The 5-Bedroom American 4-Square: 1225 W. Pratt in Rogers Park
This 5-bedroom American 4-Square at 1225 W. Pratt in Rogers Park has been on and off the market since August 2009.
In that time it has been reduced $114,000.
Built in 1903, it has a much sought after double lot measuring 50×139.
While it has hardwood floors throughout, 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 “partial” air conditioning- (not sure what that means).
What price will it take to finally sell this house?
Mark Zipperer at Re/Max Edge 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- Withdrawn in November 2009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
- Currently listed at $525,000
- 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)
I think it would make a huge difference to stage those empty, awkwardly shaped rooms. When buyers can picture how they would live in the space, then they can dream…
YUK,
Looks like the interior has been completely destroyed.
The interior makes me sad. The exterior is gorgeous but the interior just isn’t what I was expecting.
You could buy a nicer vintage property a few miles north in Evanston for the same price or less and actually use the public schools in the area.
“You could buy a nicer vintage property a few miles north in Evanston for the same price or less and actually use the public schools in the area.”
A block from the lake in Evanston?
Here you go, 07651777, materially the same distance to the lake for same price in Evanston.
1109 HINMAN AVE , Evanston, Illinois 60202
I am not a vintage lover so I like what was done here. The finishes are not what I would expect for $500k+. The zoned heating probably has forced air up and radiant on the 1st floor so the AC is probably only on the upper floors. I’m not a fan of the area so I can’t say what this will go for.
I live directly across the street from this dumpy house and have watched it get listed, then delisted so it could be reno’d, then listed again at a ridiculous price. Real estate agent who is a good friend of mine had the listing the first time.
There is NO WAY this place is going to fetch anything like $525K. There are too many really beautiful houses in W.Rogers Park and Peterson Woods, nearby, that have much more going for them and are languishing at $400K t0 $500K. You cannot give a child any freedom around here. It will be lucky to fetch $350K, if even. This is Rogers Park folks, even though I like this location a lot. It’s nice for a single woman like myself, but if I had children, I’d move over to Peterson Woods. It IS close to Loyola, great transportion, Pratt Beach, a lot of commercial including the 400 Theatre, and it is very close to two fine private schools: Lakeside, which is right up the street, and Sacred Heart, about 3/4 mile down Sheridan Road in Edgewater. There is also the Waldorf School a few blocks south. But these are notoriously difficult schools to get admitted to, and the public schools are awful.
It’s HUGE, about 3,000 square feet, rough estimate. It has two baths but they’re fugly. No bath on the large 3rd floor.
The vintage interior was utterly destroyed long ago as this place was used as an institution for a couple of decades. It was the home of the Montessori School for a long time. The baths are awkwardly located, and this place still needs work, IMO.
Total rip at this price, just plain laughable.
Check out this Tribune article on my favorite Chicago rehabber (and friend), Bill Lavika. He is most well known for a number of row houses he did on Jackson Blvd. (just west of Whitney Young H.S.). His latest project is rehabbing a boarded up mansion in Washington Park (near Garfield Blvd. on the south side). He wants to convert the building into a winery, with the vines adjacent land.
It sounds kind of crazy, but this city is much richer for Bill’s work.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-21/business/ct-biz-0421-confidential-lavicka-20110421_1_bill-lavicka-grapes-winery
Anonny – What do you think of that place in Evanston? I’m guessing it’s too far from the lake for your tastes, but I’m certain that most people would take that place over this place in Evanston.
hinman is 4 blocks west of sheridan at that point (greenleaf), this property is a couple hundred feet west of sheridan.
***Typo, meant to say that most people would take the place I posted in Evanston for $525k over this place in Rogers Park.
nonya – You’re right. But I never qualified my statement by saying you could get %525k or less in Evanston within a block of the lake. And I’d gladly live another block or two from the lake if it meant I could get a place in Evanston for the same price as a place in Rogers Park.
Chris M, I’m not an Evanston expert (though it’s one of the only “suburbs” I’d move to), so I can’t speak to what the public elementary and high school options are, nor can I say what the traffic/general vibe is at this particular location. That said, while the listing in Evanston needs some work, and while it is farther from the lake than this RP listing, I cannot imagine why anyone would choose the RP listing over the Evanston listing, other than a complete unwillingness and/or inablity to complete at least the minimal work on the Evantson listing (e.g., pulling the carpet and refinishing the wood floors). Provided that it’s in a nice part of Evanston, the place seems like a tremendous opportunity.
