The 3-Bedroom Single Family Home Under $500K in Roscoe Village: 2030 W. Fletcher
This 3-bedroom frame single family home at 2030 W. Fletcher in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of North Center has been on the market since October 2010.
In that time, it has been reduced $150,000 and is now listed at $499,000.
The house was built in the early 1900s and has retained some of its vintage character such as wood moldings and built-ins in the dining room.
The kitchen has white appliances.
Two of the bedrooms are on the main level and the master suite is in the attic with its own master bath.
Built on a 31×125 lot, the house has central air and a 2-car garage.
Is $500,000 the new entry point for a single family home in the Roscoe Village/far west Lakeview neighborhood?
Gordon Munden at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
2030 W. Fletcher: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, no square footage listed, 2 car garage
- Sold in December 1992 for $184,000
- Sold in August 1999 for $329,000
- Originally listed in October 2010 for $649,000
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed for $499,000
- Taxes of $7246
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 16×25 (upper level)
- Bedroom #2: 10×12 (main level)
- Bedroom #3: 10×10 (main level)
- Family room: 15×21 (lower level)
How about as an investment property?
Rent: $2200 x 12 = $26,400
-less RE Taxes and opex = $8000
$18,400 NOI
divided by $470K
equals 3.9% return…..plus all the “future appreciation”
Can’t decide what I think of this place. Decent neighborhood, if I remember correctly, but the kitchen needs some updating and most of the recreational/living space appears to be in the basement (which is a little depressing).
“How about as an investment property?”
*probably* could eke out a bit more rent. Would be better if just north of Belmont in Audubon, rather than Jahn.
i agree, this could probably fetch 2500 or so
bet i can guess hd’s comment on this place!
Does this still qualify as NorthCostco? Issue here is the school as well as lack of proximity to the L. Guessing those two reasons have held it back. Of course, most importantly it was priced way too high to begin.
It would be helpful to know the square footage but I’m guessing around 1800. Master bedroom is on a different floor from the others so that’s a negative. I think it’s priced right and will sell fairly quickly. Big demand at that price point – despite Jahn.
Saw this place a while back. It is *tiny*. The living room on the main level is quite small, to the point where your whole family couldn’t fit in it. Two of the bedrooms are on the main level, one off of the kitchen the other off of the dining room. There is a rec room space in the basement, but the ceiling height in the basement is definitely less than 8ft throughout most of the basement and it feels completely claustrophobic. The stairs are very, very narrow (they almost feel like a spiral staircase). The only good thing I can say about it is that the master suite on the top floor is a large, airy, light-filled space and the master bath is pretty nice. This would be a tough sell to a family with even one kid.
As for location, the block is quite nice: dead end street with a *ton* of families on it. But this is far enough south to not really be roscoe village and the distance to the train kind of sucks.
The sellers look motivated, though. This might make sense to me below 450k. Put an addition on the back or get an extra bedroom or two upstairs with dormers and this place could be livable, though maybe still a squeeze for a family.
1. is it really roscoe village across school street?
2. nothing says i eat out more than skipping a reno on the sparse kitchen to do a 30k bathroom
3. nothing say i dont want kids under 5 in this house like having a master on the second and the other beds on the main floor.
4. nothing says screw timmy and his bed time and his bedroom off the front room i am getting drunk and watching the hawks play until 1am wife is upstairs nice and quiet.
5. nothing say OMG i need to sell now like going from 649k to 499k
“nothing say i dont want kids under 5 in this house like having a master on the second and the other beds on the main floor.”
You don’t have a padlock on the kids’ rooms to keep em from wandering around? Amateur.
I always wonder about this neighborhood. There’s the Jahn thing. And the far from the train thing.
But what about the really close to the projects thing? Always felt a little too close for comfort for me. But maybe that’s all in my head?
“But what about the really close to the projects thing? Always felt a little too close for comfort for me. But maybe that’s all in my head?”
1. This particular house ain’t “really” close, by any stretch.
2. Family housing at Lathrop is like 75% empty and they ain’t letting anyone move in. Related senior housing is a non-issue.
