List Price: $2.29 million
The Property: This ten-room brick house was the home of Mike Ditka and his wife, Diana, from 1989 until he left Chicago to coach the New Orleans Saints in 1997. The Ditkas had bought the house—one of about a dozen on a forested cul-de-sac—new from the builder for $1.2 million. Set on more than two densely wooded acres and surrounded by a high brick wall, the 3,500-square-foot house has four bedrooms, four-plus baths, four fireplaces, and a swimming pool. The basement has a wine room, an exercise room, and a sauna.
In 1997, the Ditkas sold the place for $1.45 million to a couple who owned a Chicago-based ethnic beauty-supply company and a magazine for the operators of multicultural hair salons. The husband, Tae Jhin, died in 2006. On October 31st, his wife, Ann Jhin, listed the house for sale, and the next day she took over her late husband’s role as CEO of their company, Jhinny Corp.
Price Points: Across the street from this house are two more houses for sale. Both are larger than this one and sit on larger lots, but they have lower prices: $1,599,000 and $1,625,000. Neither has a swimming pool, and both have been on the market for several months. (An agent for one of the other houses is hoping Ann Jhin gets her asking price. “It will make it easier to sell these two,” she says.) Five properties have sold so far this year in Bannockburn, at a median of $1.71 million—roughly the same as the suburb’s median sale price last year at this time, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois.
Listing Agent: Joanne Hyun, JHI Realty, (847) 256-2220