For sale! North Center home in Coonley and Amundsen school districts $749,900

Inviting three bedrooms home with side drive... just steps from Welles Park!

2137 West Montrose, Chicago IL 60618 

For Sale $749,900

Open House Saturday, May 11th from 11am to 1pm

Take a video walk-through. CLICK HERE for more photos and property information. This is an amazing value in one of Chicago's most desirable neighborhoods.

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Click HERE for more photos and property information

You won't believe this! Move-in ready North Center single family home in Coonley Elementary and Amundsen High School districts. Amazing urban location on super wide unique lot. Three true bedrooms up, two and one-half baths, central air and heat, brick one car garage and SIDE DRIVE (3 car parking total or park a boat/ trailer on side drive). 

Steps to Welles Park field-house, gyms, nature preserve, pool and play-lots.

Renovated full finished basement with professional waterproofing and laundry room. Main floor entry foyer, powder room, open plan living and dining room and updated kitchen w/breakfast bar. Three beds up with large updated bathroom. Finished walk-out basement w/family room, good ceiling height, full bathroom, storage room and laundry. THAT yard! You can host a wedding here with that charming brick garage and blue door in the back drop. 

Two blocks away!

Steps from Welles Park, Sulzer Library branch, Old Town School of Folk Music, Lou Malnati's, Half Acre Brewery, Jewel grocery and scores of bars, restaurants and amenities outside your door. Three blocks to CTA Montrose Brown Line. Outstanding value in a fantastic location.

Exclusively listed by Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty

2447 N Ashland, Chicago IL 60614

ericrojasblog.com

erojas@kalerealty.com

773-510-1597

What's going on with North Center real estate and schools? I weigh in with DNAinfo.com

I took this photo of a typical new construction house going up in North Center adjacent to an original, modest ranch house.

Super writer Patty Wetli posted and interesting article today on the changing economics and demographics of the North Center neighborhood in Chicago. There is interesting info on real estate and the local schools in the article from Alderman Pawar. I have been selling and writing about the North Center market for many years.  Long desired Bell school and the emergence of Coonley and Audubon elementary schools have helped push up real estate values in North Center.

However, the luxury market demand has seemed to surpass the demand for good schools making North Center a "bedroom community" (my words) standing on it's own.  My take is that high income earners are grouping together as a socioeconomic thing regardless of public schools, transportation, jobs or other factors. The location is fairly central (important) and the real estate stock has been available for acquisition and redevelopment. You have to have willing sellers to redevelop all these houses.

Read the whole article HERE

More on North Center, Chicago here

For Sale $199,900: North Center, Coonley School new construction opportunity

Watch the video!

1801 W Cuyler Vacant Land For Sale $199,900

Approximately 17.5' wide by 124' long

 Exclusively listed by Eric Rojas, Kale Realty

2447 N Ashland, Chicago IL 60614

PH:773-510-1597 erojas@kalerealty.com

1801 West Cuyler, Chicago IL 60613 looking south (Photos Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty)

Google.com satellite image

• North Center neighborhood
• Current zoning RT3.5 
• Survey and house plans available for review
• Coonley elementary school district
• Unique urban area steps from CTA Irving Park Brown Line train, tons of businesses and adjacent to many new construction single family homes
• Begyle brewery across the street... very convenient
• Corner lot with full east and south exposure, great sunlight for gardening

Great opportunity to build a home out of the pages of Dwell magazine

Looking south

Nice view of the Deagan building clock tower

For Sale! Vacant lot in North Center, Coonley school district $199,900

Watch the video!

1801 W Cuyler 
Vacant Land For Sale $199,900

Approximately 17.5' wide by 124' long

 Exclusively listed by Eric Rojas, Kale Realty

2447 N Ashland, Chicago IL 60614

PH:773-510-1597 erojas@kalerealty.com

1801 West Cuyler, Chicago IL 60613 looking south (Photos Eric Rojas, Broker, Kale Realty)

Google.com satellite image

• North Center neighborhood
• Current zoning RT3.5 
• Survey and house plans available for review
• Coonley elementary school district
• Unique urban area steps from CTA Irving Park Brown Line train, tons of businesses and adjacent to many new construction single family homes
• Begyle brewery across the street... very convenient!
• Corner lot with full east and south exposure, great sunlight for gardening

Great opportunity to build a home out of the pages of Dwell magazine

Looking south

Nice view of the Deagan building clock tower

Back to School: House prices UP 12% in Coonley Elementary district (and little to buy)

In Chicago "neighborhood schools" are of great importance.  The schools and their neighborhoods differ greatly in performance and desirability... even when when two schools/ neighborhoods are in very close proximity.  Here's a look at home sales in 2013 in Chicago Public School's Coonley Elementary attendance boundaries.  Coonley school is a good performing school with a Regional Gifted program and strong community support.  It's located in the popular Northcenter Community Area.

Boundaries as noted by CPS

Single Family Home Sales in Connley for January 1st to August 28th, 2013

35 single family homes have closed in the Coonley school district boundaries so far this year. This is the identical  number of homes sold in the MLS same period in 2012.   The median price of a house is up about 12% at $720,000 this year.

