Vintage With Views of the Lake for just $72 a Square Foot: 5555 S. Everett in Hyde Park
This 1-bedroom in the Jackson Towers at 5555 S. Everett in Hyde Park has been on and off the market since May 2014.
Built in either 1924 or 1926 (the listings are all over the place with the date), it was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager who also designed the Sheridan Plaza Hotel and the Uptown Broadway Building.
There are 72 units on 19 floors. Some of the units are quite grand with duplexes and simplexes.
This is one of the smaller units but it has views of the Lake and the Museum of Science and Industry.
At 1165 square feet, it has a dining room and the spacious room sizes you would expect from a vintage unit.
The listing says it has updated plumbing and electrical.
There’s no central air, only window units. And there’s no washer/dryer in the unit.
There’s also no parking with the building but according to this 2014 Chicago Magazine article about the building, there is a nearby lot that many park at which costs $200 a month.
Also according to Chicago Magazine, most of the major building renovations were completed a couple of years ago so there are no big special assessments coming.
This unit has been reduced to just $85,000, or $72 per square foot.
Is this a deal, even with the $988 a month assessment?
Pamela Tuggle at Berkshire Hathaway KoenigRubloff has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit B8: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1165 square feet
- Sold in April 1988 for $47,000
- Originally listed in May 2014
- Has been under contract
- Was listed in June 2015 for $99,500
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $85,000
- Assessments of $988 a month (includes heat, doorman, exterior maintenance, scavenger and snow removal)
- Taxes of $2540
- No central air- just window units
- No in-unit washer/dryer
- No parking – nearby lot is available for around $200 a month
- Bedroom #1: 15×12
- Living room: 18×14
- Dining room: 14×16
We have friends in this building who have a lovely huge unit with an absolutely marvelous interior. Some years back they wanted to sell their unit and move closer to their kid in down town, but they did not. The decision was partly due to the fact that their unit, which is gorgeous BTW, was not evaluated at a price they expected. The high assessment as well as the fact that this hood is not what it used to be when they purchased, is killing the prices.
This 1BR at $85K lets me see how disappointed they should have been with their evaluation.
The $1400 HOA, taxes and Parking costs are a killer at this price point.
Not sure what the market is for this place. Post-Doc at the U of C or Museum curator? Guessing that old folks with ties to the hood are pretty well gone.
Unless there’s some sort of impetus for moving South, prices in HP are arent going to move.
I didn’t know this building had one-bed apartments. Nice enough apartment, but the cost of ownership (hoa + taxes) is a total dealbreaker for the likely buyer of an $85,000 apartment. It would be best for someone who is downsizing from a house, wants a high level of service, convenience, and security; and can easily pay cash.
You can’t have any idea of how spectacular the larger duplex units are in this beautiful old building, from looking at this little place. The duplexes are still just gorgeous, with soaring, vaulted ceilings and graceful staircases. And they don’t look anything like what they did when the place was new and the ornate plaster ceilings were intact.
I was just in Hyde Park over the weekend. I had forgotten that this area was so gorgeous. It almost made me want to move. Driving to Hyde Park on a Sunday took only about 15 minutes. While there were some people out, there were no mobs of people.
Now that Instacart delivers to Hyde Park, it’s easier to get groceries. Living with just a few options for restaurants/shops would be irritating though.
Agree- Hyde Park is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, with some of the loveliest vintage buildings.
Services like Instacart and Uber might be saving many city neighborhoods that have been rather beaten-up over the past few decades, and lack the retail and services most urban dwellers demand. At the same time, they’re making it possible for people who can no longer drive, stay in their homes in suburbs and outer neighborhoods with bad transit.
I don’t see the benefit of a 1 bedroom condo (or SFH for that matter) unless the cost is significantly less, which hasn’t been the case in my experience.
You can always use a 2nd room as an office, extra storage, guest room, hobby dungeon, etc and you can get a roommate if needed.
