When a Vintage Home Can Also Feel Modern: 3300 N. Lake Shore Drive in Lakeview
This 2-bedroom unit in 3300 N. Lake Shore Drive is in one of the elegant 1920s high rise buildings that line the lake shore.
It has been renovated to its original vintage grandeur with modern updates. I don’t mean that the kitchen has been “updated” with cherry cabinets and granite counter tops.
Instead, in keeping with the era of the property, the kitchen cabinets have been restored while replacing the appliances with modern SubZero and Wolf appliances. Subway tiles line the walls to the ceiling.
There is also a butlers pantry for extra storage.
The room sizes are generous, as is common with vintage units of that era, and there is a full-sized dining room.
Like many vintage buildings that line Lake Shore Drive, the unit doesn’t have in-unit laundry, central air or parking. Rental parking is available in the area.
Ed Jelinek at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See more pictures, a virtual tour, and the floor plan here.
Unit #15D: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, dining room, no square footage listed
- Sold in December 2004 for $240,000
- Originally listed in March 2009 for $362,500
- Reduced and then withdrawn
- Currently listed for $299,000
- Assessments of $718 per month (includes heat and cable)
- Taxes of $3569
- No washer/dryer in the unit
- No central air
- Rental parking available nearby
- South exposure
- Bedroom #1: 17×11
- Bedroom #2: 17×10
How can stunning property be so cheap? Chicago prices are approaching those in Appalachia.
Beautiful apartment in prime location and the price feels right. I’ll be eager to see what this sells for.
The assessments are OK when you consider that they include heat and that this older building needs a big repair reserve. This is a large 2 bed apartment with huge rooms.
The taxes are not too bad, but I wonder what the next tax bill will be like. Given the horrific tax bills my friends and acquaintances are showing me, I’d expect $5000 minimum on the next bill. We all need to start organizing and screaming for lowered taxes.
What a beautiful home.
I think I am in love, beautiful property 🙂
any know what an east facing unit like this goes for?
Few pretty major flaws here, the price would be right if it was flawless (had the opposite of these things)
-South Exposure, yeah looking out to LSD isn’t that great but you can at least see the lake, here you just get to see another ugly brick building + you still get the noise of LSD.
-No central air, window units suck, especially in buildings with big old windows like this one.
-No washer dryer in the unit. lugging your crap to the basement or even worse, the laundromat is the worst and i’ll never do it again.
-rental parking “nearby”. Take it from me, parking in this hood is a nightmare, but I believe there is a lot behind this building, but still, paying $150-200 a month to park your car outside BLOWS.
-that kitchen sucks, super tiny, and no preperation space except for that wood block thing and some countertop room in the pantry
-Assessments of 718 a month for just heat & cable… ouch
+this place looks to be well maintained for a vintage unit and spacious rooms and a dining room are huge plusses.
depending on sqft might even be priced appropriately if those flaws I mentioned were fixed, but they can’t really be changed except for maybe the kitchen.
I could add that the steeply higher taxes we’re now starting to pay just have push prices downward. These taxes make places far less affordable.
Hooray for floorplans!
Why so cheap? It’s still $1000+/month if you pay cash and there’s no parking or laundry (c/a, I think, is less than req’d on the lakefront w/ flow-thru windows). It’s beautiful, but looking for a fairly small market. Altho there is at least one person here who will (likely) consider this near perfect …
Paging Laura…what do *you* think about the price.
I’ve watched the prices on vintage Lake View highrise condos drop steeply in the past 2 years. But keep in mind that they are still no lower than they were 10 years ago.
The incredible price hikes of the 00s desensitized us to ridiculously inflated prices. Why should they ever have reached the levels they did 2002-2006? They never would have if it weren’t for the corrupt lending that has destroyed our economic base since. Prices for residential need always to relate to local rents and incomes, and the median income for 60657 is around $59K a year- and dropping. Incomes across the U.S. as a whole have dropped a little since 1999. Considering that this is an above-average condo (though STILL 2 bed 1 bath condo, not a house) a likely buyer would be a professional single or couple with an income of $100K at the most. If they are prudent people, they will want to buy something that leaves them plenty of room for ample savings, and perhaps they have cars and monster college loans to pay. That means that $300K is the most they really want to spend on anything, and they would have to make a down payment of at least $30K.
