List Price: $2,449,000
Sale Price: $2,125,000
The Property: The quarterback Brian Griese, who played for the Chicago Bears from 2006 to 2008, has sold his house in Glencoe for $300,000 less than he paid for it in 2006.
The 15-room house sits on a little less than half an acre just a few blocks west of the suburb’s lakefront park and a few blocks east of its charming downtown. It is a vaguely Mediterranean house, with a clay tile roof above an exterior of blond brick, corner quoining, and arched Italianate window and door openings. A glassed-in walkway leads to a small, picturesque wing. There are four bedrooms on the second floor and a fifth in the basement.
Griese, the son of the Miami Dolphin great Bob Griese, came to the Bears from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2006. Four months later, he and his wife, Brook, bought the Glencoe house for $2.425 million. During his two-year tenure with the Bears, Griese mainly backed up first-string quarterback Rex Grossman. In March 2008, he was traded back to Tampa Bay.
The house had been under contract since February, but the sale did not close until July 15th. The buyers are not yet identified in public records of the sale. Both the agent for the sellers and a Bears spokesman denied a rumor that is percolating in Glencoe—that new Bears QB Jay Cutler bought the place from Griese.
Price Points: The Grieses sold the house at a 12.3-percent loss—but that’s pretty good, relative to the recent overall price drop in Glencoe. Preliminary data from Midwest Real Estate Data, the multiple listing service, indicate that house prices in Glencoe have declined 18.7 percent since mid-2006. In its October 2009 issue, Chicago, using MRED data, will publish a more comprehensive survey of house prices in Glencoe, as well as in all 77 Chicago neighborhoods and more than 200 area suburbs.
Listing Agent: Joanne Hudson of the Hudson Company, 847-446-9600 x 104; Joanne@thehudsoncompany.com