Maybe this location will come around, maybe it won’t. There’s money to be made in RE speculation. I know someone who just sold a 15-unit rental building on the north side, fringe GZ north of LIncoln Sq., for $161K per unit. The building was purchased in 1997 for $25K per unit.
So, it’s conceivable that some areas around Hyde Park will *finally* see their day too. If that happened, this unit could easily double or triple in price. Speculators just have to pick the right areas and/or get lucky.
PS I was just reading about the UofC trauma center. It’s amazing all the hypocrite liberals and social justice warriors that have passed through U of C and Hyde Park, and they never cared enough to help the surrounding community. There is nothing more disgusting than the “lakefront liberal”.
Can add that the taxes on this place are MONSTROUS relative to the market value, another deal-killer.
Can it still be called “high level of service” with the parking outside and “nearby”. There is a doorman, on-site manager, and on-site engineer. But, no valet. No pool. No community room. No exercise facility.
Paying $1,200 a month for HOA and taxes on a $88K condo means re-paying the purchase price again every 74 months (about 6 years). I don’t see how this makes sense.
$85K, my bad. Makes the math even worse. Re-paying the purchase price again every 70 months.
What’s getting the UofC trauma center built is Obamacare. More people with insurance means that the trauma center will operate like a business, and not like charity. Politics aside, this is a good thing for the entire area.
If you purchased this place cash and assumed a cost of capital of 3%, you could amortize the purchase price over 5 years and have a total economic cost of about $1,400 (investment plus ASM & RE Taxes). Assessments are always the wild card with vintage buildings, but if they stay relatively constant this seems like an ok deal.
” More people with insurance means that the trauma center will operate like a business, and not like charity. ”
Except that business will operate on a whole lotta medicaid which pays upwards of 13 cents on the dollar on a good day, and 7 cents on the dollar, or less, on a bad day. There’s still going to be a lot of charity going on.
“Politics aside, this is a good thing for the entire area.”
The city needs more trauma centers outside of the downtown core because if a terrorist attack takes out the downtown core, there won’t be any trauma centers close enough. Even something like the Paris attacks would overwhelm the current downtown trauma centers.
“Now that Instacart delivers to Hyde Park, it’s easier to get groceries. Living with just a few options for restaurants/shops would be irritating though.”
Has the Whole Foods opened yet? And isn’t there a big movie theater set to open as well?
Hyde park is looking pretty sweet these days. Tons of development. Whole foods. New restaurants, U Chicago and unbelievably gorgeous houses. Not a stretch at all to see why people would want to live here. The unit in question is of good size and the University and hospital are a revolving door of people to sell it to after you out grow it.
“The city needs more trauma centers outside of the downtown core because if a terrorist attack takes out the downtown core, there won’t be any trauma centers close enough.”
reason #1001 to move to Lake County.
I have learned over the years as a Realtor that you can have two condos of approximately equal size and quality, one in Hyde Park and one on North LSD/Sheridan Road. The purchase price in HP will probably be less, but the assessments will probably be more. I was told by some HP “old hands” in the real estate business that Hyde Parkers would rather pay large assessments to make sure that there is a good reserve account for major projects like roof replacement. On the North Side, the reserve account may not be adequate for a major project and the owners get stuck with special assessments which may last for years, and which are usually NOT transferrable to a new owner. For the past decade or so, it’s been the rule that the balance of a special assessment must be paid at closing from the seller’s profit.
The Whole Foods is coming in a few months and a Target in around a year. No new theater that I’m aware of – the old HP Theater reopened a few years ago now (at Harper Court).
The “old line” Hyde Park realtors think that the WF won’t change prices because “Hyde Park is different” which I don’t buy at all (I’m thinking of the recent study which says that being within a mile of a WF raises prices 20%).
I think this is a one bedroom because a bedroom was taking for one of the adjacent apartments long ago (or when built). I think the taxes are somewhat average/high for HP and perhaps need to be appealed as it’s a one bedroom, but skewed up by being in a building where most units are bigger by several rooms. I suspect that the assessment is also high for that reason, but it is a high service level building.
Hyde Park isn’t the problem. It’s the people that live there.