Waiting for a Buyer in North Center: 4112 N. Claremont
How many empty new construction million dollar homes are there on the north side of the city?
Someone should tabulate them because it’s got to be several hundred.
This is another one that is empty and waiting for a buyer at 4112 N. Claremont in the North Center neighborhood. It’s been on the market since January 2008.
It’s been reduced $56,000.
Here’s the listing:
Award winning, R. James Kinsloe, Master Home Builder presents this home featuring the highest quality finishes & smart floor plan producing timeless a design. ‘Hardi-Plank’ exterior. 21X25 yard.
20X20 garage roof deck & outdoor fireplace. 4,000+-SF. 1 blk semi-private tree lined street. Compare apples to apples, there is nothing better on the market. We build homes to last for centuries not to be the next tear down!
Potala Real Estate has the listing. See more pictures and a virtual tour here.
4112 N. Claremont: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2.5 car garage
- Originally listed in January 2008 for $1.4 million
- Reduced several times
- Currently listed at $1.344 million
- Taxes are “new”
nice place and in a good school district. price is astronomical and calling the street tree lined is a bit of a stretch.
I wonder how many million dollar homes have sold in north center recently. it would be interesting to see a month by month report for the last year.
You know I looked at this place several times. It was really priced way out of my league at 1,400,000 but now that its been reduced by 56,000 I really like it at 1,344,000! But I’m going to wait until this has been listed for a couple of years so I know what the taxes are. lol
I don’t think the school is that great. It’s not Bell, which cuts off at Irving Park. Maybe Coonley, which I have in mind as maybe, maybe barely acceptable. That 4 percent reduction should do the trick though.
Here you go, CH:
>$1M Detached single family sales in North Center
— 2008— 2007— 2006— 2005
Dec— n/a— 9— 6— 4
Nov— n/a— 5— 4— 1
Oct— 3— 4— 3— 6
Sep— 3— 5— 5— 6
Aug— 10— 9— 6— 5
Jul— 10— 9— 4— 9
Jun— 9— 7— 6— 7
May— 2— 6— 13— 4
Apr— 4— 8— 5— 8
Mar— 12— 5— 4— 1
Feb— 6— 1— 5— 1
Jan— 5— 3— 3— 0
North Center total detached home sales by sale price range:
—2008 —2007 —2006 —2005
>$2M —2 —2 —1 —0
$1.5-2.0M —8 —13 —8 —0
$1.0-1.5M —54 —56 —55 —52
$750-999K —37 —56 —56 —73
$600-$749K—30 —28 —39 —48
$500-599K —14 —22 —25 —35
$400-499K —13 —9 —23 —22
$300-399K —6 —9 —7 —17
Here’s the rest of the 2nd data set:
eff it.
“calling the street tree lined is a bit of a stretch”
I count 8 trees in the aerial, total, on both sides of the block. That’s one tree every 165’/side–not even close to tree-lined.
“It’s not Bell, which cuts off at Irving Park. Maybe Coonley, which I have in mind as maybe, maybe barely acceptable.”
It’s definitely Coonley, which is turning over (from not good to possibly good) right now. I’d have reasonably high hopes for the magnet program, but there’s still no track record.
Another thing about Bell v. neighboring areas–virtually all of the houses in Bell are on 30′ lots, rather than 25′. Separate from the scholl question, this is not as nice a property as your “typical” Bell SFH. I’d say–maximum–$1.2mm.
Also, the lack of flooring in the basement, while understandable for a few reasons, does not help.
One would think that for $1.3M, you could build a porch that didn’t look like an afterthought… They must have used the extra $$$ for the awesome stone work in the bathroom!
Thanks G.
surprisingly little change in the million dollar home sales
I personally know someone who, earlier this year, purchased a million dollar home in north center. They had a sizable downpayment, but it was the $800,000 jumbo 5/1/10 interest only balloon ARM that made me lose respect. 2 people in a five bedroom home. They have no children. They have empty bedrooms with nothing in them. The taxes are $13,000 a year. I guess they drank a little to much “real estate only goes up” koolaid. The bigger the purchase, the higher the risk, the greater the reward? hahahahahah. My god this country is going to hell in a handbag.
As a side note, I encourage all everyone here to do a few simple things. Live within your means. Pay down your debts. Save some money for a rainy day. Don’t treat your home as an investment. Too many people did this over the last few years and now that things have gone sour they’re looking for heads to roll and people to blame. When in fact, they should be looking in the mirror. No one signed their option arm mortgage for them; no one told them to spend 50% of their income on a 5 bedroom home; no old asked you to be a land baron despite zero experience in the land or the baron part. In the end the only people Americans can blame are themselves. Those of us here who stayed out of the real estate mania will be OK. We have plenty of cash in our mattress to buy when prices have returned to affordability; we get great deals on rental apartments; we have good stable jobs that don’t involve flipping real estate. To you, I wish you good fortune. To the rest of you, the insolvent real estate investors who bought during the mania, I encourage you to contact your lawyer to arrange for the inevitable, financial bankruptcy. Bankruptcies are on record pace this year. Join the crowd, be like everyone else, follow your leader, file bankruptcy.
“Join the crowd, be like everyone else, follow your leader, file bankruptcy.”
This is an interesting comment, so I pose a question to everyone… With the higher number of bankruptcies coming down the pipe and the extreme nature of the housing decline, do you think that the effect of bankruptcy will have the same impact on people’s financial status/future options as it has in the past?