@Chris, that Evanston place is a row house, not a single family home (shares wall with next door neighbor, basically a townhome). It also needs some work. However, I do think it is a better buy than the Rogers Park place.
Are there power lines overhead?
Market value of $450K, maybe $460K.
hahahahaha no
theres a great blog about RP and what a crime infested dump its reverted back to
morsehellhole.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Russ…didn’t notice that it was a rowhouse at first. There aren’t a lot of options east of Chicago Avenue in Evanston. When they’re priced around $500k or less they tend to sell very fast. Of course, the options open up a lot if being withina couple blocks of the lake isn’t essential.
07753485 (1122 Maple Ave) is a nice option for $475k and not too far from the lake.
“@Chris, that Evanston place is a row house, not a single family home (shares wall with next door neighbor, basically a townhome). It also needs some work. However, I do think it is a better buy than the Rogers Park place”
I agree with Russ that there is a difference in the conditions of the 2 homes and their layouts.
http://www.smartfloorplan.com/il/v301653 – 1225 Pratt
http://www.smartfloorplan.com/il/v300435 – 1109 Hinman
I think the updated layout for pratt makes its appeal more versatile to buyers – the walls have been reconfigured on the pratt home. There’s also a finished basement in the pratt property. Of course, there is a difference between rogers park and evanston…
-Max
Sonies, Craig Gernhart took his blog down. Now that he’s decided he no longer hates Alderman Joe Moore, he has nothing to say and isn’t complaining about the crime much these days.
And crime has vastly improved around here. Even Morse Ave has vastly improved, with a trendy new bar, and the Maybe Stage. Pratt close to Sheridan is a good section of Rogers Park. I have lived here for 10 years with no problems, even though I walk out to buy milk any hour of the night I please. I’m vigilant and cautious, of course, but I’d be that way anywhere I lived. I like it here on Pratt, though I would still avoid Howard St, which is still horrible. But that’s more than a mile up the road.
Rogers Park has less crime than Wicker Park, Logan Square, or Bucktown. The 24th district (that’s us) compares very favorably to the Shakespeare District, Wicker Park, and I think overpriced Uptown has blown way past us in shootings, which are happening every single week around Wilson & Broadway.
All of which does not mean this house is a good deal. It’s not. It’s an overpriced dump with no architectural distinction and no vintage beauty left inside. Try getting a jumbo loan on it. Guess the seller realized that couldn’t happen.
Hahaha, when the neighborhood’s biggest cheerleader has this to say about your place, you know you’re in trouble!
This interior is an abomination and those responsible deserve the Grooves-kids-shin-kicking treatment.
Laura – Which resource do you reference for crime stats? I know Wicker Park, Bucktown, and Logan Square have their issues but I’m a little surprised to here Rogers Park is safer.
“Hahaha, when the neighborhood’s biggest cheerleader has this to say about your place, you know you’re in trouble!”
Laura please tell us how you really feel, dont hold back 🙂
Hmmmm—1109 Hinman–taxes at $15,295??? Sure, Evanston is nice, but it comes at a price…
1122 Maple – tiny rooms – master = 21×9 (WHAT?), no garage, is not brick, smaller lot (by 2540 sq feet) AND not brick outside.
I’ve been in the Pratt house—a double lot with a 2.5 car garage–1/2 block from the lake–if space is what you want–some cleaning up might be worth the work. You’ll always have the space and can decorate the inside to your own taste. If it was +++ inside, the price would be higher (probably).
SE Rogers is great/affordable. If it was as bad as CC’ers think it is, I suspect Loyola parents would yank their kids out…
I live in Rogers Park, and just really cant see investing in anything that is not a steal and over 500k is not a steal for a single family home. There is just too much risk of loss in Rogers Park. This house could easily endup selling for 300k or less in the coming years if the market continues to deteriorate, which it likely will. Rogers Park has at least two major problems. First as prices come down in “nicer” areas, there will be less interest from those who would have bought in prior years, because they were priced out of lakeview or where ever there first choice was. And second there are a ton of forclosures still to come in Rogers Park.
