The $400,000 Lincoln Park 1-Bedroom Reduced: 323 W. Belden
I was going to chatter about how this 1-bedroom at 323 W. Belden in Lincoln Park was listed for nearly $400,000 but before I could, it was quickly reduced by $60,000.
The 1000 square foot unit has only been on the market a little over a month.
The listing says it has a formal dining room and that the kitchen and baths have been renovated by Eva Quateman. The kitchen now has cherry cabinets, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.
However, the unit does not have central air or parking.
What would you pay for a 1-bedroom in Lincoln Park?
Marlene Saint George at Baird and Warner has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #2: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, dining room, 1000 square feet
- Sold in August 1995 for $150,000
- Sold in March 2003 for $245,000
- Sold in September 2005 for $295,000
- Originally listed in February 2009 for $399,900
- Reduced in March 2009
- Currently listed for $340,000
- Assessments of $443 a month
- Taxes of $4117
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
- No central air- window units
- No parking
April Fools was yesterday.
Taxes & Fees:
Taxes: $4,117 (2007)
Assessments: $443
No parking…
Lulz!
$275k max!
No central air? No parking? Steam heat? High Assessments? Bah.
I don’t care if the Kitchen is by Eva Quatemen – the only thing I notice is that the A/C isn’t by … ANYONE
It was a mistake to put this much work into a 1 BR. 24 year olds don’t care about cherry cabinets.
I do not get it. As a part time Californian, I am seeing HUGE reductions on housing prices out there, in the best of neighborhoods. What is keeping Chicago prices falling so slowly?
I could care less for San Francisco bashers, but with some of the reductions I am seeing back there, it is looking less expensive than parts of Chicago. Keep in mind, San Francisco is tiny, with water on three sides, and mountains on the other, so to find psf costs in San Francisco getting lower than some units such as this is astonishing to me.
I guess if you’re going to have a $340k 1-BR in a courtyard bldg, that’s the location to have it. I’d take this over the place on Commonwealth.
I agree with JR. Another homeowner wanting an unsuspecting fool to pick up the tab for his expensive personal taste. Great unit, love the fact that DR and LR are seperate but at the end of the day it’s still a 1 BD, no matter how nice it is.
anon (tfo): but would you take it at this price?
At the end of the day, this is just an apartment which is fine until the people above you who can’t sell; move out and rent to a guy with a Smith Machine who watches movies until 1 am every night on his wide with its 1200 watt bass enhanced sound system. And then there’s the people who had to have a golder retriever that barks and runs with its clicking nails. In apartment you can move away from such intrusions. When you buy you’re stuck. And when you buy at 3x value, you’re screwed.
congested with all the events in Lincoln Park – no parking and no AC
too high
I don’t comment on price usually, but this is SILLY. My 2/2 duplex with all brand new insides and vintage brick building was $280,000. No parking, in Wicker Park, but d#mn! I don’t get the desire to live in Lincoln Park myself. It’s just…so…uncool. 😉
“but would you take it at this price?”
If my choices were this @ $340 or Commonwealth @ $399, I’d take this one at $340k in a second. At least this one would be a suitable place to stash my mistress.
It’s obviously too much, but what are you going to do when you have put ~$350k+ in to it? Not even try to get a bite? She pretty clearly wasn’t planning to move for a while–there’s too much effort put into the place, imo. A 15% cut after 6-8 weeks is recognizing reality–it seems that she listened to the total absence of interest in the place at $400k.
hate to bust the bubble, but Wicker Park stopped being cool a long, long time ago. Like the mid-90s.
As much as I do not ‘get’ the draw to LP, I think this place is pretty cool. Judging solely on the pics, it appears to be very nicely rehabbed.
One point that I do not understand… why is there a formal dining room in a one bdrm apt.? Perhaps it was a bdrm before?
Formal dining room but no parking or AC…hhhmmmmm “I can throw one hell of dinner party, but sorry, you will sweat from walking here and I have no AC”. Silly.
I don’t think this place is as overpriced as everyone seems to think(compare this to that ground floor place in lakeview or the dump on commonwealth). I think you can get a older divorced/single type into this place…..315k.
Is there parking at the tower records building?
I imagine you could convert the DR into a small second BR and bath, but that would only make sense if you could get the place cheap, i.e. $200K.
They should hide the mortgage calculator on the sight. i’m sure it won’t help sell:
30 yr mortgage w/ 20% down =$2600/month
HA!!!!! 2600/mo for a 1BR. WE livin in Manhattan?
I don’t care if it is in LP or how upgraded it is, it is still a one bedroom with no ac and no parking. Two bedrooms I can see people paying a premium for based on location and neighborhood, but never a one bedroom. Even childless couples and single people usually want more than one bedroom. In fact, I would say never buy a one bedroom… ever. Just rent if all you can afford is a one bedroom or look for bigger and better places in less popular neighborhoods that offer more value for the money.
