List Price: $695,000
Sale Price: $676,000
The Property: The pitcher Mark Prior has sold the Lincoln Park townhouse that he bought in 2002 several months after arriving in Chicago to great expectations. Prior left the Cubs in December 2007, but he didn’t put the four-bedroom townhouse on the market until spring 2009.

Prior was a leading rookie in 2001; the Cubs signed him as the second draft pick overall, with a $10.5 million contract—a record amount that wasn’t eclipsed by another draft contract until just last month. In 2003, Prior and Kerry Wood (whose home sale I wrote about in February 2008), pitched the Cubs to an 88-win season and a division title.

But Prior’s career was marked by repeated stints on the disabled list, and a tour of duty in the minors in Iowa, before he was let go in December 2007. In 2008 and 2009, he was with the Padres in his hometown, San Diego, where again he wound up in the minor leagues. On August 1st, the Padres released Prior.

According to the listing sheet, Prior’s four-level Lincoln Park home has ten rooms, three baths, a remodeled kitchen, and lots of natural light. It’s one of 22 homes in the Piano Factory Townhomes (at Wayne Avenue and Altgeld Street), which were built in 1989. Prior sold the home in late June, but the deal didn’t show up at the Cook County Recorder of Deeds until August. I could not reach Prior, and his real-estate agent, Lilian Khattar, did not respond to a request for comment.

Price Points: Prior bought the townhouse for $680,000 in December 2002. When he listed it for sale last spring at $695,000, he was asking for a very modest 2.2-percent profit. Instead, by selling it for $4,000 less than he had paid six and a half years ago, he lost 0.5 percent.

Listing Agent: Lilian Khattar of Koenig & Strey GMAC, 312-642-1400; lkhattar@ksgmac.com