” In a recent survey I conducted on Chicago metro foreclosure filings, using numbers released by the Woodstock Institute, Rogers Park is among the top 20% of communities impacted by the problem. In the past five years, this community has experienced nearly 1,500 foreclosure filings, meaning lenders have taken legal steps to foreclose. Considering we have somewhere between five thousand and six thousand ownership units, our distressed rate is somewhere between one-quarter to one-third of all the ownership units in the community! In normal times, foreclosures are usually less than one half of one percent of all mortgaged properties. So this problem is fifty to a hundred times worse than in a ‘typical’ recession.”
http://rogerspark.com/rp/news_articles/view/home_ownership_at_risk_in_rogers_park_-_by_peter_fugiel/
Cooper – Regarding those taxes, they are very inflated. The assessed value for that house is $81,087, which means the county has the market value as $810,870. If you bought it at list, $525k, you can appeal the assessed value and bring it down to $52,500, which would effectively reduce the tax bill by 35%. Tax bill should be closer to $10k.
Look on Every Block Chicago.
We at least are not burdened with large numbers of public housing projects, even the the North of Howard area (where I would never live) has a number of “project Section 8” buildings.
I’m not pretending we don’t have problems- we surely do. There are a few buildings a few blocks from me that need serious cleaning up. But over the past 10 years, we have succeeded in getting the worst buildings cleaned up, and not necessarily by condo conversion, either. We have gained many new restaurants and entertainment venues, all of a type to appeal to middle class people, and there is a strong sense of community and dedication to improving the area among both homeowners and renters.
Come and try RoPa, in the apt. building on the northeast corner of Pratt & Sheridan. Great restaurant with a good wine list and wonderful atmosphere.
The biggest obstacle to selling this place is there just isn’t the demand among buyers who could afford it, and there are better houses for the money, MUCH better, in rather better neighborhoods. Peterson Woods (south of Peterson, west of the river, east of Cicero) is beautiful, clean, utterly crime-free, and stuffed with beautiful housing at prices comparable to this, or lower. Rogers Park is not affluent. It’s a moderate income community whose home and condo owners have household incomes of $50K to $100K a year for the most part, not a market for a house over $350K or so, and mostly less.
Cooper – How is this house affordable when you need to pay for private school? I just don’t see how a family can justify buying a SFH at this price point when they could buy something in Evanston and use the public schools. If you don’t like the houses I provided I can look up others.
Not all neighborhoods in Evanston are good. In fact, Rogers Park is much better than certain south and west Evanston areas.
But Evanston schools ARE excellent. Given the difficulty of getting your kid into Sacred Heart even if you can afford it, people with school age kids ought to look elsewhere.
I find that Rogers Park just has a nice vibe to the place. The buildings, trees, and streetscapes just look very nice. I have a sensitive nose that can sniff out blight, and I just can’t smell it there, even north of Howard. I don’t doubt that many properties are overvalued/underwater. But the neighborhood never seemed even remotely like Uptown or similar neighborhoods.
Rogers Park has potential and it might have turned the corner had the bubble not burst. Some of the streets are beautiful. I think it will eventually completely gentrify, but who knows what the time frame will be. Rogers Park is ground zero for the Eastern European pickup truck condo developer.
Schools are what will turn Rogers Park around imho. Without schools, the market for houses this size are slim as most buyers are probably going to have young children or will soon.
Evanston is a good alternative, but it is quite a bit more expensive for a similar sized house and finishes.
I wonder what the cost would be of returning a vintage look to the inside to replace the Naperville condo look the inside has now. Probably hundreds of thousands.
“Schools are what will turn Rogers Park around imho. Without schools, the market for houses this size are slim as most buyers are probably going to have young children or will soon.”
I drove by the new Chicago Math & Sciences Academy. It is located on Clark St. at the site of the former MegaMall. It just kind of depressed me to see the kids wearing uniforms and attending classes just focused on math and sciences. There didn’t seem to be an auditorium or gymnasium (I can’t say for sure… just my impression from driving by) at the school. All of the things that made high school fun for me involved performance, gym class, shop class, marching band, etc.
“I wonder what the cost would be of returning a vintage look to the inside”
“Look” or something closer to reality? Is crown molding, stained-wood trim (with some texture) and a couple of vintage-y light fixtures enough? Or do you want to tear out the kitchen and baths, too? Could be relatively cheap, if they didn’t paint the trim the right way.