“I don’t think this place is as overpriced as everyone seems to think(compare this to that ground floor place in lakeview or the dump on commonwealth).”
What, I don’t fit into “everyone”?
It’s overpriced, but that’s b/c it’s over-improved, but still lacking two key amenities. It’s $340k nice, it just isn’t $340k big, esp. w/o parking or a/c.
Edumakated,
While those are rules of thumb, and even ones often spouted off by my parents, rules of thumb are not absolute, in fact these days I blame rules of thumb for much of this mess (RE always goes up ROT).
I’ve seen 1 bedroom, 2 baths with greater square footage list for a lot less than 2 bedroom, 1 baths with lower square footage. I chalk this up to people following that sort of anecdotal advice and paying a premium for it.
To me its all about space and floorplan. And in many of these buildings some bedrooms aren’t worth the wall that seperates them as they’re tiny and not even full height.
The unit has nice room sizes. Many one-bedroom apartments built in the 1920 had dining rooms.
Wow. This is ridiculous…..i’m sorry, wouldn’t pay more than 250.
and to skeptic, wicker park stopped being cool in the mid 90’s, really? i lived closeby to that part of town back then…..
you think it was cool when it was full of projects and had a 50% higher crime rate?
at least it has *some* character left to it. LP on the other hand……
“I do not get it. As a part time Californian, I am seeing HUGE reductions on housing prices out there, in the best of neighborhoods. What is keeping Chicago prices falling so slowly?
I could care less for San Francisco bashers, but with some of the reductions I am seeing back there, it is looking less expensive than parts of Chicago. Keep in mind, San Francisco is tiny, with water on three sides, and mountains on the other, so to find psf costs in San Francisco getting lower than some units such as this is astonishing to me.”
Morgan- what parts of SF are you referring to? Because I’m still not seeing 2000 square foot lofts in SF priced anywhere near $500,000 like they’re priced here (in the West Loop, Bucktown etc.) And the $500,000 loft is not selling in Chicago so the prices will come down further.
Some things are sticky here. Lots of single family homes are overpriced and have been sitting on the market a long time. Does that mean they’re cheap? Not necessarily. But it’s still at least twice as expensive to live in SF than it is in Chicago (for comparable housing).
That’s just my opinion (from watching both markets.)
Or take something like that Foster vintage rowhouse. You think you’re getting something like that for under $400,000 anywhere within the San Francisco city limits?
You could find that in some parts of Oakland and Vallejo though (probably much cheaper in Vallejo actually.)
Not sure who Eva is but my guess is she isn’t bragging about this place. The Kitchen and Bathroom look like they were ripped out of a Borg show room.
That being said the place is nice and I think is a good fit for a certain demographic, but I don’t think the current owner can wait for that special someone to walk through the door.
Is the Office a converted pantry?
Morgan –
Cali is falling faster than Chicago, b/c it ran up more, so it has a lot further to fall. Not seeing what you are, but I searched for 2bd/2ba over 1000 sq ft, and the cheapest I found was $630K at $600/sq ft (searched Financial District, Nob Hill, South Beach, South of Market).
> hate to bust the bubble, but Wicker Park stopped being cool a long, long time ago. Like the mid-90s.
Crap! I should have asked you guys before I bought! I guess I should have bought in Wicker Park when I was…. 14 years old.
“to find psf costs in San Francisco getting lower than some units such as this is astonishing to me.”
Don’t confuse ask prices with closing prices. I doubt there are many properties in Chicago with a closing ppsf higher than SF outside of the luxury highrise niche.
There really are two San Francisco’s from real estate perspective. One is south SF, east bay, vallejo and maybe even mission where prices have declined substantially and at a faster pace. The other is Marina, inner richmond, sunset etc. which is not budging much. And no, there is no area in chicago that even comes close to SF in PPSF. Even areas of Marin have better deals (san rafael, novato) than SF proper.
But regardless, the price rise in bay area as a whole was much faster from 2000-2007. People became home equity millionaires almost overnight. I know of several 250k families which had to rent since there was nothing they could afford. If was f’ing nuts.
it’s getting tiring already… people who bought in 2005 deserve to take a loss. I put in a ton of money into my place and sold it recently…for a LOSS. Sucks to be me but that’s reality. God.
Agree with many of the posters. Am about to sell my house and taking a HUGE loss on the reno costs. But that’s what it took to sell it. However I’m not buying because prices are too high – anyone who bought between 2003 and 2007 and is selling now would need to take a loss to attract the buyers that are out there.