Will the Abbott Estate Sell for Double Its 2004 Price? 4605 N. Hermitage in Ravenswood
The Abbott Estate at 4605 N. Hermitage in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Uptown recently came on the market.
If it looks familiar, it’s because we chattered about it in 2010 after it had been on the market during the Great Recession years in 2009 and 2010.
You can see our chatter here (where some of you advocated tearing this down and building something new).
This is a unique north side property.
Built in 1891 for the founder of Abbott Labs, this Victorian is on an oversized 92×165 corner lot (which is nearly an acre), and has a wrap around porch.
The house is 7000 square feet.
It also has an updated carriage house. In 2010 they were renting it out for $2400 a month. The current listing doesn’t say that it is rented.
In 2010, the listing said the home had updated bathrooms and mechanicals. The current listing says it has been “modernized.”
The kitchen has white cabinets and stainless steel appliances.
5 bedrooms are on the second floor with the master suite is on the top floor.
In 2010, the basement was unfinished but now the space has drywall and carpeting and a rec room, exercise room, work room and playroom.
There’s space pak cooling.
In the last hot market, in 2006, the house sold in only about a month for just $39,000 under the list price.
But in 2009, it didn’t sell until February 2011.
We’re back in a hot market again but the house is listed for more than double the 2004 price.
How long will it take to sell this time?
Julie Dorger at Coldwell Banker has the listing. See the pictures here.
4605 N. Hermitage: 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 7000 square feet
- Sold in May 2004 for $1.5 million
- Sold in October 2006 for $1.95 million
- Originally listed in August 2009
- Was listed in November 2009 at $2.338 million
- Reduced
- Listed in September 2010 for $1,999,999
- Reduced
- Was listed in October 2010 at $1,799,000
- Sold in February 2011 for $1,606,000
- Currently listed at $3.449 million
- Taxes are now $16,141 (they were $18268 in October 2010)
- Space Pak cooling
- Rental carriage house
- There’s now a 2-car garage
- Bedroom #1: 18×17 (third floor)
- Bedroom #2: 20×16 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 19×16 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 16×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #5: 12×11 (second floor)
- Bedroom #6: 16×12 (second floor)
- Recreation room: 44×15 (basement)
- Exercise room: 20×19 (basement)
- Work room: 12×11 (basement)
- Playroom: 23×13 (basement)
I predict it will again take six plus months to sell unless there are some quick price drops. A property like this requires a fairly unique buyer and I just don’t think there are that many of them out there.
What a great house. I’d kill for a mud room like that
The +3MM is a stretch
So when did building a 2 car garage cost $1.8mil?
“So when did building a 2 car garage cost $1.8mil?”
when you make it solar powered?
I have looked into solar power for our place, its not that expensive.
the panel technology either needs to get cheaper or skip ahead in efficiency for the average homeowner to jump on board. The return is there but too many years to get there for the average home owner.
This new lease the panels program/idea is looking more and more interesting. yes you loose the gubment incentive to the lessor, but you are not on the hook for the upfront cost, and since you dont own the panels when new tech finally comes you will get an upgrade.
We may add solar this spring just to for hot water heating, would rather jump in with both feet and do a full array, so we will see if this spring or go full next spring.
In a market this hot, I would be shocked if it didn’t sell ABOVE list, fast.
This house is fantastic, but I think they are going to have a difficult time selling it for that price. I know the neighborhood is really nice, but it’s practically the suburbs and if you are going to live in the suburbs, you can buy this place across the street from the beach for a lot less money: http://www.estately.com/listings/info/1111-sheridan-road–2
Jenny has a point. This is a great neighborhood but you can get a lot of house and good schools in Evanston, for example, a 8 minute Metra ride north of here.
“I know the neighborhood is really nice, but it’s practically the suburbs and if you are going to live in the suburbs”
See what happens when people use bing maps!
please people use google maps, at at minimum use apple maps.
“a 8 minute Metra ride north of here.”
not everyone works in the loop
Wilson and Hermitage is hardly the suburbs. I’d expect someone who grew up in Sauganash to know that
Super convenient location five minutes to the Metra or brown line; this is not the burbs whatsoever IMO, unless you’re one of those deluded creatures who thinks the “city” ends around North Ave.
Yeah this is hardly the suburbs. This is an exurban ghetto.
Somebody please tell Rahm that he can’t be mayor because he lives in the burbs.
“Somebody please tell Rahm that he can’t be mayor because he lives in the burbs.”
Why would he want to live in the chicago anyway? the city is messed up. Even google street view shows random chicagoans holding guns.