The RF agent review is a killer, tho.
“Chicago Math & Sciences Academy … [depressing]”
Charter school. Typical that there is no gym/aud, but rely on park district or other facilities.
“The RF agent review is a killer, tho.”
wow, that’s the first time i’ve ever seen that kind of comment on redfin. would think they’d stick to more objective observations
I suppose you could slap on some moldings and wood trim and make the place look better. I wonder what it looked like 60 or 70 years ago before it was messed up. It would probably cost $100,000 or so to do a complete overhaul. A home this age should have some nifty touches like built-in book cases. I’ve even been in an 1800s mansion in East Lakeview (on the corner of Wellington and Pine Grove) that had a working dumbwaiter.
“I wonder what the cost would be of returning a vintage look to the inside to replace the Naperville condo look the inside has now.”
maybe it’s an optical illusion but why do even the WALLS of mccrapboxes and mccrapbox rehabs look cheap? Is there a difference in the thickness of drywall used in some homes? (PS not talking about comparisons to old plaster). It just seems like sometimes we see walls made of drywall, that don’t look mccrapbox and others that totally do, and I’m trying to figure out why this perception exists. It’s sort of analogous to our prior discussion about wood trim and MDF. Does anyone know what I’m talking about when I say this?
Dan – I think it’s a combination of the crappy finishes adjoining the walls, such as the cheap baseboard trim, the wall colors (or lack thereof), and the lighting that come together to make this place utterly craptastic.
Chris m: Yeah, OK, but think of a house like ….say the one in the movie Home Alone. The interior of that place, from my recollection, had an incredibly legit un-mccrapbox feel to it, yet the walls were still just drywall, right? So why is it, if you add molding and trim to some walls it looks mccrapbox, but you can do the same thing in some other places and you achieve the Winnetka/Home Alone feel? There must be a secret.
I’m having a hard time accurately recalling the Home Alone house. But I’m pretty sure it was a pre-WWII home with plaster walls.
Here you go Dan: http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/11/30/inside-the-real-home-alone-house/
Maybe it was all the wall paper. And chances are that’s plaster, not drywall, beneath the wallpaper.
LOL, thanks, it’s been a long time since I saw that movie. Some interior designer needs to come out with a book: “How to make your mcmansion interior look like a real mansion” Seriously.
I have a condo on lakewood and pratt, its a nice block… but this price is too high.
Not sure where it will actually settle in terms of price, but i dont think any appraiser could justify a price over 440 looking at comps.
It’s a great block, Gesco, but given what I see for $400K in better areas like W. Rogers Park and Peterson Woods, I believe $350K is tops for this place.
It perhaps has too much space and in the wrong places. Not everyone wants to heat 3000 unwinterized square feet.
danny, you name the things I love about Rogers Park. I love the architecture, the dense trees, the gardens, the beach, and the relaxed, friendly atmosphere. I believe I will take the chance to buy either here or Edgewater, another area whose “vibe” I like.
But I won’t buy or rent north of Howard. Too many really bad buildings stuffed with too many people of the sort you really want to live miles away from, and due to certain agreements made with HUD, these buildings will stay bad for a while longer.
The fun part of the area is south from Morse to Devon, close to Sheridan Road and along Devon. Lots of beautiful housing stock, many places to eat and shop. You have Ropa and Morseland and the Mayne Stage and a number of new and used bookstores, as well as Aldi’s and Dominick’s a few blocks down the road in Edgewater, along with Walgreens and CVC and Moody’s and a few other restaurants- all the basics. It will be awhile before we can get Broadway between Bryn Mawr and Devon built into an appealing mixed-use street, since it has always been so auto-oriented and was where all the first auto dealerships were located, and is now a mess of storage facilities and fast food outlets. But it is safe to walk around there at midnight (I do that all the time) and very convenient, and streetscaping efforts are beginning to pay off as the trees planted a number of years ago are maturing. Plans are afoot to widen the sidewalks and reduce the number of curb cuts and fast food outlets.
The two nabes together make for a safe, reasonably priced area. Now, if we can do something with Sullivan H.S…..
Laura,
Thanks for the neighborhood assessment. My wife and I recently looked at a condo in the Edgewater Beach apartments. What do you think of that building and the area right around it (Bryn Mawr)?
