Under Contract Within a Month: 3020 N. Sheridan in Lakeview
Yes, properties are still selling quickly if they are priced right and are unique.
Take this three bedroom unit at 3020 N. Sheridan, a 9-unit 1903 graystone building, in East Lakeview. The room sizes are all enormous (as was common at that time period.)
- Living room: 28 x 20
- Dining room: 22 x 14
- Family room: 17 x 10
- Kitchen: 18 x 11
- Bedroom: 16 x 11
Here’s the listing for Unit #2N:
Stunning updated and upgraded 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom greystone condo in very desirable walk to everything location! Gorgeous spacious rooms with glistening refinished hardwood floors. Beautiful granite, cherry, stainless steel kitchen with island, open to family room with built-ins.
Elegant dining room with coffered ceilings, luxury master suite with marble bathroom, whirlpool tub, separate shower, walk-in closet. Living room with majestic moldings. Close to lake, shops, transportation.
This is in the hard-to-sell price range over $500,000 and doesn’t have parking (rental available down the street.) Yet it has gone under contract after being on the market only about a month.
Unit#2N: 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
- Sold in September 2006 for $565,000
- Currently listed for $599,000 (no parking)
- Assessments of $341 a month
- Taxes of $6763
- Central air
- Coldwell Banker has the listing
This is a reasonable price for a great looking unique unit that satisfies the requirements of higher-end buyers (except for parking).
The owner did the smart thing of pricing this unit at 600K instead of pricing it at 675 then dropping it slowly while the unit languishes. If all sellers were this realistic volume would go up because there are still a decent amount of fence-sitters waiting for reasonable prices. The problem with dropping prices slowly is that the “reasonable price” will continue to drop and the sellers will end up chasing for awhile (or until they are broke). I think part of the problem is that sellers can’t “afford” to sell at a loss or really want that profit they “deserve”. But this is illogical thinking because prices are NOT going up anytime soon.
When will sellers wake up and start cutting prices more aggressively to where the buyers are?
This is one of the most desirable properties in the area. This really is one extremely beautiful and exceptional condo, and it’s HUGE, with wonderful details. I wish I could afford it
Sounds like the price is right, even a bargain.
Very nice unit in very desirable area.
Wow! That’s a beautiful place. I’m not surprised it sold so quickly.
Nice pre-war in Chicago… Is homedelete licking his wounds? No parking and it sold! This is a great sign for the market.
Not to say the cookie cutter condos with the exposed ducts and concrete ceiling kind of places are going anywhere.
This is a real home with separate rooms, windows and a whole lotta soul.
Trader,
I went down 1% a week like religion and once it hit a spot it was one showing after another and then gone. Seemed done at pretty fair value to the comps that followed also. Not sure if that constitutes lowering slowly but it worked.
I’m curious to find out what price it will sell for. I’ll bet dollars to donuts it went for $550,000 or less.
This particular unit sold for $565k in ’06; $410k in ’01 and $169k in 1998. Therefore, there is only one logical, rational an empirical conclusion: real estate only goes up!
Sorry, the above is 1988 not 1998. Typo.
Lots of diff between 1988 and 1998.
$150K seemed expensive in 1988. Wish I had been positioned to buy then…life would be different. This place was right around the corner from me.
Adjusted for inflation, 150,000 in 1988 dollars is 275,000 today. (Per Bureau of Labor Statistics web page) Housing might not always go up but it does usually beat inflation.
You think this unit will beat inflation since its last sale?
Probably not, but it will very likely do better than money invested in the stock market since Sept. of ’06.
The listing price was only 6% over the last sale, which breaks out to about 3% per year (not quite two years, but it compounds).
Of course, factoring in transaction costs the seller lost money in real terms, and probably about even in nominal terms. (Realtors 5-6%, Chicago 70bps in plus 30bps out, title/appraisal/loan/etc.) *Assuming* that they got their asking price…
Aug 31, 2006 the Dow was at 11381 and the S&P500 at 1303.
Yesterday they closed at 11051 and 1228, for (nominal) losses of 2.9% and 5.8% respectively. So real losses in the market are more like 10% (relative to inflation).
RR, I believe that this will be a much bigger loser than a stock mkt investment over the same period when considering how much the owner overpaid versus renting equivalent housing every month.
Especially if one was doing the obvious in 2006 by shorting financials.
“Aug 31, 2006 the Dow was at 11381 and the S&P500 at 1303.”
In fairness, both indices were trending up throughout Sept 2006, so the stock market losses look worse if the purchase was late in the month.