The thing that amuses me is that this gorgeous place is so cheap relative to Edgewater and Rogers Park condos that don’t have half as much going for them in the way of architecture, space, or location. Sellers up at this end of town are only starting to get real- still too many people asking $300K for apartments steeply inferior to the one featured here.
anon, I’m “Laura” and posted what I think at the top… that I think the price is right.
“Given the horrific tax bills my friends and acquaintances are showing me, I’d expect $5000 minimum on the next bill.”
Remember that the 1st half tax bill is for 55% of prior year for the first time. Any “increase” is not *necessarily* an actual increase, but a reallocation.
That said, I would not count on a decrease, unless your assessed value dropped meaningfully (ie more than 20%) relative to your neighbors.
“anon, I’m “Laura” and posted what I think at the top”
That’s what happens when one doesn’t refresh before submitting. ONly one comment when I started typing.
Does it come with a cat? 😛
I do like the place.
oh yeah add to my list
-ONE bathroom
Wow… super nice place and at a low price. Reminds me of the early 90’s when the market crashed and even a few nice places like this were priced accordinly (adjusted for the times naturally). The homes/apartments with real detail, like this one, bounced back first and strongest, and that was pre 2000’s bubble, when you actually had to have skin in the game to buy. I’d take this in a second if I were looking, as I should have taken the east LP brick single family row-houses that were priced in the upper 200’s lower 300’s from their bloated 1980’s high of 600k. Same story, different decade.
“Does it come with a ca”
I’ll supply the cats, thanks.
Once looked at a gorgeous place at 3800 N. Lake Shore, comparable to this. The owner was leaving as the agent entered with her group, and he was one of the best-looking men I have ever seen in my life. I said, not entirely in jest, that I’d take the place at the price offered if the owner was included.
$1k monthly nut before PITI…yeah no thanks methinks this only makes sense as a rental.
“$1k monthly nut before PITI”
Nope. T=taxes. $700 before PITI.
And, sure, it makes more $$ sense to rent something like this, but then, where can you rent something actually like this, including the fine details*?
*which, I understand, you don’t place enough value on to pay a menaingful premium.
Sonies on February 4th, 2010 at 11:39 am
“oh yeah add to my list
-ONE bathroom”
I realize that this is very hard for you to understand, but some people would actually prefer a gorgeous, unique, tastefully restored, (one bathroom) vintage apartment to a 2/2 cookie cutter condo in RV.
“I realize that this is very hard for you to understand”
I don’t think it’s hard for him to understand; he did, afterall, note that it was HIS list.
“How can stunning property be so cheap? Chicago prices are approaching those in Appalachia.”
Well, let’s not get too excited. Assuming 20% down (which, let’s be honest, rarely happens), you’re still looking at a ~$2400/mo outlay for PITI+assessments. Back of the napkin math is six figures territory.
re: central A/C
How many days a year is serious A/C necessary in a unit with this lakefront location? Anyone have any experience?
Yeah whatever dalihachi, have you ever lived in a place with two bathrooms and then gone back to one bathroom?
Gorgeous place.
Having declared this place ravishing and a good deal for the money, I have to admit that the kitchen is awful. It is the you designed a kitchen back in the days when an affluent lady never entered one.
A kitchen is one thing I prefer to be state-of-the-art. That, and the plumbing and wiring.
“How many days a year is serious A/C necessary in a unit with this lakefront location? Anyone have any experience?”
I used to live two blocks from the lake, and barely turned on the AC. If you don’t mind the traffic noise and can keep the windows open, it shouldn’t be a problem.
We live behind a building like this, a couple blocks up. You don’t need a/c that often, if you have windows that allow for a crossbreeze. It’s just on those really humid days.
This place is beautiful and decorated perfectly. Those assesments are killer though.
Those assessments are right where they need to be for maintaining this vintage building; lots of elevators compared to a new building and fire escapes need to be kept up, etc.
Laura, I have it on good authority that you’ve had some very handsome neighbors.
you guys are nuts living without AC, how the hell do you sleep at night with that awful humidity and noise?
“Laura, I have it on good authority that you’ve had some very handsome neighbors.”
REALLY!!?? AHhhhhhhh…. let me see if I can guess who you are. I’ll have to wrack my brain for awhile.
You’re correct about the assessment. For one thing, it includes the heat, which is a pretty major item. The stonework on the building is a major maintenance item that is ongoing. And, yes, there are the elevators- this building has at least two elevator tiers with 2 elevators each.
