. There are a few parcels being developed by Crescent Rock who IMHO builds very nice SFH.
“Buyer agree to pay $99 doc fee at closing. ”
i’m glad they cleared that up.
“Is that a cat in picture 10?”
I thought it was a goose, but I can see how a cat is more plausible.
I wouldn’t want to live in an area known for its home invasions.
“I thought it was a goose, but I can see how a cat is more plausible.”
I’m guessing they’re using the basement to feed the cats to the rats and the rats to the cats and getting the cat skins for nothing. To offset the carrying costs.
i’d be curious where this ends up.
if i was spending that much money here would be my concerns:
location — solid but hardly the best. you can easily get the best location for this price.
views — seem to be lacking if not a complete goose egg here. no matter what the inside looks like i’d have a hard time spending $2MM+ in Chicago and looking at the side of other buildings. is there a roof top deck here?
floor plan — 7000+ square feet but that listing doesn’t show much open space…and if that space isn’t used wisely it just kills the value of this place.
honestly, the pictures for this listing leave a lot to be desired…why show two pictures looking down the street? you can get that from Google.
on a $/SF basis it seems to be in the ballpark, but $2.1MM can buy a lot of 4 bedroom places and if you’re not really getting the most out of all that square footage, the place is going to sit for a long time.
For a house with 7,342 square feet there are hardly any photos that really show where all this square footage is, or what it looks like, or how it’s configured.
“I wouldn’t want to live in an area known for its home invasions.”
you can have guns in your home now, so its cool
lol. In these tough times, you can’t be picky as to who you rent to.
“Jim M on September 30th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Is that a cat in picture 10?”
I just do not get this development. There is really nothing about it that says this should be an area of $2 and $3 million homes. If I had that kind of $$ to spend I believe that there are better options on LP west by the zoo, near the lakefront, or in a penthouse condo. What do you do with 7000+ sq feet of space?
What will taxes be like on these homes?
“What will taxes be like on these homes?”
425 W Superior, which is one of the 4 rowhomes, and listed by the assessor as 7956 sf, seems to be bearing the tax bill for all 4 of the rowhomes–last year’s billed amount was $163,500, of which $60k was paid. The current year first installment (55%) was paid at $22k–which makes me believe that the 08/payable 09 taxes for this place were ~$40k.
So, $40,000+.
Is 430 W Huron the same development? It’s listed at $1.9MM (with 2008 taxes per listing of $24K).
I don’t know how true the 7,000 sq ft is but who really wants all that space in that location. IF I were at that pricepoint and wanted to live in that general area, I’d easily take a (much smaller) gold coast townhome instead. But maybe this type of place appeals to someone who needs space downtown and can’t afford the Dimon mansion.
could this be antoine walkers place? if not he might be your neighbor. doesnt have the cache of “johnny depp stayed” here but it’s something.
The nicest thing about this area is the lack of congestion. So I get why someone would want to live here. You miss most of the crazy, nasty traffic of the gold coast and even parts of river north, but you are 5 minutes from downtown/goldcoast. There are also a number of parks nearby and the river walk.
There is a little pocket in this area of houses just like this, some of which are absolutely massive. And most of these are not overshadowed by highrises, which is another plus.
“Is 430 W Huron the same development? It’s listed at $1.9MM (with 2008 taxes per listing of $24K).”
5 units still in one PIN, with 2008 taxes that totaled $118k. Currently under review for possible improvements.
AND the AV went up 50% from 08 to 09, so, even with the same EQ factor (won’t happen), current year taxes will be over $35k for the Huron THs.
“could this be antoine walkers place?”
His place was west of Hudson on Huron, with a vacant lot next door. One of the non-row houses. LP has been filed.
“The nicest thing about this area is the lack of congestion.”
I thought it was the proximity to the Cabrini Row Homes.
“You miss most of the crazy, nasty traffic of the gold coast”
Don’t try to drive to/from here at PM rush, unless you feel like dealing with crazy, nasty traffic. AM is easier.
$40K for taxes…..WOW that sux! I’d rather have a 2 million dollar penthouse, pay huge assessments, less taxes, and have a doorman/security than have this place.