3. Belmont bus kinda sux, but it’s not that far (ok, maybe it is, but I walked ~1.5 miles in 20 minutes this week after bustracker messed with me and I’m old and fat and have bad knees, so if you think so, I call Hobbit).
I live not to far from here. During rush hours the Belmont bus is VERY frequent making a trip from door-to-door (to jackson) 30 minutes on a good day – 40 minutes on a slow day.
Other than that you have Hamlin park with a dog park, pool, sport fields, etc. You can walk to all the restaurants in Roscoe Village and other nearby areas.
Also – there is apparently a plan to transform the “projects” into mixed use/ income but even without that – I have never had any issues with the “projects” and you don’t even notice they are there unless you cross Clybourn.
Jahn…no kids yet…so don’t care too much. Who knows what Jahn will be by that time. I am sure most of the schools that are considered good public schools weren’t so good 5-10 years ago.
Also, TftInChi is right about this particular block. There are A LOT of families on this street. It is a dead end and there are always people outside and kids playing. It is not uncommon to see plastic houses and a ton of kids toys scattered in the front yards and sidewalks….and they don’t get stolen …which isn’t something I could have said about many of my previous neighborhoods!
“I am sure most of the schools that are considered good public schools weren’t so good 5-10 years ago.”
10, sort of true, 5, not so much true.
But, 10 years ago, Groove’s Far NW elems were also good, as were Lincoln and Bell, at a minimum. So, depending on what you count as “good” now, may well be a majority were “good” in 2001 as well.
Jahn was proposed to be combined with Schneider (iirc), which is the school for the remaining Lathrop kids. I won’t say never, but Jahn will be one of the tougher turns in the NE of the river area, in no small part b/c of it’s small attendance area and the fact that the only direction for expansion is toward Lathrop (the other areas would *howl* to be switched from their schools to Jahn).
“the other areas would *howl* to be switched from their schools to Jahn”
When’s the last time there were any changes in elem boundaries in nortcenter-ish?
“When’s the last time there were any changes in elem boundaries in nortcenter-ish?”
Haven’t tracked it. There’s been movement on the margins in the past decade-ish, but, afaik, moving of blocks from “lesser” schools into “better”, not the other way around.
the redfin comments show that the listing agent said the exterior might be original asbestos & low basement ceilings – so there goes any useful add’l sqfootage.
“Original” asbestos siding? It wasn’t used as a siding material when this home was built…guessing 1900-1910.
Same house could be bought for $300,000 in Oak Park; with better neighborhood amenities. I’d venture same house could be bought in River Forest for $400,000 ditto. Either option, blue-line and green-line access, nice downtown, excellent library, good public/private schools, etc.
Spending a couple of years in a semi-improved asbestos-sided house like this would be a depressing experience for a dual-income two-kids household. Sort of like replicating your immigrant blue-collar grandparents’ plain WWII-era childhood, but with a nice bathroom.
Are listing prices about 10-15% higher than closing prices in Oak Park? Otherwise, I’m having a hard time finding a comparable property in Oak Park like this one, that isn’t super close to Austin or the highway.
Dave M – Architect is right. I was going to make a similar comment for the Albany Park bungalow posted yesterday–that you can get the same thing for less in Oak Park. I’ll post some of the options at the $300k price point in Oak Park later this morning.
JMM is right about one thing, the housing stock in Chicago, in particular the northside, sucks. $500,000 for a small workers cottage with rooms barely large enough to be functional. You can see from the pictures that they use the basement as the family room. Yeah! Half a million and you can watch TV in the basement. Of course this is a depressing experience. The owner has only a $237,200 mortgage on the property, there is a lot of room to move. Interestingly enough the home was bought in 1999 with a $312,500.00 mortgage on a $329,000 purchase price. 5% down. At least they didn’t default over the last 10 years. Even they didn’t pay half a million for this home, why do they expect someone else to?
“Even they didn’t pay half a million for this home, why do they expect someone else to?”
