Trying to Sell a 2-Bedroom for a Year in 30 W. Oak in the Gold Coast
This 2-bedroom in 30 W. Oak in the Gold Coast came on the market in August 2018.
If it looks familiar, that’s because we chattered about it a year ago.
You can see our chatter here.
30 W. Oak was built in 2006 and has 44 units and a parking garage.
It was built as a luxury condo building and still has some of the most expensive units in the city.
For years, even during the financial crisis and housing bust, this was one of the few buildings where units sold fast, and for a profit.
But in the last few years, a half a dozen luxury buildings have now been built that are direct competition to 30 W. Oak.
If you recall, this corner unit has 11 foot ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows but there’s no outdoor space.
It has a custom Poggenpohl kitchen with a white quartz island bar, a steel tile backsplash and Subzero, Thermador and Miele appliances.
Forget about the standard wood floors in the living room. There are unique honed Biana white marble floors throughout the living/dining room and kitchen.
The master suite has espresso hardwood floors as well as a massive walk-in-closet and a Calcutta marble master bath.
The powder room has a floating vanity.
This is a corner unit that faces north and west, which is the back of the building. Because it’s on the corner, it has windows in both bedrooms and even in the closet.
This unit has central air, washer/dryer in the unit and one garage parking space is included.
When we chattered about it a year ago, it was listed at $899,000.
It’s still listed at $899,000.
Is 30 W. Oak still a hot building?
Or have all the new construction luxury buildings impacted its prestige?
Michael Zuker at @Properties still has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.
Unit #5E: 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1500 square feet
- Sold in October 2006 for $722,500
- Sold in October 2015 for $785,000
- Sold in March 2018 for $850,000
- Was listed in August 2018 for $899,000 (parking included)
- Currently is still listed for $899,000 (parking included)
- Assessments are now $960 a month (they were $907 a month in 2018) (includes heat, a/c, gas, parking, doorman, cable, Internet, exercise room, exterior maintenance, scavenger, snow removal)
- Taxes are now $17,894 (they were $16,825 a year ago)
- Central Air
- Washer/dryer in the unit
- Bedroom #1: 15×13
- Bedroom #2: 12×7
- Laundry room: 5×5
- Walk-in-closet: 15×12
- Living/dining room: 21×15
- Kitchen: 12×13
It is a nice looking place, but it doesn’t have much of any view. You can see in some of the pictures of the living room that it looks right into a brick wall. For $900 large, I want a view of some sort…
“For $900 large, I want a view of some sort…”
or 2000+ sf…
The 2-per-floor units on the higher floors are nice, but asking $800 psf, eg:
https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/30-W-Oak-St-60610/unit-10B/home/18942262
Wow….that Walk-in closest is huge…almost as big as the master bedroom and bigger than the 2nd bedroom.
The “view” from any window sucks…not much to see from the 5th floor facing North to another building, and facing West to Warren Barr nursing home. I would rather spend my $800k elsewhere.
OK -am I way off base, or do those taxes seem incredibly high for a 2/1 with 1,500 SF? Location on Gold Coast in newer building, I realize, but that’s a lot more than I expected.
And does anyone else notice a discrepancy here? A room-sized closet but no room to eat (unless you call a couple of stools at a counter or that little table off the LR a “dining area.”
the master closet is almost too bid. i’d rather have more space added to the bathroom and have a separate shower and tub. is there no closet in the 2nd bedroom? Odd use of space.
It is also dated, no one wants to pay top dollar for 10 year old finishes
Odd use of space.
Very odd. Anyone using the 2nd bedroom would need to traipse through the master bedroom to get to the master bath to shower. Weird.
I hate the trend of super-sizing the private spaces and downsizing the public spaces in contemporary homes. I’d rather have a decent sized living /dining/kitchen area, and less space in the master bed/bath/closet.
Madeline,
I can’t agree more. Great observation. The swelling of master bedrooms and walk-in closets makes no sense to me. About 90% of the time I spend in my bedroom is sleeping. Why would I need so much space?
I’m old fashioned. The 1949 home I’ve lived in for 17 years has a formal dining room, and I resisted my wife’s pleas to knock down the wall and make it part of the kitchen. She didn’t plea too much because I think she agrees with me. A room just for dining has a certain elegance.
“OK -am I way off base, or do those taxes seem incredibly high for a 2/1 with 1,500 SF?”
This is the new reality. Everyone is going to pay a lot more.
Those taxes are based upon an $865K assessed value that has been in place since 2015, which is about right. It’s one of the few valuations that Joe Berrios got right. In general he under-assessed the more expensive properties and over assessed the cheaper properties. The new values are much more in line with reality so a lot of upper end homes really got whacked for 2018.
Thanks for explaining the taxes, Sabrina and Gary. If people are going to be asked to pay $17,000 a year in taxes for a place like this that’s just 1,500 SF, I have worries about Chicago’s housing market. I pay less for a five-bedroom SFH on the North Shore with nearly 3,000 SF on a decent-sized lot.
Doesn’t the city realize it’s going to drive people to the suburbs with taxes rising this way?
“Doesn’t the city realize it’s going to drive people to the suburbs with taxes rising this way?”
haha, the city doesn’t give a shit as long as there’s enough gullible suckers moving downtown to keep shelling out their hard earned money to fund cronyism and union handouts, well that and the sins of the past ~5 decades or so spending wise…
“a place like this that’s just 1,500 SF”
Um, it isn’t based on size at all. It has *always* been the case that is you want more space, you move to the burbs. Still true.
Are you seriously comparing a condo in a high rise to a suburban SFH? One that, even with twice the square footage and a yard, would be worth less than the featured condo?
Whether you own a small condo box or a mansion in Chicago, you’re going to pay about 2% of the market price in yearly taxes. That’s our current reality.
Anon,
The house in question is “worth” 2/3 the price of the unit discussed here. Assuming the unit discussed here actually goes for this price.
This floor plan blows. This is a 1bed + den. NOT a 2BR on any planet. How you don’t at least get 2 baths at this price point is absurd.
The finishes in the kitchen are kinda gross. I’m with David. Who would pay top dollar for 10-year old finishes that were “on trend” (marginally so) ten years ago? You want classic finishes if you are going to pay top dollar for not brand new.
Also, the clutter isn’t helping this listing. Get rid of the plants and put your books and book cases in storage and re-shoot the photos and this place feels less cramped. The only spacious feeling space is the master closet!!
Also, When one’s furniture doesn’t match the design aesthetic of the rest of the building, it may be better to put it all in storage and stage the place with rental furniture that is both appropriately sized for the space and allows a prospective buyer to “see themselves” in the space rather than see someone elses’ clutter.
“This is a 1bed + den. NOT a 2BR”
Developer had it as 1+den. See original floorplans here:
http://chrchicago.com/pages/68475/30-West-Oak-Floor-Plans.aspx
Only two of this fp, on 4 and 5.
“The house in question is “worth” 2/3 the price of the unit discussed here.”
But is the house assessed at 2/3 of the price of this unit or is it assessed at a lower fraction? And even with 2/3 the assessed value right there you have a reason for the lower taxes.