KENILWORTH
LIST $3.99 MILLION SALE $3.635 MILLION

Two years ago, after she had updated and enlarged this Kenilworth house—expanding the Ludowici tile roof and adding, among other things, a lavish kitchen and a family room—the North Shore developer Antoinette Vigilante put it on the market priced at $4.399 million. Robert and Stacey Womsley—who had moved from London so that he could take a top spot at Water Street Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm—ended up paying only $3.945 million for the place, which at the time must have seemed like a good deal.

But this past March, the Womsleys, having moved to another residence, let the house go for $3.635 million—an 8 percent loss, not counting the additional money they had spent on a basement wine cellar and other upgrades. (The house had originally been listed, in August 2010, at $4.2 million.) According to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, the Womsleys sold the home to another pair of newcomers, Zane and Allyson Rowe. Until recently, Zane was an executive with Continental Airlines; last year, when that carrier merged with United, he became the new company’s executive vice president and CFO, prompting a move to Chicago from Houston.

Neither the Womsleys nor the Rowes could be reached for comment. Of the Womsleys’ loss on the deal, Pam McClamroch, the Coldwell Banker agent who handled the sale, says, “It’s unfortunate, but it’s typical in this market.”

Photograph: Todd Urban