Simple. Because they bought in 1999, and not everything is back to 1999 prices.
Forget the suburban argument, it’s not valid. If someone is looking in the city, it’s because they want to buy in the city, not in Oak Park. Not sure what people fail to understand about this.
I’m very familiar with this block, had several good friends living on it between 96 and about 03, when it got a bit too yuppified for their/our tastes (translation: nobody had kids yet).
Hamlin Park is a huge resource now, I went to day camp there as a kid, where my telling story is how the 18 year olds played dodgeball WITH us little shorties, using basketballs. Ouch.
I am laughing my ass off at this, Groove – I do all these things with my wife and kid sleeping on the same floor, we’re about to renovate and take over the upstairs and put the bedrooms there, so I can proceed to be a jackass and not bother either of them. Currently I have to go to the basement or yard to do that properly.
And I take it my plan of building a separate treehouse bedroom for my kid outside isn’t up to Groove code either?
Oh, and IMO, Roscoe Village goes to Belmont. You’ve got your maybe Ravenswood to Western, Belmont to Addison – that’s pretty generous, frankly.
“1. is it really roscoe village across school street?
2. nothing says i eat out more than skipping a reno on the sparse kitchen to do a 30k bathroom
3. nothing say i dont want kids under 5 in this house like having a master on the second and the other beds on the main floor.
4. nothing says screw timmy and his bed time and his bedroom off the front room i am getting drunk and watching the hawks play until 1am wife is upstairs nice and quiet.
5. nothing say OMG i need to sell now like going from 649k to 499k”
Not yet – but we every last Tuesday of every month we get a little bit closer 😉
“#chukdotcom on April 29th, 2011 at 7:53 am
“Even they didn’t pay half a million for this home, why do they expect someone else to?”
Simple. Because they bought in 1999, and not everything is back to 1999 prices.”
Oak Park is an acceptable, and less expensive, alternative to living in Roscoe Village. Easy public trans access, walkable, (relatively) safe, similar if not better housing stock and more affordable. Is it for everyone? No. Do some people look at Roscoe Village and it’s $500,000 worker’s cottages and say “I’ll look at Oak Park, Evanston or other parts of the city instead?” As Sarah Palin says, “you betcha!”
“#trudi on April 29th, 2011 at 7:59 am
Forget the suburban argument, it’s not valid. If someone is looking in the city, it’s because they want to buy in the city, not in Oak Park. Not sure what people fail to understand about this.”
“City” living is about walkability to me: how close am I to transit, shopping, nightlife and other stuff I want to be able to walk to. Roscoe Village certainly strikes me as more walkable that Oak Park in general, as there are stretches of Oak Park that aren’t that walkable, but there are certain locations in Oak Par which are just as good. I don’t know enough about Oak Park to know what the prices are in those places.
Trudi – I understand that it’s technically not “Chicago”, but what else about living in Oak Park is really so different from living in a neighborhood like Roscoe Village, Lincoln Square, etc? Like a lot of my friends, I used to be dead set on living in “the city”, but once you get over that mindset you realize that you get a lot more bang for your buck out there and the aesthetics of the area are no different than a nice neighborhood of the city (albeit, cleaner and with solid schools).
JJJ – We bought late last year in a highly walkable location of Oak Park, just a block from the Green Line. All 3 attendance area schools are within 1/2 a mile, there’s a Dominick’s within a block, the summer farmer’s market is a couple blocks away, and the pool/park is a couple blocks away. The area of Oak Park north of Madison and south of Chicago are very walkable and near some very good amenities. I paid in the $200s for a 3BD home in the historic district on a 35X172 lot.
Oak Park is a great alternative to the city. Two El Lines, Metra, and highway. I actually can get to the loop faster from Oak Park than I could when I lived in Andersonville. I can get to Bucktown/Wicker in faster too.
OP is very walkable. Even if you are a little far off the downtown strip, the walk is pleasant. Plus, just pick up a cheap beach cruiser and you can literally ride all over town. I rode my bike to the train this morning. Took all of 8 minutes.