2009 Cook County Equalization Factor: 3.3701
2008 Cook County Equalization Factor: 2.9786
Discuss…
Anyone that knows this area knows this stretch is as nice as anything else in the Midwest. There are stunning homes here.
Yeah, there was the home invasion scandal and you aren’t super close to the lake, but the river is right there and so is downtown. Now that Cabrini is totally aced, I tend to think the immediate area will improve in the short term.
Of course this whole city is about to degentrify inside of five years, so I wouldn’t ever buy here.
What is the “home invasion scandal” that everyone seems to be referring to?
“2009 Cook County Equalization Factor: 3.3701
2008 Cook County Equalization Factor: 2.9786”
Where are you finding that? If that’s correct, and final, then there is no reason to delay sending out tax bills.
And it’s MASSIVELY different from the tentative number of 3.1062. The largest prior difference from the tentative number and the final number was .0939 for ’07 taxes; the 2d highest was .0832 for ’06 taxes. The suggestion here is that the difference will be .2639–almost 3x the highest prior adjustment.
ah yes the old “barbarians crashing at the gates of the green zone theory”
LOL 5 years? Really?
I disagree homeboy. there are nicer stretches within walking distance.
Carlos, A walker was victim of home invasion couple years back. guy has bad luck (remember he got held up outside of eppel’s on roosevelt some time ago as well..and he owes the casinos millions) and as tfo pointed out is likely gone from the hood.
“Now that Cabrini is totally aced, I tend to think the immediate area will improve in the short term.”
Except its not. The rowhomes are staying, and coincidentally they’re the Cabrini residences that are nearest to 431 Superior.
I’ve never seen a greater wealth disparity in such a small area: the entrance to the cabrini rowhomes from here is ~300ft.
” Now that Cabrini is totally aced, I tend to think the immediate area will improve in the short term.”
Not true. The row homes even got new windows and will be used as CHA for the next several decades. Not as fierce as before sure but I wouldn’t want to park my $2M home right next door.
If the 10% AV to MV relationship holds true, an equalization factor in the 3.3x range is sensible since EAVs are supposed to be 1/3 of MV. 3.3 x 10% = 33%.
Chicago Avenue makes a nice border here though because there isn’t a light from Kingsbury all the way to Orleans St. (read, fast moving traffic 24/7 between Cabrini and here)
honestly, I walk my dogs around here all the time and I probably couldn’t count on one hand the times i’ve seen a cabrini resident on this street
“then there is no reason to delay sending out tax bills.”
Ah but you need a levy still. So there is a reason.
I haven’t seen anything on the final multiplier though.
http://www.revenue.state.il.us/AboutIdor/PressReleases/PR-09-29-2010.pdf
This is a big change in the equalization factor. Unprecedented one might say. Assuming tax levys stay the same, that’s a 13% increase in property taxes. Of course, what’s the chances the tax levys will stay the same?
drove around cabrini a good bit last sat mid morning. there are a ton of buildings up but I saw next to nobody around. it is a weird blast from the past in there. lots of old playgrounds, basketball courts, some churches and odd little stores. but it is pretty desolate. Found a nice park district gym that has a pretty decent swimming pool and basketball court.
“2009 Cook County Equalization Factor: 3.3701
2008 Cook County Equalization Factor: 2.9786
Discuss…”
Further on this:
If it is correct, and the mill rate has the same %age decrease as b/t 07 and 08 (07 = 4.994; 08 = 4.816; assume 09 = 4.644–note I know this is impossible, but necessary for the comparison) then my taxes (with a sub-1% increase in AV) will be 11.3% higher this year than last.
If the Eq is *only* the prelim + the highest prior change (3.1062 + .0939= 3.2001), then my taxes will be 5.6% higher. So that should be the approximate range, assuming flat AV.
I bet levies go down in this case leading to a claim of “lower tax rates” for residents of Cook. I think everyone expected them to go up, but I have a hard time seeing the justification for a 13% increase.
What is the max homeowners exemption for 2009? 20k off EAV?
“So, $40,000+”
I literally just fell off my chair a little bit. Hah.
I mean it’s very nice, but there are SO many better options for that kinda coin. . .