Thanks.
I love the area around Sheridan & Bryn Mawr, and always feel good there. It has developed into an attractive and interesting little district and it continues to improve. A beautiful new Dominick’s just opened at Foster & Sheridan, and the transportation is very good, with the Red Line (24/7), the 147, 136, and 151 buses downtown, and the Peterson going west.
I like the Edgewater Beach building a lot, a wonderful little community, with beautiful grounds, a great lobby, indoor pool, underground parking, and even things like a library to which all the residents contribute (hope they still have this) and little garden plots available for those who like gardening. But I was sort of underwhelmed by the units themselves, which are not the prettiest vintage apartments I’ve ever seen. However, they have good storage and are spacious.
Laura I lived in Roger’s for 5 years. On pratt, north shore, albion, and even in mertz hall! That was 15 years ago, maybe things have changed since then, but it was a fairly gritty urban environment back then.
Laura: “It will be awhile before we can get Broadway between Bryn Mawr and Devon built into an appealing mixed-use street, since it has always been so auto-oriented and was where all the first auto dealerships were located, and is now a mess of storage facilities and fast food outlets.”
I read through all of the CTA Red-Purple modernization proposals. The one I think is the most practical is to replace the elevated structure with a subway under Broadway-Sheridan. With fewer and better spaced stops, more people can be served by the red line. The CTA can continue to run the elevated structure while the subway is constructed. In all of the other proposals, the elevated structure will have to be rebuilt while it is still in use. That just means years and years of slow train service while construction takes place.
And an underground subway should theoretically be faster and smoother than an outdoor elevated structure exposed to the elements.
@Laura,
Evanston schools are good not excellent. Northbrook and Glenview schools are great. While the North Shore/New Trier schools are Excellent.
danny, while I like the idea of running the thing underground, I wonder about the massive costs involved in boring a new tunnel around so many standing buildings and existing (and fragile)underground water and sewer infrastructure. The tunnels we have already were put in 60 to 80 years ago when the city was still relatively young and still developing.
I have a feeling that in our near future (next 2 decades) we’re going to be a bit capital-constrained and moreover, under a lot of pressure to add more transit, especially rail service, very quickly to meet vastly increased ridership, because I strongly sense that high (and higher still) oil prices are here to stay, and people will want to drastically reduce their auto use.
An underground train would surely be faster and smoother, and intrude less on the neighborhood, while the existing structure is a noisy eyesore. But building a tunnel will be vastly more disruptive and expensive, especially when you consider the number of large buildings along Sheridan, and the huge costs and disruption involved in going under these streets and fitting a tunnel in without damaging existing water and sewer infrastructure. If we could also put in a separate storm sewer that recycles the water, that would be ideal, but I fear we will not be able to afford “ideal’ or anywhere near it, just avoid doing damage and make the best of what we have, which is rebuilding the existing structure with all 4 tracks.
Funny no one mentioned that this building is also next to a huge empty lot. Who knows what else will be built there.
I’m still giggling about all of the comments about roger’s park being bad. Frankly I think the best thing about rp is that all the folk who want lincoln park, lakeview, wicker etc nit only don’t want to live here – they don’t even want to visit. .. And I kind of fear the day they figure out what they’ve been missing!
hd, when I moved to Rogers Park from Lakeview in 1997, Pratt to Devon was completely terrible, and so was this building. I would not have moved into it then. Instead, I moved to Fargo, which was still very shady and was glad to move here in 2001. The beautiful courtyard building i live in, which had become extremely disreputable in 1997, had been sold to new owners, who shoveled over $1,000,000 into it in just a few years, in new wiring, landscaping, rehab of the beautiful old apartments in character, and new windows, and most of all in quickly evicting about 20 really bad tenants. The building is now a great building, with wonderful neighbors, and the area from Pratt to Devon is extremely clean and trouble-free, with no really bad buildings, and mostly very good ones, in addition to many beautiful single family homes. It’s safe, friendly, and lively.
The 1990s were the neighborhood’s nadir. It has improved every year since, though we still have some work to do.
The vacant lot at 1233 W Pratt, the site of the synagogue that burned a few years ago, will probably be sold to a condo developer when the real estate market looks good again. It is on the market now, I forget the price. That will be a few years.
