Lincoln Square bungalow property sold for $1,090,000, demolished to build two new houses

A Chicago bungalow was demolished in Lincoln Square just before the holiday at 4834 N Leavitt. I took this photo when only the sun room portion was left standing. The bungalow and vacant side lot measuring a total 60'x124' were sold for $1,090,000 to develop two new houses. All photos Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty

Early last year a desirable double lot property at 4832-34 North Leavitt Chicago IL 606025 in Lincoln Square sold for $1,090,000 (according to public records). According to the MLS listing each lot measured about 30' wide and 124' long. That's $124.00 a square foot for the land... $545,000 per lot! 

Photos of the original house I took in 2013.

I did a quick post about the property back in 2013 due to its large side yard and sprawling gardens. There are very few vacant residential lots hanging around Lincoln Square. Several properties with side lots have recently sold for development ( 2438 West Carmen for example ) and one triple lot is currently for sale ( 2610 West Winona ). Occasionally a high-end home owner will acquire a home next door and tear it down for a side yard.  

Sales around Winnemac Park

Sales around Winnemac Park and 4832-4834 N Leavitt

The property is a short walk to Lincoln Square restaurants, CTA Brown Line and Winnemac Park. The median price of a single family home in the neighborhood surrounding Winnemac Park over 2019 was about $750,000. 

I've walked and/or driven by the property over a hundred times. The garden was often my first site of spring. 

The vacant side lot existed as a large garden for decades. Vacant side lots don't last forever in bustling areas like Lincoln Square.

The lowest priced single family home to sell was 4807 N Seeley for $405,000. The property lot measured 25'x122' and the small house was torn down to build a new house. The highest sold home in the immediate area around Winnemac Park was 4918 N Seeley for $1,340,000.  The new construction home was built on a 26'x122' lot.  

Contact us to buy and sell homes in Lincoln Square, the North Side and near suburbs.

Under Contract! Buyer clients win gorgeous North Park Chicago bungalow

5412 N Bernard is a spacious Chicago bungalow on a quiet tree-lined street of North Park. 

 Our buyer clients recently won a multiple offer bid on 5412 N Bernard in the pleasant North Park neighborhood. The gold brick Chicago bungalow listed at $425,000 is totally move-in ready and drew quite the crowd at the open house and early showing appointments. The home purchase is through attorney review and awaits closing.

I've been a big cheerleader of the value North Park offers. This house is located in my favorite section of the community area adjacent to Northeastern Illinois University and near Northside College Prep and  North Park University.  There is a small strip of quality restaurants and businesses along West Foster (including Tre Kroner, The Local Pizzeria and Starbucks). The two universities, Legion Park and River Parks offer tons of extra-curricular activities. Big box and shopping mall conveniences await just north in Lincolnwood.

The Bryn Mawr Avenue business district is poised for new development with a new French tea room named Maison de Castelnau and planned student housing for Northeastern Illinois University.

The fantastic Tre Kroner restaurant is a short walk from the house (Photo Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty)

 Congrats to our buyer clients on a great house.  Call or email us to find or sell a house on the North Side of Chicago!

Hidden treasure in old house renovation offers sage advice

We are in the middle of a complete kitchen renovation of our 1920s brick bungalow.  We found some pages from a 1936 edition of This Week Magazine in the wall (1936 was also the first year Life magazine was published).  Some bizarre stories and life hacks! Reads like a Paul Harvey monologue.

Another Lincoln Square bungalow doomed!

2237 W Winona Chicago IL 60625 was purchased as a foreclosure for $390,000 in December 2014.

The infamous green windscreen fencing went up around 2237 W Winona in the Ravenswood area of Lincoln Square last Friday. This is a bad sign for preservation.  The property  is among a distinct three block section of solid brick 22 ft wide bungalows.  Construction was halted after the new owners tore down the garage and gutted the interior. The only construction permit on record for the property was issued in January 2015 for $4,000 (drain tile).

The bungalow belt just west of the park has finally been touched by "tear down" redevelopment.

