There’s Nothing Like a Vintage High Rise Apartment: A 2-Bedroom at 415 W. Aldine in East Lakeview
This 2-bedroom 15th floor vintage unit at 415 W. Aldine in East Lakeview just came on the market.
Built in 1927, the building has just 2 units per floor.
At 2000 square feet, it has features you don’t see in modern apartments including a barrel vaulted entry foyer.
The kitchen has white cabinets, granite counter tops and backsplash and luxury appliances by Viking, Bosch and Bertazzoni.
The unit has 3 exposures: North, South and East.
There’s no central air (only window units) or in-unit washer/dryer. The listing also says parking is “available”- does that mean just rented in the neighborhood?
It is listed $65,000 higher than the 2010 purchase price (I can’t tell if the kitchen was put in after that sale or not.)
That’s 19.4% appreciation.
Will this unit get it?
Violet Sudler at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #15D: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2000 square feet
- Sold in September 1991 for $180,000
- Sold in September 1993 for $180,000
- Sold in October 2003 for $285,000
- Sold in March 2007 for $332,500
- Sold in December 2008 for $345,000
- Sold in May 2010 for $335,000
- Currently listed for $400,000
- Assessments of $797 a month (includes heat, cable, Internet)
- Taxes of $4128
- No central air – window units only
- No in-unit washer/dryer
- Parking available in the neighborhood
This is a very nice building if you can live without parking and a W/D. However, this isn’t my favorite tier. I’d much rather be on the northwest corner (front) of the building, with unobstructed views. The unit below has an extra bedroom, better views and is priced lower.
http://www.coldwellbankeronline.com/property/details/2905427/MLS-08224813/415-West-Aldine-Street-Chicago-LakeView-IL-60657.aspx
Also, the assessments seem high considering lack of amenities (no exercise room, no doorman).
why the big difference in the 2 units? I like it, but no washer/dryer is always a deal breaker
If I were a buyer right now I would be very confused. This price seems great but then the comp above kind of kills it… yes it’s not as updated or staged but it’s a 3/3 rather than a 2/2! Then there is this one that just came on the market a few blocks away http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3731-N-Pine-Grove-Ave-60613/unit-1S/home/12723666 which is higher than both of these! What price do you put on things like central air? Parking? First floor right on the sidewalk?
why the big difference in the 2 units? I like it, but no washer/dryer is always a deal breaker
This unit has a completely renovated kitchen with luxury appliances. The other one that is under contract does not. How much is a kitchen renovation worth? $50,000? $75,000? If you’re putting in Bosch, Subzero etc. shouldn’t it make a difference?
We also don’t know what the bathrooms look like. In the one under contract, they haven’t been renovated in forever.
All of this costs money for buyers. They’re rather it already be done so they can just move in. Therefore, there is a higher premium given to move-in ready condos.
Understand, of course, that a 3/3 in this building counts as a bedroom what was built as the maid’s room. Usually very small.
No W/D, no air conditioning, no parking (or even realistic possibility of parking, lets face it), high assessments, high price, what’s not to love about this place? Someone who wants vintage does not care about the kitchen reno, and someone who wants modern won’t have the patience for a creaky old building. This is the real estate version of schizophrenia.
I’m familiar with the neighborhood and this building has outdoor parking spots for residents behind the building as do many of the vintage buildings nearby.
The listing for the unit below this one (10A) says the 3rd bedroom has been opened to the kitchen, so it’s really a 2 bedroom. And with the difference in square footage being 180 sq ft, you can bet that was a former maid’s room/bath. 10A’s kitchen needs to be redone.
Beautiful apartment and not a bad deal considering the location and the type of building.
The taxes and assessment are very reasonable. That assessment is almost TOO reasonable for what’s included given the size of this apartment. Low assessments are great, but you want to make sure that they aren’t so low that a “maintenance deficit” is being accumulated, so a buyer might want to see the budget and be sure that a reserve is being accumulated and that necessary repairs and upgrades to common elements are being made. Too many of these old buildings are neglected for decades, and when the bill for the deferred maintenance can no longer be put off, it is often horrific.
Laura,
You’re absolutely right about the assessment. What the buyer has to decide is whether living in a vintage building with no amenities but lots of charm is worth paying nearly $800 a month in fees, or if they’d rather live in a newer, full-service building with similar fees that has a doorman, exercise room, etc.
dan#2,
Now that I’m actually positioned to buy, I’m deciding I’d rather live in something rehabbed, but sufficiently weatherized and with new plumbing and electrical, because it’s cheaper and easier for me to replace the decorative elements lost in the rehab, than it is to replace ancient, corroded plumbing, deficient wiring, and badly insulated exterior walls….or pay wildly escalating heating costs. At least with a rehab, I will get minimal weatherization, and hopefully will have my own furnace so that I can see immediate rewards for further winterizing my unit, in the form of lower heat bills.
I spent my 20s and 30s overpaying in rent for beautiful, huge vintage apartments in fine old high rises, and always wanted to own a place in a vintage high rise. I still do. But reality is what it is- these places are HORRIFICLY expensive to maintain and heat. Most of the vintage high rise stock in this city has no weatherization, old common plumbing, and major maintenance and upgrading long deferred. I can’t afford the HOA costs nor the special assessments for doing major work on these places.
The featured apt. isn’t bad as they go. $800 a month HOA including heat is pretty reasaonble for a 2000 sq ft apt, that includes heat, in a 20s-vintage building. I usually see HOAs of $1800 a month for vintage units this size, and the moderate-priced, moderate-sized (1000 sq ft) units I’ve looked at, at 6101 N Sheridan, and other old high rises, run from $650 to $800 a month. A HOA fee of $750 a month for a 2 bed 1 bath with 1100 sq ft is outrageous and a total deal-killer for me. Worse, it will only rise, perhaps sharply, over time. We’ve been very lucky with natural gas prices because the drillers have created a temporary glut due to overinvestment in hydrofracturing (“fracking”) and tight restrictions on gas exports. However, our luck will run out as more LNG terminals are permitted and built, and when gas producers can sell to the global market, our prices will move to parity with global gas prices, which are over twice our cost.
Given all of the above, practical considerations trump love.
Good analysis, Laura. I agree natural gas prices may go up if we export LNG (as I think we should), but I don’t think they’ll go back to 2008 levels. Maybe they’ll rise 25% from here, but even that would be below $6, and well in line with historic prices, once you adjust for inflation. Also, Europe and China, as well as Japan, are finding they have huge natural gas resources themselves, and all they need is the engineering expertise to extract them as we are. Once they do, there’ll be less demand for U.S. exports.