The city ends north of Lakeview.
got more info on a solar array groove? wouldn’t mind it if it didn’t cost so damn much up front
“Lakeview”
[skeptic] Where is that? I know where Lake View is, but “Lakeview” could mean anything. [/skeptic]
Lake View township goes north to Devon. And south to North.
Chicago area is extremely poor for solar – nature of housing stock, bad angles this far north, not that much sun, lots of trees and winter weather and very low electric rates. It doesn’t pencil for an array of any size, but I haven’t looked at solar water heaters. The ones you see are just for vanity and proof of concept / greenness. Since I went to real-time pricing I have saved $$$ – about 30% from what they tell me – and if you can time your electric usage well – e.g. cool the house at night, set your Tesla to charge at night – you’re looking at all-in rates frequently below $.04/KwH. Even if ComeEd doubles the rack rates, solar barely would make sense around here.
“got more info on a solar array groove? wouldn’t mind it if it didn’t cost so damn much up front”
What kind of stuff you looking for? I am a total newb on the solar stuff, but i we started looking into it for our cabin in wisconsin (not worth the cost for its use) and then looked into for our home. They came out and gave and rough estimate of who many watts and how many panels per watt was needed. IIRC we need 2 100 watt panels for the water heater.
This was 2 years ago when we moved and the cost upfront wasnt bad but the calc of years for ROI was like 6-7 years i think. that was with tax breaks and gubment incentives. The lease thing wasn’t as popular as it is now so at the time cost wise would have been better to purchase.
Now there are different types of panels, you can hook up to the grid but you can also add home batteries. batteries cost more and battery tech is still to far behind to matter in a home installation IMO. plus they wanted to put the battery bank in the basement, we dont flood but not worth the chance. i would have built a shed outside but the batteries need to stay at room temperature.
now if you want to know about the amperage of the wires used or benefits and cons of the different panels, i am not the guy for that. They guy that came out was what i would call a solar nerd. my eyes glazed over when he got to the techie stuff. He even drove up to wisconsin to quote the cabin. cool thing the dude rolls in a sprinter van that has solar panels on top that run his tools.
yeah I do the RRTP and have saved a bunch over the last 6 years or so, just wondered how feasable solar was since I have a large roofspace with sun exposure that isn’t really being used for anything
My power bills are already pretty cheap so I doubt I really save anything worthwhile
“Chicago area is extremely poor for solar”
its not “extremely” poor. its not ideal but is very doable. From all the numbers ran for our place it wouldnt be a “save money” thing more as “save the environment” thang. it would have in the longer run (which i am retiring in my home if rauner doesnt screw up) we would make out on top. A 5-10 year stay, cash wise is not worth it. Well unless being tree huggary is a bragging point you need/want.
Our house does have a great lot for solar, even with our trees (deciduous). Yes winter weather and the suns angle in chicago are blah, but the way it works is you pull in WAY more juice than you use in the late spring to early autumn. This will build a nice big credit in the ComEd bank, so then in winter when you are barely pulling any amps in you borrow from the credit you earned.
Now if money is no expense you can add auto tilting panels to optimize the amps being pulled in at anytime and all seasons.
Oh forgot to add….
…Also a factor in our cost to return was changing what gas appliances we could to electric.
Also as we in chicago live in older homes insulation is a huge consideration that for cost effectiveness should be the first thing one should spend the money on to reduce your energy use.
personally i love the idea of solar, and would rather my money go to innovators of solar products and alternative way of thinking than giving it to another mega energy company. I am just not at the income level to have that philosophy and to also put it into action.
Groove77,
“a 8 minute Metra ride north of here.”
not everyone works in the loop”
What I meant is Evanston is an 8 minute Metra ride north from this place. I am one of the people who does not work in the Loop.
Groove77,
“a 8 minute Metra ride north of here.”
not everyone works in the loop”
What I meant is Evanston is an 8 minute Metra ride north from this place. – So not that far from here but your dollar goes far. I am one of the people who does not work in the Loop.
“What I meant is Evanston is an 8 minute Metra ride north from this place. – So not that far from here but your dollar goes far.”
I agree you will get more home and more lot size for that price.
but at the moment you will have to add roughly 15k a year in property taxes for that same amount and family with kids evanston highschool is not that much better than amundsen or lake view HS.
Me personally FOR THAT PRICE would not live this far north and west. and rolling in that kid of coin wouldnt even consider evanston as an option. 3.4mil can take you many places in the land of chi, and even land a historic place too.