“Ah but you need a levy still. So there is a reason. ”
The levy is just the budget requests divided by the aggregate EAV. With the EQ factor settled, this can be done by below-average CPS 5th grader in under 10 minutes. Assuming he’s using a calculator.
Or are you saying that there are governments who haven’t submitted their requests yet?
“Ah but you need a levy still. So there is a reason. ”
Location dependent, but $20k in the city.
“Or are you saying that there are governments who haven’t submitted their requests yet?”
Yes that is exactly what I am saying. Do you have the budget that equates to 4.816% of 2008 EAV for Chicago? As know, each tax jurisdiction is different.
OK so i confess I know a bit more than most since I rented this house until March 2010. Here’s some more info……
-Area is great if you like River North but this is 1 of 9 townhomes and the ones on Huron don’t face the court building which attracts an interesting crowd during the day.
-The building is well constructed and the high ceilings throughout are very dramatic and give the feel of a lot of space.
-The floorplan is strange. Basically laid out as a 4 bed room with 2 en-suites (3rd floor and ground floor) and a shared bath between beds 3&4 (3rd floor)
-The top floor is basically a party floor with 2×500 sq ft decks either side of 1,200 sq ft.
The living space is great and the deck off the kitchen works very well, we ate out there all summer and got to know the neighbors well. As you can imagine they are a pretty interesting and diverse bunch. The end house was occupied by the Irish consulate general when we moved in (he has since moved on).
To the best of my knowledge only 425 Superior ever sold on open market. The other 8 houses were still owned by developer (under a range of different names). This was the first one to get to foreclosure auction. Subsequently 422 and 424 Huron have sold at auction, both to third parties for around $1.6m.
Antoine Walker lived on the next block West, so did Michael Jordan’s ex wife. The houses on that block are SFH not row homes and generally more like 8-10k sq ft.
What’s this one worth? Well I don’t suposed the neighbors were too thrilled when the bank VPS’ed it. If anyone has not seen VPS, drive by, it is horrendous. Basically they weld metal shutters over the lower windows and doors. On this house they did the garage too. It looks like the A-Team redesigned it (showing my age but you all remember the final scene in every episode when they drive a recently-armored farm vehicle out of the barn in a shootout with the bad guys, in which no-one ever gets shot despite heavy automatic gunfire.)
“Do you have the budget that equates to 4.816% of 2008 EAV for Chicago?”
Full list of all applicable levies in Cook County here:
http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/tsd/DocumentLibrary/2008TaxRates.pdf
You need to know (or determine) which districts apply to you. Sears School alone has a levy of 2.446% of EAV, so a MV $1mm house in K’worth is going to pay about $957 more this year than last *just for the Elem school*.
As to the budgets for the City, Chicago has no increase, CPS has no increase, the CPS building fund is lower, and I haven’t dug around for City Colleges, Park district, Library, Cook County, MWRD or Forest Preserve, but I don’t think they increased their requests, either (and I know they’re all done).
Well if there aren’t any funding increases in the city then the tax levy should go down, am I right? So that increase in the EF won’t hit with the full force that it could have.
I love that they announced that the department is not ready and will not be sending tax notices out until late in November long after the election. This is borderline FRAUD and Maria Pappas and her crew should be held accountable. Each day of delay on sending out those bills means that our “broke government” is “floating” a loan to the people owing them taxes. I wonder what the loss of interest revenue is on each additional day of not having those funds.
If this were a private company heads would roll. There should be a law that states exactly what date they must be sent out. If they are not ready by that date then the people in charge should be held accountable. There is no excuse for not having this done other than lazy employees, obvious corruption and political manipulation.
Those are 2008 levies. They will change with 2009. Agreed if you knew budget and aggregate AV you could get there.
Ok, so then what is Chicago’s new tax rate then? Budget is flat, so what is the 2009 aggregate AV?
“Well if there aren’t any funding increases in the city then the tax levy should go down, am I right? So that increase in the EF won’t hit with the full force that it could have.”
Depends on the aggregate of AVs. May not have gone up.
“Agreed if you knew budget and aggregate AV you could get there. ”
You wrote that we need to know the levy.
My understanding has been that the final EqF can’t be determined until the aggregate AV is known. Perhaps that’s not quite right, but if not, there’s a lot of false precision in the factor.