 The Winnemac Park area of Lincoln Square has seen a relatively mild pace of new construction and "almost totally new" gut rehabs over the last decade compared to neighbors North Center and Lake View (North Center new construction is still bonkers right now).  The neighborhood bound by Lawrence to Foster and North Ravenswood Avenue to North Western Ave has seen it's share of tear downs of course. But most structures over the years have been rehabbed to resemble it's original look.

That ship has sailed. The pace of tear downs, especially among the sacred bungalows, has quickened over the last two years.  Here's another example.  Although I totally appreciate tearing down properties that have outlived their usefulness I feel these bungalows could have easily been preserved while improved.  Many have been "dormered" and greatly expanded while keeping their original look and feel.  The wide, well built bungalows make for a unique and distinct pocket in Lincoln Square. The street-scape is changing with each newly designed home... some good, some bad.

Shopping Jefferson Park houses near the proposed "Weber Spur" trail

Curbed Chicago did a nice update on the proposed bike/ recreation trail called "Weber Spur.  The trail would travel southwest from West Devon/ North Pulaski intersection to West Sunnyside/ North Cicero intersection in Jefferson Park. A City Water Management depot sits adjacent to a Union Pacific underpass at the location.

I believe this Union Pacific Railroad underpass would be the southwest end of the Weber Spur at West Sunnyside just west of North Cicero based on the map above.

Image of Webster Spur trail from Curbed Chicago

House sales near the proposed Jefferson Park trail entrance:

We showed nice Chicago bungalows last evening to first time buyers a couple blocks from the Jefferson Park entrance to the proposed trail (our clients have offered on one). The area is bounded by Milwaukee to the Edens, Montrose to Lawrence.  Move-in ready three bedrooms, two baths houses in this little section can be had from the low $300,000s near the trail. 

The shaded area shown above in Jefferson Park is located near CTA Blue Line trains, Metra and the proposed entrance to the Webster Spur recreation trail (lower right hand corner of shaded area. Nice bungalows are relatively affordable in this area with good shopping and transportation options nearby. 

16 single family homes sold over the last twelve months in the shaded area above.  The median price of a home in the area is about $290,000. Most of the houses are brick or stucco Chicago Bungalow style homes. Frame cottage-like bungalows are also common.  The homes vary in level of improvement... the most valuable and sought after improvement being a large second floor dormer with a full bath on the second floor.   The highest single family home sale in the shaded area was at 4627 N Leclaire Chicago IL 60630 for $432,000. 

I don't think there will be a huge impact on home prices directly related to the Weber Spur but it will definitely be a marketable amenity that attracts home buyers. The trail can help people identify and relate to the specific geographic location.

Former bungalow now large new construction on West Carmen in Lincoln Square

2224 W Winona is close to completion by the spring.  It was bought by a developer but is not yet listed on the MLS.

2224 W Carmen, Chicago IL 60625 in the northern central portion  Lincoln Square community area is nearing completion.  The original modest bungalow has been transformed to a large new construction home shown above.  This is nothing new for Lincoln Square in general.  But as we've written in the past it has been rare to see tear downs in this particular "bungalow belt". 

The original bungalow at 2224 W Carmen before the wrecking crew.

Up until about the years 2013/2014 only one bungalow in the three adjacent blocks for 2200 blocks of West Winona, West Carmen and West Winnemac had been torn down for new construction.  A pretty amazing feat considering the huge real estate boom in the early 2000s.  Since 2008 three original bungalows have now been torn down for new houses  on the three blocks (or almost all new except for foundation). One frame Victorian style home was torn down on Winnemac to make way for a new luxury stone and masonry home sold in 2013.

The renovated home is not listed on the MLS but there is signage up for Jameson Realty. I'm guessing the house will be listed in the $1,100,000 range give or take depending on the finish level. If you are interested in buying a house in the Lincoln Square area please contact me.  We often know about homes in development that are not listed on the MLS.

Will another Ravenswood bungalow bite the dust?