OP is NOT cheap though. There are some cheaper houses but they usually come with some big drawbacks. Further away from downtown. Closer to 290 or the border streets such as Austin and Roosevelt. You will pay a premium for a fully renovated house as they are far and few between. You may find some good deals on DIY jobs or partially renovated. If you can spend $500k you will find a very nice bungalow with all the bells and whistles in a good location. The larger four squares and victorians tend to run in the 700-$800s.
A million or so gets you a seriously pimptastic crib very close to down town. Way better than anything you find in the city at that price point.
Here’s one in my area that was just listed for $300k. It’s a short sale and needs some updating, but not a bad bang for your buck when you compare to prices in RV:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/Undisclosed-address-60302/home/13267397
Dave M – Here are a few others at or near $300k:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/820-S-Grove-Ave-60304/home/13248914
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/826-Carpenter-Ave-60304/home/13248922
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/429-Home-Ave-60302/home/13269603
Also, for someone looking in the Mann attendance area, this looks like a solid deal:
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/643-Woodbine-Ave-60302/home/13272965
“some” updating?
LOL tear that thing down
“LOL tear that thing down”
Can’t…it’s in a historic district.
I posted links to active listings but it’s in moderation.
But the well-priced places don’t sit on the market very long. Here are some sold listings within last 3 months around $300k:
07608440
07599989
07742027
07591449
07640690
07736313
07560991
The great thing about Oak Park is that it’s so close to Maywood. Oh wait…
But in all seriousness, a few years ago my BIL predicted that the next hot area would be maywood/bellwood because it had large vintage homes on large lots near highways and public transportation available for cheap prices. Then he lost his job in the contracting business.
Is that area safe, its strikes me as being awfully close to austin… but i dont know oak park well at all.
LOL. Please tell me this isn’t a serious question.
1. Location, location, location.
2. Diversity.
“Trudi – I understand that it’s technically not “Chicago”, but what else about living in Oak Park is really so different from living in a neighborhood like Roscoe Village, Lincoln Square, etc? “
Gesc, Austin Blvd is the eastern border of Oak Park. The closer you get to Austin Blvd, the less desirable as Austin is shit hole. If you ever want to see the most dramatic change in environment drive west on Chicago Avenue till you hit Oak Park. As soon as you cross Austin Boulevard it is like stepping into a different world. It is like going outside the walls of five star resort in the Dominican Republic.
However, Oak Park is very safe. Like any urban area, you will have some petty thefts, etc.
I actually like Oak Park and lived there for a year back in the early 90s. I just think it gets really tedious when people try to compare the suburbs to the city. There’s a reason people live in the city and if they wanted to live in Oak Park they would be looking in Oak Park.
If by location you’re referring to proximity to other neighborhoods, I agree with you. But you seem unfamiliar with Oak Park if you think it’s not diverse.
Maybe it’s me, but I’m not interested in dropping half a million on a workers cottage.
@Chris M: http://www.livehereoakpark.com
I think the suburb comparison tends to come up whenever a half million dollar cottage ostensibly geared towards families located in a poor school attendance area is posted.
I grew up in the City, and still live here. I can say growing up in the City the impression of places like Evanston and Oak Park was always very different than of other suburbs. I think the fact that they have CTA trains running there makes a big difference.
I think in oak park though I would feel more isolated than in Evanston. i imagine i would venture into the city less if i lived in oak park than if i lived in evanston.
While oak park is very accesible to downtown, there isnt much to do in between the two areas. Whereas from evanston you have all the lakefront neighborhoods
Basement rec rooms with TV’s are a long-standing Chicago tradition going back to the bungalows, raised ranches and split-levels of the post-WWII era. And at least half of the McMansions I’ve seen on the North Side over the past decade or so have a basement rec room/family room/”media room” where mom or sitter and kids are probably couch-potato-ing it today, watching endless reruns of the Royal Wedding.