Chicago agency has 80,977,543,020 EAV for 2008. Divide by 2.9786 and you get 2008 AV of 27,186,444,309. The assessor (frustratingly) does not seem to post AV for 2009, but cites median numbers etc. Assuming 10% reduction in AV and the new equalizer and you get an EAV that is around 82B, which implies levy will be around 4.73% for Chicago assuming no budget increase.
“You wrote that we need to know the levy.”
Yes, and the only way you know levy is if you have aggregate AV for 2009 and the aggregate agency budget requests. No one has that yet — at least its not public.
“which implies levy will be around 4.73% for Chicago assuming no budget increase.”
And thus, about a 13% increase in taxes due, with a property with flat AV and no change in exemption status.
“the aggregate agency budget requests”
For Chicago, we most certainly do. I’m not chasing them down, tho.
And, to get pedantic on you (as you do often enough), what we need to know is the aggregate AV. Then we can calculate the levy, not the other way around.
Aaargh, this tax stuff always gives me a headache. I kinda ignore but feel guilty about ignoring it. Maybe you guys could write a wikipedia entry.
“OK so i confess I know a bit more than most since I rented this house until March 2010. Here’s some more info……”
Neo, did you leave your cat behind?
The photographer should see a chiropractor for a neck adjustment ASAP.
“And, to get pedantic on you (as you do often enough), what we need to know is the aggregate AV. Then we can calculate the levy, not the other way around.”
First of all, it is not clear to me all the budgets are in. They need to be filed within 30 days of adoption, but adoption dates vary. True that some may be in, but your inability to coalesce suggests not all the parts are in place. I would agree that I would rather not look them up, but it seems to me that an enterprising journalist could effectively out the obstinate powers that be by using a little ingenuity (or 5th grade acumen as you suggested). Houlihan’s website stinks, but I do think you should be able to look up final AV. Though
Second of all, I was not suggesting you use the levy to calculate aggregate AV. I was suggesting you need the budget requests for each tax jurisdiction and aggregate AV to calculate the levy.
Forget the house, I want to hire the webmaster for the Jones Realty website.
“but your inability to coalesce suggests not all the parts are in place”
No, it suggests that I–like you–have better things to do than dig through the agencies’ website, as neither of use draw a paycheck as a journalist.
“Second of all, I was not suggesting you use the levy to calculate aggregate AV. I was suggesting you need the budget requests for each tax jurisdiction and aggregate AV to calculate the levy.”
So that’s why you typed (at 12:21): “Ah but you need a levy still. So there is a reason.”?
Or did you confuse “levy” with “budget request”?
Vince Vaughan is just down the street too. I believe a SFH near the corner of Superior/Kingsbury.
“So that’s why you typed (at 12:21): “Ah but you need a levy still. So there is a reason.”?”
Do idioms confuse you? Don’t be so literal. You need the information from which you can, definitively, dervive the levy. Of course it is computed from the budget request.
It’s acceptable to say, gee I don’t know the levy yet. What you mean is pieces are missing that you would use to compute it.
“Do idioms confuse you?”
I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
But I guess this is like your personal definition of depreciation.
Actually, I am pretty sure it does. I pulled an anon and googled it before I even used it. Lol.
Re depreciation, sorry the didn’t teach industrial economics in L1.
From Oxford Dictionaries dot com:
idiom (id·i·om)
Pronunciation:/?id??m/
1. a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light)
-a form of expression natural to a language, person, or group of people:he had a feeling for phrase and idiom
-the dialect of a people or part of a country
2. a characteristic mode of expression in music or art:they were both working in a neo-Impressionist idiom
So, no, I guess I am not familiar with that idiom, used exclusively by … I don’t know who.
“Vince Vaughan is just down the street too. I believe a SFH near the corner of Superior/Kingsbury.”
He doesn’t live there. He rented it out. From the Tribune in March (but he finally rented it not that long ago):
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-11/classified/ct-mre-0314-elite-street-restate-20100311_1_town-house-baths-single-family-house
Actor Vince Vaughn has reduced the rental asking price of his three-bedroom River North town house from $7,800 a month to $6,900.