Jason R,
Interesting question. I’ve _always_ been against bankruptcy or having bad credit being used for adverse employment decisions and I suspect that it will hold even less influence in the future in this area. I don’t think someone’s personal finance decisions can be used as criteria for their on the job performance or to compare candidates, regardless of the job. Its bogus they’re used at all.
In other areas I think it will. Lenders are going to have better risk management in the future. This will include not giving loans to people with credit blemishes OR charging a commensurately higher interest rate for that risk. Will it dampen demand in industries big on financing? Absolutely. Will it happen despite what the government tries? Absolutely.
“I’ve _always_ been against bankruptcy or having bad credit being used for adverse employment decisions and I suspect that it will hold even less influence in the future in this area.”
I disagree, especially for the jobs that have to do with finances, banking, accounting, etc. If you cannot manage your own money, how can you be trusted with access to someone else’s?
Linda,
I’ve worked a few years as a corporate financial analyst and an accountant. I can safely say that I saw many coworkers who managed their personal finances very poorly but were still good at their job. (Couldn’t be happier I left that career behind BTW).
Some people need a structured environment (with evaluations, performance reviews, etc) to succeed. In their personal life this often isn’t present. We’re not talking about custodians of a trust we’re talking about bean counters. Also corporate accounting is more about following rules and reporting than it is about ‘managing’. The only people in corporate America who manage money, as in take risks with corporate money, are very high up (general managers, division heads, CFO, treasurer, CEO, or portfolio managers). Run of the mill bean counters aren’t allowed to exercise their own judgment with company finances.
And for a portfolio manager you have a valid point but by the time you get to that level credit checks wouldn’t be a consideration.
“Credit card companies were shut out of the market for bonds backed by customer payments in October for the first time in more than 15 years”
Like the NAR says “Now’s a great time to buy”
Oh is this going to get ugly…
Despite all that.. Massive houses are awesome. If you have 3 floors and 2 separate sets of stairwells you can use it to exercise. As for rooms.
2 guest rooms. one for a gym, one for a theater, one for a pool table, one next to it for the ping pong table, maids room, one for the dogs, just need to be creative.
I’ve seen literally hundreds if not thousands of credit reports in my life and the things I see would shock you. Both the creditor and the debtor alike. I’ve seen $200 in principal charges on a Capital One card balloon to $3,000 with late fees, over the limit fees and interest.
I’ve also seen people who are too lazy to give the emergency room their health insurance information so tens of thousands of dollars in bills go on their report.
A few months ago I saw a lady who bought a plasma TV from Best Buy (via an HSBC in store credit card) and this person never made a single payment, ever. I asked this person how big and she said 47″. For an undisclosed reasons, I even saw this person’s credit application (obviously in the report).
THis person wrote that they had no job, no money in the checking account, and lived at home with the parents. Approved for $2,000.00. (as a side note from what I’ve seen HSBC will give money to anyone who can fog a mirror).
Here’s another one. This person is a single in and in the 30’s – earns in the 50’s, lives a lifestyle in the $100,000. HAD to buy a condo b/c everyone else was buying. Well now it’s bankrupting this person. OH did I mention the $40,000 in credit debt from TV’s, computers, stereo equip, etc. And they’ll keep it all too. The trustee doesn’t want to liquidate a used 60″ LCD because it’s too much of a hassle.
Oh how about this one. Four person household, mom, dad and two kids. Granted, the father doesn’t make a whole lot, maybe $40k so I’d call them the working poor. But still, they HAD to buy a house and now it’s bankrupting them. Well, it’s not just the mortgage putting them in trouble. It’s the best buy credit card, half a dozen clothing store credit cards, tens of thousands of dollars of regular credit cards, Fashion Bug, the list goes on and on. I’m not saying it’s easy to live on $40k a year with four people but at some point you have to make a decision. The mom can’t stay at home, she needs at least a part-time job. She needs to get out of the mall and into a job….and rent, not pay a mortgage that takes 50% of the household income…
damn, my client’s here a half an hour early, gotta run.
Homedelete – The life of a low life attorney. So sad!
“Don’t treat your home as an investment.”
I think that’s sound advice in terms of viewing it as an ATM, but otoh you should view a home as an investment in the sense that you need to regularly invest IN it so it doesn’t get dilapidated/depreciate needlessly.
We bought a house in 02 that would likely have been torn down without a second thought in 04 or 05, but all it really needed was central air/hear (it had space heaters on each floor) to be “livable” and not wasting $$$ on inefficient energy for heating/cooling.
We bought a house well below our limit in order to upgrade the HVAC, and our energy bills went down even though we’re now more comfortable (free standing space heaters are horrible!).
There are a lot of SFH and 2-flats in Chicago like this, and it’s much better IMO to keep the housing stock that was soundly built in pre-WWI (there are some homes with awful materials due to the WWI embargo) and then in the good years before the Great Depression.
It saddens me immensely to see older folks suffering in these homes that are completely outdated, leaking heat/AC like a sieve, and then by the time their kids inherit the place rehabbing is prohibitively expensive due to mold, wood rot, etc. that could have been addressed earlier.
speaking of investment smarts, this is going to be a good time to be putting solar panels up, as Obama will certainly keep and likely upgrade the federal incentives. Energy costs are going nowhere but up, so that is a very sound ROI, especially compared to people spending the same amount just to get some granite in their kitchen.
Steven, you are a used home salesperson and realt-a-whore. Who are you to talk. But honestly, I’d dig ditches if it paid more money that being a lawyer. Your decision to sell used homes shows that you also care little about prestige. And many of those lawyers and IBs with prestigious jobs are now twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do while I’m busy as hell cleaning up the mess.