Of course, if you have a potential sleeping area and mini-kitchen as well as a bath on the “lower level” along with the big room, you could (winkwinknodnod) make it into a “rental unit” so some extra income could be available to help pay the mortgage…times are tough, you know…
And, Trudi, I would never dare to compare a place in the city to a place in a “true” suburb, such as Schaumburg. I’m only prone to comparing city places to suburbs that in terms of aesthetics, density, diversity, amenities, and transportation options are essentially as urban as the city proper.
Gesc:
You are no more than 15 minutes from the Loop in Oak Park assuming no traffic on 290 which there usually isn’t on weekends. Even the morning commute for me when I drive is about 30 minutes at most.
I can drive to Bucktown on North Avenue in about 15 minutes or less. I go to city to eat out at least once or twice a week.
I takes significantly longer to get into the city from Evanston than Oak Park. When I lived in Evanston, I used to hate trying to go into the city. Going down Sheridan Road is a PITA. Unless the Purple Line Express is running, it takes forever on the EL too.
Russ – Thanks for the link. I’ve wandered onto that site once or twice before and am pretty sure I’ve seen you posting there. I’ll take a closer look at it.
hey Dan, looks like i am suddenly free tonight again for drinks a dinner, you in?
Dan: when oak park was built back in the days the surrounding areas were not like they are today. The housing stock of oak park and river forest is awesome and beautiful. It’s very much like the north shore with leafy streets and quiet yet it has a vibrant downtown. The residents of the area chose not to abandon the quality housing stock and what your left with today is an oasis of wealth surrounded by a larger stretches of lower income areas. If you look at it from that perspective it is easier to understand why oak park is what it is today.
“The residents of the area chose not to abandon the quality housing stock and what your left with today is an oasis of wealth surrounded by a larger stretches of lower income areas.”
Actually, many white families left the west side of Chicago and moved to Oak Park in the 60’s. So in fact they chose to abandon the increasingly ghetto areas and seek refuge in Oak Park.
“If you ever want to see the most dramatic change in environment drive west on Chicago Avenue till you hit Oak Park.”
Followed closely by a drive down University Avenue from East Palo Alto into Palo Alto, certainly before they knocked down whiskey gulch and added a Four Seasons plus did the University Commons development on the East side of the 101. A county change makes quite a bit of difference.
“when they have to drive through legitimate ghetto to get to their fancy suburban home in the self-segregated pocket.”
really driving north or south from OP is through the ghetto?
From an oasis standpoint, Oak Park and River Forest are no different than Hyde Park and Kenwood. .
“really driving north or south from OP is through the ghetto?”
Elmwood Park def aint no ghetto. Just a lot of elderly mobster types. Forest Park is less desireable, but just fine as far as I am concerned.
oops:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chibrknews-oak-park-mugger-has-5th-victim-20110429,0,958559.story?track=rss
“It’s much different if you exit Lake St. off the Edens if you live in Wilmette, which also has CTA and Metra.”
CTA is a stretch from Wilmette. The only people who take CTA from Linden are elderly people lunching in Evanston and families heading to Cubs games. All others take the Metra.
““really driving north or south from OP is through the ghetto?”
Elmwood Park def aint no ghetto. Just a lot of elderly mobster types. Forest Park is less desireable, but just fine as far as I am concerned.”
JMM,
you misread my post was shocked someone thought it was ghetto. and dont see the ghetto when driving north through elmwood/rivergrove or galewood.
Backward baseball caps? Chicago Bears “lounge wear?” Sounds like the bar crowd on Clark St. from Irving to Fullerton, especially during the prime sports season.
Chris M.-
I am completely a fan of OP but almost all of those listings are by Roosevelt…far fro
ideal. The highland one definitely did surprise me though. 4 bedrooms and updated for $308k? I remember when just for being in OP a house cost $300k, even if it was 2 bdrms, 1 bath and needed work. I’m glad to see that OP is returning to affordability!