Vaughn, 39, chose to hang onto the nine-room town home, which he purchased new in 2005 for $1.4255 million, even after paying $12 million through a trust for his 7,800-square-foot duplex on the 36th and 37th floors of the Palmolive building in September 2006 — one of the city’s highest residential purchases ever.
“Now, cue Clio to post about how his wealthy buds need to be buying this place.”
I (and I am sure my friends) don’t like this neighborhood at all – it seems really cut off from all the main stream places. In addition, the people that go to that court building are very scary – I had to go there once to get my car released after it was impounded. The people in that building were terrifying!!! In addition,the street was crowded w/ attorneys soliciting clients. A horrible experience – and could be dangerous (I mean you have all of these felons and criminals around these expensive houses – how tempting would it be for one of them to try and break in?).
vaughn lived in one of the townhouses on huron just like this one (same development), not a free-standing SFH at kingsbury/superior. that home (se corner) is where michael jordan’s ex-wife lives.
I have been in the property. The VPS boarding is pretty bad, but the main problem is water damage and mold. At one point there were seevral inches of water in that basement judging by the water marks in some places. Also water coming down from the upper floors.
It is a nice/interesting layout but it is in terrible condition.
Would be curious to know what happened, a nice home, pity they let it run down so much
“vaughn lived in one of the townhouses on huron just like this one (same development), not a free-standing SFH at kingsbury/superior. that home (se corner) is where michael jordan’s ex-wife lives.”
He hasn’t lived there for at least 3 years. He bought in the Palmolive in 2007. Isn’t this the area where some NBA players also lived?
@anon(tfo)
“I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”
do you have 6 fingers? 🙂
Water damage explains the great price. No one who is paying 2 million wants to deal with that.
Yes, there are NBA players in houses here. Unlike Clio, they like the fact that the neighborhood is slightly quieter and more secluded (or as Clio says “cut off”). Its close to the best neighborhoods (LP – Whole Foods, Mag Mile, restaurants and the Loop) but has a neighborhood feel, not a touristy feel.
As for the the home invasion scandal mentioned, that refers to the home invasion robbery of an NBA player. Apparently, they guys had been specifically targeting NBA players. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=2969070 They probably would have tracked him down in any neighborhood so it had nothing to do with location and/or proximity to the former Cabrini Green.
Also, it sounds as though the few remaining Cabrini row homes may be on their way out adding more value to the location. http://www.skylinenewspaper.com/News/In-The-Paper/06-23-2010/Cabrini_row_houses_to_go?
Seriously, I’m very curious about the emaciated cat in that photo, very unsettling.
“I (and I am sure my friends) don’t like this neighborhood at all – it seems really cut off from all the main stream places. In addition, the people that go to that court building are very scary – I had to go there once to get my car released after it was impounded. The people in that building were terrifying!!! In addition,the street was crowded w/ attorneys soliciting clients. A horrible experience – and could be dangerous (I mean you have all of these felons and criminals around these expensive houses – how tempting would it be for one of them to try and break in?).”
I’ve lived just a block down from this house for 6 years, and I’ve never seen or felt ANY of what you’re talking about above. This neighborhood is fantastic. It’s a little pocket of peace compared to the loud and massively overcrowded Gold Coast and LP. No one from Cabrini ever comes into this area. And the parking court is no such issue. I walk my dog past it and throughout the entire area at least 2 times a day, every single day. Dark or light. Never once had an issue or felt unsafe. And I’ve never seen anyone soliciting anyone for any reason.
This hood is filled with great people who care about their homes and their neighborhood and are very active within it.
Within two blocks of my place, I have a brand new park on the riverfront, dog park, riverwalk, movies in the park, Taste of River North in the summer, outstanding restaurants (japonais, erie cafe, zocalo, blue 13), a few great boutiques/shops… the headquarters for Groupon, Dyson, Big 10 Network, amazing spas, coffee shops, pilates/yoga studios and more…
And I’m a 10 minute walk from downtown, Michigan Ave, the lake, old town, the west loop… Not to mention this area has the easiest highway access in the city. I’ll never live anywhere else in the city. It’s a great mix of families, young professionals, empty nesters…and everyone has dogs. Love, love, love my hood.