Photo: Dennis Rodkin

List Price: $259,900
The Property: Since buying it in 2007, the owners of this sunny two-bedroom condo in Andersonville have made some useful upgrades. The home got gleaming refinished floors, meticulous closet and kitchen organization systems, and a rebuilt porch (when the condo board redid the all the building’s porches and stairs).

Even so, the sellers put it on the market last Tuesday with an asking price that is just a hair below the $260,000 that they paid for the place in 2007.

The sellers are moving to be closer to their workplaces, says listing agent Deirdre Wiener. What they’ll leave behind is a second-floor home with tall maple cabinets and black granite countertops, a living room big enough to accommodate a small dining table as well as the usual couches and chairs, and a gas fireplace. The front windows (living room and master bedroom) look out onto a streetscape full of trees and vintage buildings, while the back windows (kitchen, second bedroom and bath) are bathed in sun, thanks to the large, open backyard of the around-the-corner neighbor building.

Crisply painted, tidily organized, and naturally daylit, the condo is “super cute,” in Wiener’s words. It’s one of 15 condos in a 103-year-old Chicago classic: a brick building with handsome but not flashy details made from limestone trim with flourishes in the brickwork. And it’s in a neighborhood that has a lot of magnetism as well. Charming multi-flat and single-family residential buildings mostly from the early 20th century line the block, and the abundant dining and shopping that has proliferated along the Andersonville stretch of Clark Street lies just a block away. The revived old-time storefronts on this pedestrian- and bike-friendly strip lend that great village-in-the-city character that so many of us crave now.

“It’s urban but it’s a neighborhood,” Wiener says. The Bryn Mawr and Berwyn stops on the Red Line are each about six blocks away, and the northern reaches of lakefront parkland are just a few blocks farther east.

Assessments are $220 a month. full-sized laundry machines are in the unit, and parking is on the street—but it’s rarely difficult to find a space within easy reach. (I know from parking in the near vicinity many times.)

With so many fine points, the condo may not last long on the market. In fact, Wiener believes the only reason it’s lasted this long is that the holiday weekend slowed down househunters.

Listing Agent: Deirdre Wiener of @Properties, 312-771-9946 and Deirdre@day2dayproperties.com