So far in August, three homes have sold for precisely $1 million, and they all went on the market—for the first time, at least—in the spring of 2009. Here’s a closer look:
LAKESHORE EAST, CHICAGO
List Price: $1.049 million
Sale Price: $1 million
One of two homes to close at $1 million on August 12th, a two-bedroom condo on the 46th floor of 340 on the Park had already been sold for the very same price in January of this year. The January buyers “had a change of plans, but it was nothing salacious,” says the Baird & Warner agent Nick Kluding, who represented them when they bought the place and in their recent sale.
They had put it on the market in May at $1.049 million, hoping to recapture some of their purchase costs, Kluding says, but eventually sold for precisely what they had paid. The condo has a den and several upgrades, including bamboo floors throughout and a two-person shower in place of a tub and shower.
When the building was new in December 2007, a couple paid $899,000 for the unit. In April 2009, they put it on the market at $1.134 million but had dropped the price to $1.079 million by January 2011, when they sold it for $1 million.
PALOS PARK
List Price: $1.65 million
Sale Price: $1 million
The sale of this 13-room house on a little more than an acre in Palos Park also closed on August 12th. Built at least 40 years ago, it had been expanded and updated several times by the sellers, according to their agent, Coldwell Banker’s Renate Meyer. The home has a large kitchen-family room combination with a big stone fireplace, 20-foot ceilings in the living room, a mahogany-paneled library, and views out the backyard to part of the Palos-area forest preserves.
The sellers had owned the house since at least 1994, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. In April 2009, they put it on the market with an asking price of $1.65 million. About ten months later, the sellers agreed to rent the home to a family who were relocating to the Chicago area, Meyer says. That family bought the place for $1 million this summer. “[The sellers] came down to the reality of today’s market,” Meyer says. “They had bonded with [the tenants] and were glad to see them stay in the house.”
LAKE FOREST
List Price: $1.099 million
Sale Price: $1 million
On August 17th, the sale of a 12-room house in the south Lake Forest neighborhood known as Whispering Oaks closed at $1 million. It was the home’s lowest sale price in its eight-year history.
The home has four bedrooms, four-plus baths, a library, and a screened porch looking into neatly maintained gardens. It was built on the site of a demolished smaller home in 2003, when it sold for $1.45 million, according to the Lake County Recorder of Deeds. In 2006, it sold for $1.62 million. In May 2009, the 2006 buyers put it on the market at $1.595 million.
After several price cuts, the house went off the market in mid-2010. It then came back in April 2011 at $1.239 million; three more price cuts got it down to $1.099 million by July, when a deal was struck with a buyer who is not identified in public records. The sellers took a 38 percent loss on the house. Their agent, Linda Rosenberg of Coldwell Banker, declined to discuss the property.
Photograph: (Palos Park house) Courtesy of Renate Meyer