Also, if you think elmwood park, forest park or even Berwyn is a ghetto, you have no idea of what a ghetto is. Austin=yes galewood=no. Where I live outside of Kenwood is far more ghetto than Harlem north of 290 and this is coming fro
Someone that grew up in OP and left…which seems rare.
Also…
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/850-Linden-Ave-60302/home/13273083
is a great example of a good OP home selling around $300k. It may be slightly further from the train, but a great neighborhood and schools.
I know someone also posted this house at one time. I’m surprised it sold for so much under asking so quickly.
http://www.redfin.com/IL/Oak-Park/328-S-Kenilworth-Ave-60302/home/13270593
Dan: If you really want to hear the blade runner soup, check out the Albany Park 16th and 17th District police scanner. You can stream it to your computer on the link below. I listened to this for a few hours last and holy $hit, it’s crazy out there. Roving bands of gang bangers driving around shooting at each other at Montrose/Sacramento; Burglaries at St. Louis and Addison, Domestic disturbances everywhere, taggers everywhere, teenagers assaulting and fighting all over the place, shootings in avondale (3400 n milwaukee). Just a bunch of random people who don’t have anything in common or any sense of community battling it out on the streets every night.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=5594
But if you want listen to the war zone, listen to this pan chicago scanner. It’s a sampling of all the districts but there seems to be a lot of south side chatter. Gang bangers running around everywhere shooting at each other and innocent bystanders. It seems with most of the shootings they miss their target, only the times people get shot does it actually make the papers.
http://www.chicagoscanner.com/player/webplayer.html
benjamon9 – That Highland property was a short sale, which largely explains the low price. As a regular sale I’m sure it would’ve been $350k or higher.
I was going to post that Linden one yesterday. It just sold and it was also a short sale. I agree that it was a great deal, although it was also a short sale. There were two contracts in place previously and both had fallen apart, which is a big part of why it sold as low as it did. As you point out, it’s in the highly coveted NW corner of town (Mann Elem) but it’s about a mile to the El, so there’s clearly a trade-off. I’m not sure I would be willing to live more than roughly 1/2 a mile from the El or Metra, unless the deal was unbelievable.
I posted that Kenilworth property several weeks ago. It went under contract within a week but fell apart due to inspection issues. I thought it was a great deal at the price and was curious what had happened. I looked it up on the MLS and noticed that the property disclosure, which was previously marked “No” in all categories (property was an estate sale and sellers had no knowledge of its condition), was suddenly updated “Yes” in several categories. It also included a note to explain that the property had 3 or more layers of shingles which was causing the roof and attic walls to bulge. To correct the issue, they said it would be necessary to remove and rebuild the roof, dormer, and chimney above the roof live, which means a lot of money. I walked by that house one day and it was very evident that the roof load was too much for the house. Anyway, you can’t get insurance for a house with 3 or more layers of roofing layers, so that kills any chance of getting a conventional or regular FHA mortgage. FHA 203(k) would probably work. Nonetheless, the property sold for $240k to a cash buyer…hence, the fast sale and low price.
Chris M:
How many of the Oak Park home sales in the last 6 months have been short sales/foreclosures? Seems to me it’s a pretty big number (even from just looking around at what is currently even on the market.)
Sabrina:
Here are the stats for Oak Park single family home sales within the last 6 months:
113 sales
15 foreclosures (13% of all sales)
7 short sales (6% of all sales)
1 court approval sale (less than 1% of all sales)
Mean sale price: $376,581.06
Median sale price: $360,000.00
Lowest sale price:
07645123 CLSD 1218 N AUSTIN BLVD 302 $65,400
Highest sale price:
07688601 CLSD 517 N EUCLID AVE 302 $950,000
And if anyone is curious, here are the stats for the taxes on these Oak Park single family home properties that sold:
Mean annual taxes: $9,990.17
Median annual taxes: $9,226.82
This is the mean and median of 2008/2009 tax bills (listings show either 2008 or 2009 generally based upon date that property was listed).
The high taxes are my biggest complaint about Oak Park. But the taxes are generally this high in all of the desirable suburbs that I’ve researched.