We just wrote about a bungalow we sold at 2236 W Carmen that has been mostly torn down for development. On Tuesday 2224 W Carmen pictured here was listed for sale for $389,000 (not my listing). The home will most certainly be bought for gut renovation and possibly tear down... unless the seller chooses a buyer that wants to preserve the exterior. It's very possible a "move-in" homeowner will buy the home to gut rehab and dormer rather than tear down.  We'll see.

2224 W Carmen (Photo Eric Rojas, Real Estate Broker)

 

This has been a significant year for new construction houses and total renovations around Winnemac Park.  There are many.  However, these bungalow redevelopments represent the biggest changes.  For the duration the exteriors as a whole have remained intact even if the homes were renovated with dormers or full second floors. The streets remained relatively unified in architecture. 

The area around Winnemac Park from Lawrence to Foster and Western to Ravenswood has seen a lot of new construction and total gut renovation houses this past couple years.

Home renovation tips: Don't let your kids choose the bath tile

We recently gutted our second floor bath and realized that we needed to pick out new tile ASAP. Somehow, the whole family always seems to get into the act.

Despite the huge color and material selections at Tile Outlet (and the red glass mosaic tile our son picked out), we went with a more modern shaped white ceramic subway tile like this:

Although we are not strictly restoring our 1920s Chicago Bungalow to the letter, we are renovating with that era in mind. We've been able to keep many original materials intact while the new white subway tile with slight twists will be consistent throughout the new baths and kitchen.

Video: Chicago Bungalow sales in Ravenswood

Click here to view closed MLS sales sheets for 2010 Ravenswood Bungalows

Although there is a good number of classic brick Chicago Bungalows represented in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, we only saw three change hands and close in 2010. According to our local MLS records (and my anecdotal experience in the neighborhood) the following Chicago Bungalows sold within the approximate neighborhood boundaries of West Montrose to West Foster and North Clark to North Western Avenue (a good sized neighborhood area that includes parts of what folks consider the Lincoln Square neighborhood):

2219 W Foster for $219K (a home needing a gut rehab on busy Foster Avenue)

2224 W Winona for $425K (a large bungalow with full second floor, over sized lot and in need of much renovation)

2220 W Winnemac for $642K (a large bungalow fully renovated with full second floor and highly upgraded kitchen)

Here's a quick look at a brick bungalow "dominant" street in Ravenswood

It appears there is more than one way to "skin a cat" (no offense to cat owners). Low, middle, or higher end. Few bungalows came on the market in this area over the last several years. However, they remain good sellers when they do become available. The construction and condition is a little easier to evaluate than some of the old frame homes. In my experience, the brick bungalows tend to be easier to customize and/or restore as their construction was more standardized and of better quality than many "chopped up" frame homes that had been adapted many times over through the years.

The Chicago Bungalow simply has many fans of the architecture and livability. This helps their sales and value much like fans of Lincoln Park row houses or city wide multi-unit greystones buildings help maintain those values.

View more posts on Ravenswood HERE!

A good book on Chicago Bungalows

My business partner Bob gave me a copy of The Chicago Bungalow by the Chicago Architecture Foundation soon after my family purchased our own classic city house. It's been fun relating to the history, use, adaptation and lifestyle of this personable and durable housing stock.

There has been no more a pleasurable experience than restoring and adapting a Chicago Bungalow for our family. While keeping the main parlour and den in tact, and despite my pension for modern architecture, I can not help but enjoy the transformation 50 to 100 years ago while sitting and reading by the light of a vintage lamp (or candle!).

Curb appeal: Chicago bungalow before and after

This 90 year old Chicago bungalow had huge evergreen bushes covering the front of the house. The brick needed a full grind, tuck-point and wash. The chimney was falling down. Here's the progression so far:

The brick has a terrific orange color after the power wash!

Looking for love in all the wrong places...

Remember people... it's location, location, location.
If you are going to live a little west and a little north... go all the way. Edison Park has an outstanding down town strip of restaurants, bars and shops to pass the time (when you're not taking care of your Chicago Bungalow and yard...). If you are considering this neighborhood, do what you can to live near this quaint down town area. I wish there was more of this type of thing all throughout the northwest of the city.

Saw some great houses out there today from $400-500K.