“I am one of the people who does not work in the Loop.”
very overated imo, and really who would want to commute everyday by public transport. Its not smell of stale urine or the punk kids stealling iPhones and wiping the flaming hot cheetos hands on the grab rails. It would be dealing with, and fighting through all the the selfish, idoit, mindless yuppies to busy instagraming a picture of what they ate for breakfast to move the F out of your way so you can get to the door for your stop.
i would be on channel 7 news by the third day for taking one of their phones and beating all of them with it to a bloody pulp and periscoping the whole thing with said phone.
If you work on the North Shore and have lots of money, why in the world would you live in this Ravenswood house and not in a mansion next to the lake?
Is it just the taxes? My guess is that if parents buy this house, they will be paying for private school for their kids.
“its not “extremely” poor. its not ideal but is very doable.”
Well, sure, it’s easy to just do it, but the RoI is definitely negative – maybe significantly so – over the expected lifetime of the equipment. It’s probably the worst market in the US for home solar due to the factors I mentioned. You may be doing some calculations wrong or getting too rosy of a picture from someone trying to sell you something. The people on all the forums are pretty helpful on this – you might try to find someone local to talk to about their actual experience and data if you are getting serious – and they often post their data and actual numbers with very specific details.
“very low electric rates”
They’re right around national average, all in.
“frequently below $.04/KwH”
With hourly rates, and only when it the spot rate goes negative–between the transmission charge the two distribution charges, the enviro fee and the energy efficiency fee, it add up to 4.777 cents per KWH, before taxes.
Honestly, if you go hourly, solar makes *more* sense, bc the peak usage (price) times are going to mostly overlap with peak sun times.
“Exurban ghetto”. Put down the crack pipe.
“Lake View township goes north to Devon. And south to North.”
This is NOT Lakeview, Lake View or anything having to do with Lake View.
It is clearly in the Uptown district. It’s north of Wilson. Not in Graceland West which IS still a part of Lakeview.
The “township” you are mentioning is meaningless to real estate discussions.
township is everything in the unincorporated area where I live.
“you might try to find someone local to talk to about their actual experience and data if you are getting serious”
This is a good idea, thank you! i will def do this.
“The people on all the forums are pretty helpful on this”
And they probably are, but with forums its still some random person/bot/advertiser behind the keyboard. And if reading the posts from the people here are not an example of what i speak of.
But I will use a solar forum to find a local, to speak real world results in real life.
“The “township” you are mentioning is meaningless to real estate discussions.”
Technically the “township” is what the tax bill is about. and i would think that property tax is not “meaningless” in real estate discussions.
or are we thinking just like sqft is a meaningless number in real estate discussions?
‘Now if money is no expense you can add auto tilting panels to optimize the amps being pulled in at anytime and all seasons.”
i wanted to ask about the solar thing but my day job kept interrupt with real work.
My roof is your typical A frame with slants facing north and south. The majority of the sun time is in the south so would it be even more pointless to use solar panels or do those auto tilting things mitigate that?
also how much power can you really get? are we talking just heat my water tank or really offset some electrical costs?
I too would be more “save the environment” than “save money” thang.
for a solar water heater you will also need a back up second tank, so factor that in with the costs. Also if your current tank is 5+ years old might as well replace that to while your at it, another cost.
Its more about the “cool” factor.
Now a good question is the tankless water heaters and solar, wouldn’t seem that would be cost effective but IDK a more knowledgeable person can chime in on the tankless.
Personally i think we are not going to go all in with solar just water heater, and when tech jumps ahead (or money falls off a truck) then go all out and cover the whole back of the house with panels and the garage with panels.
“meaningless to real estate discussions”
I’d like to discuss property tax appeals–which is certainly a real estate discussion.
“I’d like to discuss property tax appeals–which is certainly a real estate discussion.”
Simpsons already did it;
http://cribchatter.com/?p=23071#comment-376359
“The majority of the sun time is in the south so would it be even more pointless to use solar panels or do those auto tilting things mitigate that?”
Not clear what you are asking icky.
@tfo, sorry looks like i made a typo. The majority of the sun time is in the *west* but my roof faces south.
“The majority of the sun time is in the *west* but my roof faces south.”
Ah–so you have trees/taller building shading your roof at midday?
You can have the panels mounted so they are tilted toward the west, but that is (generally) less effective than the southerly sun.
And most of the residential ’tilt systems’ I am aware of are mostly about raising the panels to maintain the angle from summer to winter, rather than ‘sunflower’ twist–tho I’m certain that can b done, too.
“They’re right around national average, all in.”