In the meantime, we are floating ideas about what to do to improve the appearance of that tract. It’s a weed-infested eyesore right now, and we want that changed. I hope we can “borrow” it for awhile, for raised bed garden plots, until it’s sold for redevelopment.
I”m glad to hear that the RP has improved. I remember one day walking through the alleys from pratt to campus to get to class early in the morning and there must have been about 30 cars with their front windshields smashed in. My second day on campus I took the train downtown and met a guy on the platform who walked up to me and asked me if his face was bleeding. I said ‘yeah there’s blood everywhere. what happened?’ he said, “I had to jump off a moving train.” and then walked away. Virtually all my friends apartments and my neighbors were burglarized at least once. I was almost mugged on sheridan road one cold winter night but I ran away from them instead – these two losers had pants that were falling down so they couldn’t keep up. the little cigarette stand in the el was routinely held up. Roving bands of teenage kids everywhere causing trouble. Crazy times. A year after I graduated some loyola student was shot and killed on loyola ave during a mugging gone bad. my neighbors at one apartment would regularly buy drugs from the open air drug markets a little west of campus. BUt again, that was ages ago, everywhere changes with time, i can’t say its like that today, but I moved out of there to lakeview as quickly as soon as i graduted.
“The 1990s were the neighborhood’s nadir. It has improved every year since, though we still have some work to do.”
It is not like that now, hd. I feel very safe around here, though I stay alert everywhere I go, having been mugged a few times in another city many years ago. I’d leave, too, if I’d had your experiences.
Now, there are a couple of troublesome pockets left, which I’ve mentioned. I avoid Clark, especially close to Estes- rather raffish crowd lounging on the street corners around there. But along Sheridan, I feel fine, and along Pratt as far as the el tracks. Some scattered problems on Jarvis, that a landlord over there is working hard to abate. Several formerly ratty rental buildings close to Morse have been cleaned up and renovated, and have good tenants now.
I have watched many neighborhoods improve and deteriorate in 3 different cities, and compared with Lakeview in the 70s, or Uptown recently, we’re doing pretty well. I’d like to see Clark St improved more.
Thanks, Laura, for the analysis. I liked the apartment I saw at the Edgewater Beach, though, as you note, it doesn’t have all the vintage features some places do (no fireplace, for instance).
The one I viewed was on the 7th floor, on the lake side of the building, a 3 bedroom. Right as you walk into the entry hall, you have a beautiful view of the lake. The layout felt quite spacious (the apartment was around 2,000 SF), and what had been a maid’s room next to the kitchen had been combined with the kitchen to make a decent-sized space. The corner bedroom had been turned into a den and had great views looking south down Lake Shore Drive toward downtown. The third bedroom was strangely shaped and could only be used as an office or an emergency guest room, in my opinion.
I loved the lobby, the library (yes – still there) and the pool. It was winter, so we weren’t able to view the grounds, but I hear they’re beautiful.
My wife and I are thinking of moving to this building in a few years when our first son goes to college (our second will be starting high school at the same time and we were thinking of sending him to a private school in the city). We’re on the North Shore now, but we miss the city (I grew up in East Lakeview).
Danny, if you like the apartment and can bear the high HOA fees in this building, you will enjoy living there. It’d be great for your teen if you could get him into Sacred Heart, which is at Sheridan & Rosemont and is one of the city’s top private schools.
The grounds are extremely beautiful in the summer. The place has a large formal garden that fronts on Sheridan Road.
I like the Sheridan/Bryn Mawr district best of all the far north lakefront neighborhoods.
Chicago Waldorf which is also a great private school is also nearby
Laura, I didn’t know about being estes/clark being a particularly rough area, my folks are about to close on a 2-flat on estes, between ashland and greenview. Do you know anything about estes, further away from clark?
We were thinking Chicago Waldorf (we’re Jewish, so Sacred Heart wouldn’t work for us, but I’ve heard it’s good). We also are thinking Francis Parker, though it would be a long CTA ride away.
Dan – by “Edgewater Beach” do you mean what Chicagoans refer to as the Pink Building? Yes, it’s got all that great “vintage charm,” etc. but it’s a co-op, not a condo, which is a great turn-off to many potential buyers.
Five bedrooms and only TWO baths????? Not even a powder room within easy distance of the kitchen???? YIPES!!!!