$600-750 a month seems to be the range on vintage units of this size, depending on the particulars of the building. Courtyards are a little cheaper since they don’t have elevators. A twenty-four hour desk, which this building does not have, would add substantially to the cost, which is why assessments are so monstrous at buildings like 3750 N. Lake Shore and 421 W. Melrose.
Interesting to compare this 2/1 to one previously featured on CC, @ 3520 LSD.
http://cribchatter.com/?p=6598
Closed for 320k, but had direct lake views. How do the places, and buildings, compare?
I agree that the assesments fit the building, it just brings your monthly payment up so much- pretty large percentage of a $270k mortgage payment. I’m sure that is a factor why the price is where it is.
3750 is around the corner from me- it’s a gorgeous vintage building, but I always wonder how anything in there sells with such high assesments!
Does anyone know what the daily commute would be like to the Loop from this location?
Would anyone want to guess what this place would see for if it did have parking, especially indoor garage parking? I have to admit that I am reminded especially in winter to the advantages I now enjoy currently living in a building with a heated garage. I will never go back to outdoor parking again.
If I was in market for a condo, this would fit all our needs three years from now.
IMO this is a much better building than 3520. The apartments are larger, the rooms have much better millwork, and the building is quieter, with fewer apartments. 3520 is rather a hive compared.
What’s really great about 3300 is the really large bathrooms some of the south-facing apartments have, and the really deep window recesses with window-seats above the radiators in many of the units.I once viewed a south-facing 2-bed 2 bath with a master bath larger than many bedrooms, with beautiful antique tile. The 2nd bath was not small, either. By contrast, the rooms are smaller in the units at 3520, much smaller, and the bathrooms are small and standard.
Both buildings have tiny kitchens that are hard to renovate well. This unit really needs a kitchen reno, Viking range notwithstanding. And let me tell you that THAT big hog would be for sale on Craigs List the day after I moved in.
“Viking range notwithstanding”
Wolf. Red knobs. “They mean money”, I heard/read some dimwit say somewhere.
Unit 16A (3,000sq ft 3 bed) in this block came up at foreclosure back in October on a second lien and sold for $70k, first lien was approx 250k. I missed it (head hung in shame – I was on vacation) but that was a fantastic purchase in my humble opinion. A is the corner tier facing SE with the round section as a sun room.
On the rental topic, 3,550sq ft 3.5bed 3.1 bath Unit 9BC (East facing LR) is available for rent for $4,500. Given assessments and taxes that might be the better deal for haters.
KJ,
your a hop skip and a jump from the red/brown line so it should be fast.
i do wonder on cold days if taking i think its the 145 bus would be quicker and warmer.
Hey bob this is your route right? whats it like?
No its not my route. The winters are bad enough do you think I have a strange masochism to live right on the lake?
Uhh, no.
Groove I’ll give you a bit of an armchair physics lesson here: even being a half mile from the lake has substantially less lake effect breeze/snow than being right on the lake.
BTW Folks: This property is now a short-sale. Hope the Bank is responsive, but I doubt it.
“Groove I’ll give you a bit of an armchair physics lesson here: even being a half mile from the lake has substantially less lake effect breeze/snow than being right on the lake”
I thought you were in LV and took the red line? sorry 🙁
“Groove I’ll give you a bit of an armchair physics lesson here: even being a half mile from the lake has substantially less lake effect breeze/snow than being right on the lake.”
yeah no kidding
KJ you’d take the 134 or 135 express bus from here (if it still exists tomorrow) and it would take you maybe 20 minutes to get downtown
Thanks for the information.
By the way, I wait for the bus on LSD every morning and it’s not as bad as you would expect in terms of the weather. Using bus tracker, I can time when I leave my apartment and therefore the longest I have to wait for my bus to arrive is a few minutes.
Confirming the above: according to the listing agent, this is a short sale, which is not listed.
So do any of these buildings have parking or parking right right next door? And how much is parking? LIke the building on e lake shore drive, they have parking right in the building…
“I thought you were in LV and took the red line? sorry”
This place is right on the lake. I live inland like .5mi and the weather is better.
Parking is around the corner, about 3-5 mins walk, and is ~$200/month.
This sold for $315k.
Over list = seller paid closing costs and PMI?