No way. My all-in price per KwH for the last year is $.07x. That includes the connection charge, etc. I find very few references anywhere to electricity cost being under around there. This page looks pretty accurate and has Illinois about 20% cheaper than the national average (of $.1045 and not sure if that is really an all-in rate or not), and I’m paying more than 10% below what they count Illinois as –> $.0887. http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/204.htm It’s easy to say that it’s just pennies but ~30% is a huge difference.
“With hourly rates, and only when it the spot rate goes negative–between the transmission charge the two distribution charges, the enviro fee and the energy efficiency fee, it add up to 4.777 cents per KWH, before taxes.”
Aren’t you counting the customer charge / connection fees in there? My most recent bill shows right around $.04 for all the extra variable charges. But you’re right, I was too low. Even when it gets virtually free the all-in rate is closer to $.05/KwH.
But my point stands – solar doesn’t make financial sense here right now for a home. It was somewhat close when the local rebates were still active. I wish that it did, and I spent a lot of time checking it out. Anyone who thinks it doesn’t hasn’t talked to the right people and doesn’t understand what the actual performance of an X watt capacity system will be around here, e.g. a 7 Kw system has actual total real capacity of probably 5 or whatever, and that assumes perfect sun. Once you start to work the angles, etc., consider the installation costs, deal with weather, the numbers don’t look good.
Abbott Labs build an exact replica of this house on it’s corporate campus in North Chicago.
“Aren’t you counting the customer charge / connection fees in there?”
Counting *only* the variable rates, that aren’t the ‘generation’ charge.
Your link is (1) statewide, and (2) for all sectors. When I can get the 24/7 industrial user rate for my home, I’ll talk about ‘all sector’ rates. I’m stuck with ComEd as the delivery utility, so I’m stuck with that 4.777 KwH rate, even if I did get industrial rates for the current.
Anyway, the taking the offer ComEd rate is a little over 10 cent per KwH, *excluding* the fixed customer charge. Yeah, if I switched to hourly, and participated in the peak hour program, and were aggressive about minimizing use during predictable peak times could I save *maybe* $450/year? Quite possible. But that’s a pretty crappy hourly rate for the brain-damage involved with guessing when the hourly rate will be way over ten cents (eg, it was 15.5 cents bt 5 and 6 this morning) and everything else.
“that same amount and family with kids evanston highschool is not that much better than amundsen or lake view HS.”
Uh….
Meets PSAE standards:
Evanston HS: 70%
Lake View HS: 42%
Amundsen HS: 31%
Exceeds Standards:
Evanston HS: 30%
Lake View HS: 1%!
Amundsen HS: 0.7% (0.0% on math!)
I don’t understand how those are nearly the same when 30 times as many Evanston students exceed standards. Agree that the property taxes in Evanston would definitely be much higher and the rest of your post is fair, but very high achieving students in Chicago would not be going to Amundsen (would go to a selective enrollment school), while those same students could go to Evanston HS and thrive. In any event, somebody buying this sort of house should be able to afford private school.
“I don’t understand how those are nearly the same when 30 times as many Evanston students exceed standards.”
Break it down by demos, and it’s closer. Still slants toward ETHS, but not as much. Break it down by demos, and include family income and parental education levels, and I suspect it is *really* close, with LVHS and Amundsen ahead in some discrete cohorts.
“Uh….
Meets PSAE standards:
Evanston HS: 70%
Lake View HS: 42%
Amundsen HS: 31%
Exceeds Standards:
Evanston HS: 30%
Lake View HS: 1%!
Amundsen HS: 0.7% (0.0% on math!)”
I get where your going Blue, but it isn’t a fair fight. If a kid in amundsen or lake view district is smart they will end up at an selective enrollment school. also if the parents have money they will end up at st bens or other private HS.
Evanston takes all its kids and doesnt have a selective enrollment HS. I dont know the % of evanston kids that go to loyola college prep so i dont know if private is factor of evanston?
My comment was more to the factor that Evanston HS has the same urban issues that amundsen HS has. And evanston HS drug problem is actually worse.
Personally if it was my choice and i had one kid i wouldn’t send my kid to amundsen HS, i would send him to private before i gave up my soul to move to burbs and wilt away with the others that gave up. But if i had more than one kid i still wouldnt send my kid to amundsen HS, i would rather just pay the high suburban taxes and die a boring life.
Sabrina, originally the lot for the Abbott estate was nearly double its current size. The two parcels at the north end were sold and developed. Can you identify when those were sold off? I can’t recall if it was before the 2004 sale.
Anon(ufo) could probably get the sale for the lots with PIN. You game @fo?
“The two parcels at the north end were sold and developed”
The one immediately north (4607) shows as a separate parcel back to the early 90s.