ChiTownGal,
Yes – I’m referring to the Pink Building. The co-op aspect isn’t an issue for me. I know you need 20% down, but the plan would be to pay cash anyway, which we’d have in ample amounts, seemingly, after selling our decent-sized home on the North Shore. That’s assuming, of course, that the market doesn’t go down the drain in the next six years or so.
The condo we saw in the pink building was 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and priced at $350,000. Now it’s true the assessment is high at around $1,100, but even with assessment, parking and taxes combined, we’d be paying less per month than we are now for our house (because we’d have no mortgage payment).
Dan #2, while I can see the appeal of a place like the Pink Building (given the giant sizes of co-op units), have you also been following the buildings farther south along LSD (say, from around Hawthorne down to around Diversey), as well as along Lakeview Ave and LPW?
Dan – Best wishes for a happy life in the Pink Building. If I could afford it I’d live there too!
$1,100 assessment for a 3 bed 2.5 bath at the Edgewater Beach is not bad, considering that it includes taxes and a lot of amenities. Maybe it’s TOO low.
I’d make sure the building is maintaining a proper reserve. It didn’t for a long time, and got slapped very badly a decade back, when 40 years worth of deferred maintenance came due, and was presented with a staggering bill for essential repairs. I heard about it from the woman who delivered a city-sponsored condo-buying class I attended, who told us that the stucco cladding the building was beginning to delaminate and that the garage was in very poor condition. The total cost of recladding the building, renovating the garage, and making other essential structural repairs on this large building totaled $120M, she told us, but that the building, which is a designated landmark, was able to get federal, state, and city assistance and reduce the total bill to $37M, about $40,000 a unit, with many larger units paying much more, and smaller units less, but enough that many of the moderate-income owners had to sell at gift prices because they could not afford it. Assessments were ultra-high on some smallish units I viewed because the owners had gotten the special financed. I have been searching online ever since trying to find documentation for all this but I’m sure I’d have to go to the public records and do a lot of digging in arcane places to find it all.
When I heard this, I thought, well,no wonder the assessments were so absurdly low for a unit I’d viewed a few years before. Building is in very, very good shape now, but it was not cheap to do it, and if it had been maintained properly for 40 years before, the owners would have been spared a big, nasty surprise and years of financial misery. Sometimes, buildings defer necessary expensive maintenance in order to keep the assessments low; they don’t want to spend the money and scare off potential buyers with high assessments; but face it, older buildings are simply more expensive to maintain and the assessments should include a healthy payment to the reserve. It spares the owner much future pain.
gesc, if you want to see what a neighborhood is really like, go through it on a warm weekend night. I looked at a charming place close to the corner of Estes and Clark, and the weekend scene there is appalling. Very noisy, dirty corner with low-lifes standing around in clusters and a lot of very bad action taking place. And anyone from anywhere else who cruises down Howard at night will take just one look and pound the accelerator.
We have a few more bad buildings to take care of, for a fact.
@chitowngal…there is a bathroom kitchen on the other side of the kitchen, one on the second floor with 4 of the 5bedrooms. In the partially finished basement (has full bar, but it looks like they gave up on finishing the job) they started putting in a half bath. Plumbing was completed, but it has been left gutted. This house needs the original woodwork (molding and beams) to be stripped and refinished. They redid the floors to this awful dark brown. The deck looks horribly unsafe wih all of the rotting boards.
Whoever mentioned that this is an unsafe neighborhood for children is a moron. I’ve been here for 7 years in rp, and love it. I would not let my 6 year outside without me no matter where I lived. I had my kid at lakwsore schools until she was ready for kindergarten…then we were able to get her into a great magnet school. The schools are not the only problem bringing down rp…if the ghetto parents that overrun the neighborhood would teach their children to strive for better and be more involved with their schooling rather than treat the schools as free baysitting,than those ghetto pockets around rogers park would start shrinking. It starts with the parents to turn around the schools, and then the neighborhood will follow. Look at the story about Nettelhorst elementary and how they turned themselves around, which changed that part of Lakeview forever. Nettelhorst parents saved that school which in turn brought the neighborhood to being such a desired place to live. Unfortunately, many of th rp parents won’t put that effort into their. childrens eucation and their future. Hopefully with the economy in such a disaster, it will give people the opportunity to change rp by snatching up these good deals.