Even though unit sales are the same as last year, demand is very high.  The low inventory and higher prices have leveled out sales. The great majority of the house sales in our experience have been in multiple offer situations.  Personally we have been in several multiple offers every single family home our clients have offered on in Coonley and Northcenter in general.. If more "market price" homes came on the market unit sales would be higher we have no doubt.

The higher median price is also reflective of more "finished" homes for sale this year.  The price for "tear-downs and gut renovation" properties has gone up a bit.

Photo Eric Rojas, Real Estate Broker

Under Contract, For Sale
9 single family homes are under contract at the time of this posting. The median asking price of these homes is over $850,000.  

The real story right now is only 6 homes are actively for sale in Coonley.  5 of those houses are priced at $1M and above.  The only house listed under $1M is at 4111 N Western Ave for $336,000 and needs tear down or extensive work. 

Luxury homes like the one pictured above are well represented in the Coonley attendance boundaries.  Photo Eric Rojas, Real Estate Broker

House hunting on the 4300 block of North Claremont, North Center

We showed a new house listing on the 4300 block of North Claremont in North Center to our clients this past weekend. The block has a private feel.  It's a little unusual in that North Claremont crosses one-way West Cullom (east bound traffic) and then stops at West Hutchinson... where you can only turn east to North Oakley... which is one-way heading north. The several one-ways and the short block keeps the traffic low in this active location.

Another unique aspect of the block is it is adjacent to Welles Park.  You can stand on the sidewalk and look right at the old play-lot on the south side of the park.  The tennis courts are also at the end of the block. The new play-lot and the amenity filled field house are located on the north end of the park.  Of course, you are also steps from many restaurants, bars and commercial amenities along North Lincoln Av.

In any event, it's a neat block in a great North Center location.  The block is also located in the popular and desirable Coonley School district.  Home sales in Coonley school district have a median price of about $800,000.

This double (triple?) lot gorgeous newer construction home sits on the 4300 block of North Claremont.  The block features a good mix of old and new homes...mostly single family houses with a few small multi-units (photo Eric Rojas)

Home sales in Coonley Elementary School district in 2013

Photo, Eric Rojas

Too soon to check? No way!  Our clients have seen how quickly new construction, re-sales and development opportunities can go in North Center's Coonley School district...a school of choice for many families we work with.

Coonley Elementary Single Family Home Sales January 1st to February 14th, 2012

11 single family homes have sold or are currently under contract in the Coonley Elementary school boundaries as of February 14th.  The median price at the moment is a mere $629,000.  However, the homes under $500,000 are considered land value or "gut rehab" properties.

Image from www.coonley.org

The highest priced home sold or under contract is 2109 W Belle Plaine...a new construction  5 bedrooms home under contract with an asking price of $1,279,000.

The lowest priced property under contract is 4249 N Bell for $150,000.  This is a short sale listing that will most certainly close for well over the listing price.  

More on Coonley district homes HERE

Home buying tips: CPS School Locator for attendance boundaries

We often have clients looking to buy in a specific elementary school attendance boundaries. This makes buying a house or condo easier for our clients in one aspect (decision making), but also makes the few homes that come on the market very competitive. One tool we use to verify a school's attendance area is the Chicago Public School's "Geographic Information System" or "School Locator".



The CPS School Locator is a great way to double check addresses to make sure they fall in the attendance boundaries you want.  You should always triple check with the school itself if you are going to purchase the home. The Locator site allows you to choose all kinds of information and color keys to display on a map relative to addresses.

Want to move into Coonley school boundaries?  We use the CPS School Locator to help set up our property searches.

Often times, listing agents do not provide the name of the public school (or correct school for that matter) that corresponds to their listing. The CPS Locator site is in my favorite bookmarks so we can double check the school when searching for clients or when compiling home sale statistics in a particular school boundary. The school boundary feature on the site also helps us set up our automatic "map searches" for all homes listed for sale in a particular school attendance area.

Northcenter's Coonley School home sales, prices

Our survey of home prices in top rated and "buzz" elementary schools on the North Side continues this week with Northcenter's John C. Coonley School.

About 51 homes sold over the last 12 months in Coonley School district compared to 20 in Bell School District.

The median price was about $700,000.

The highest sale was $1,525,000 and the lowest sale was $167,000 (a foreclosure on Western Ave). Buyers have had much more opportunity to buy in Coonley as the housing stock provides cheaper fixer-up options than the long established and sought after Bell school. This will dry up in the near future and the price gap with Bell will close.

The buzz around Coonley School has been deafening in the real estate community since the school established a Regional Gifted Center in the fall of 2008. It's one of the few districts where we've seen a couple homes bought after 2008 and re-sell this year for MORE than the seller paid without additional renovations. As the buzz has caught on over the last couple years, home buyers with kids have snatched up houses in the district. The school scores very high in achievement categories and continues to win grants and donations.


This included a higher number of tear-down homes, houses on Western Ave and homes needing complete renovation than you'd see in Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School district.

Check out our recent post on Bell School prices HERE or read about Northcenter HERE!