List Price: $3.2 million
Sale Price: $2.56 million
The Property: This 15-room house near the heart of Elmhurst sold for more than any other residence in the town ever has, according to multiple listing service records that date back to 1980. It bested the town’s second-highest sale by more than 34 percent. That house, about three blocks away, sold in 2004 for $1,901,500.

The new record-setter, whose sale closed November 1, was built in 2008 on a half-acre lot. In its neighborhood are some 72 older houses that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Burley Griffin or have other historical merit. The town’s Wilder Park, museums, library, and downtown are a few blocks away.

Files for the DuPage County Recorder show that John and Susan Attard bought the lot in 2007 for $1.2 million. It’s not possible to estimate from the records what they paid to build the house, which, according to the listing sheet, contains 11,000 square feet of space, including a two-story foyer, five bedrooms with “grand ceilings,” and, in the basement, a bar, a wine cellar, and recreation, play, and exercise rooms.

“It’s magnificent,” said the listing agent, Amy Schiller, “a house with a lot of luxury.” The sellers, she said, “had everything picked out custom: custom cabinets, custom lighting, custom everything.” Photos posted with the listing show a curving staircase, a very large kitchen, architectural ceilings in many rooms, and a big rear terrace.

Schiller declined to discuss the sellers or their motivation for selling four years after building the house. I could not reach the Attards for comment. The buyers are not yet identified in public records.

Price Points: The Attards listed the house for sale in March, with an asking price of $3.2 million. They later cut it to $2.95 million. The final sale price, $2.56 million, is 80 percent of their original asking price and 86.7 percent of the reduced price. While this is Elmhurst's highest-priced sale recorded with Midwest Real Estate Data, there are other houses in the town that may be worth considerably more—for instance, custom-built homes from the past decade—that were not sold on the open market.

Listing Agent: Amy Schiller of The Schiller Team of Koenig & Strey; 630-814-4065 or theschillerteam@koenigstrey.com