CHICAGO | General Discussions

[Kenmore]

love a nice 400k+ "affordable" home

[moorhosj]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

love a nice 400k+ "affordable" home

From the article:

The cost to build Tamborino's design is just under $300,000, not including the price of the land and utility hookups. The contest's cap for a two-flat was $300,000.

[Kenmore]

Originally Posted by moorhosj

From the article:

like i said, simply love an affordable 400K+ home

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

like i said, simply love an affordable 400K+ home

Yes well people ALSO want a brand new construction home at the same time. And it should be downtown. In the Loop. Single family home ideally. Because if we are going to complain about affordability, why not go all in?

I see 20+ single family homes on the market in Englewood for less than $75,000. Lots of options out there.

[LouisVanDerWright]

There's a single family home on Marshall Blvd in Little Village for sale for $175k right now. The "affordability crisis" is a total lie. There's actually constantly sub $200k single family homes in good shape in that area. I'm just waiting for the right one to come on the market and I'm going to grab it and move down there. There's one on California facing douglas park right now that needs some work for $90k.

[Jim in Chicago]

Originally Posted by west-town-brad

Yes well people ALSO want a brand new construction home at the same time. And it should be downtown. In the Loop. Single family home ideally. Because if we are going to complain about affordability, why not go all in?

I see 20+ single family homes on the market in Englewood for less than $75,000. Lots of options out there.

I hate to break it to you, but there's no way you can build a single family home in the loop for under $400K. The land alone is worth millions.

[Chi-Sky21]

They need to do a Holmes in Chicago. "Sweet Holmes Chicago" ?

[Via Chicago]

i mean they were straight up doing demolitions/building entire garages without permits, among other things. these werent little technicalities.

and in regards to the quality of the finished products, theres some telling comments from the reddit thread

They use AstroTurf and fill window boxes with plastic flowers. I’ve watched them repaint the side of a house that they painted less than a year prior because the paint didn’t make it past it’s first winter and was already peeling off.

They want $1.5M for a house on Hoyne that’s not even finished. Sides of the house still have the old aluminum siding visible from the street and completely mismatched from the front facade.

From what I’ve seen, the theme of the show is blowing your wad on the ugliest doorframe known to man, leaving you with no money to finish basic shit that the house needs.

As an interior designer who came in to fix up a property featured on season 1 (Lincoln Park penthouse) I was absolutely appalled at how horrible the quality of the materials were. For example, a baby baboon could have done a better job painting the bathroom than whomever did it. I shook my head that the client willingly paid 1MM + for that piece of garbage. The ceiling had several cracks in it the day after the crew vacated. They boarded up a window from the kitchen, and instead of removing the window, left it installed, didn’t even insulate over it and put plywood next to drywall for the kitchen backsplash. From the deck, you could see the window still there, and then the plywood. How’s that for an investment? Shameful.

[Via Chicago]

on a different topic, but we've talked about how poorly chicago treats its tree canopy in the past, and this is only compounding it. andersonville has some of the most beautiful trees in the entire city, it should be criminal to do what theyre proposing

https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news...4-a71b841d6064

in my own neck of the woods theres a 100+ year old elm on my block, among other old growth trees, and i have massive anxiety about what will happen when the water main project eventually hits our street

[Steely Dan]

From what I’ve seen, the theme of the show is blowing your wad on the ugliest doorframe known to man, leaving you with no money to finish basic shit that the house needs.

it's funny because it's true.




disclaimer: my wife is shamefully a bit of a HGTV addict.

[maru2501]

agree that economics are going to take over to the south even more. These places are just too close to the center city now to sit there

[Via Chicago]

most of the people driving the current trends in housing are young transplants, and as a transplant the vast majority simply have zero exposure to life south of cermak and never will. they want the image of urban living theyve been sold, which is new trendy apartments in a "name brand" neighborhood, boutiques, and hip restaurants. they want a turnkey neighborhood, not one they actually have to become involved in at a grassroots level where change will take place over a period of 20-30 years.

trying to sell them on a modest home a couple blocks over from a trucking route, used car lots, 3rd shift diners, heavy industry, inhabited by the working poor is not gonna happen. will it happen eventually? sure everything that is possible will happen eventually and its not exactly prophetic to say one day these neighborhoods will be desirable once they north/nw side is completely tapped out. but in the meantime most are not gonna accept living in areas where the their neighbors arent mirrors of what they see themselves as being, or wanting to be.

having grown up here, i can see through the marketing and the image that a lot of people are invested in selling, and i dont have any need to impress people with my zip code or my countertops. but at the same time i realize im not most people (at least in the sense of my peer group and those i come into contact with on a daily basis).

[maru2501]

McKinley Park is rolling over right now. Lots of the OG Pilsen pioneer hisptery kids who are now priced out of Pilsen (and Bridgeport)

[Via Chicago]

i dont have a problem with home improvement shows but that one just seems so superficial and tone deaf.

like, This Old House does that whole genre right and it was the originator to boot. but i guess that dosent get the same sorts of ratings. its a shame that WC Rehab simply dont seem to be a crew/production company that does or are interested sensitive restorations.

ill give them credit that theyre at least not doing teardowns (from a facade standpoint anyway), but the finished products are really just the worst.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

i dont have a problem with home improvement shows but that one just seems so superficial and tone deaf.

like, This Old House does that whole genre right and it was the originator to boot. but i guess that dosent get the same sorts of ratings. its a shame that WC Rehab simply dont seem to be a crew/production company that does or are interested sensitive restorations.

ill give them credit that theyre at least not doing teardowns (from a facade standpoint anyway), but the finished products are really just the worst.

My favorite was an episode where they rehabbed a 4 flat. They decided to keep it as a 4 flat rental, and she did her usual--finding vintage, TOTALLY unreproducible fixtures for each unit that are highly unique and styled in her particular way.

I was thinking, "dude, what landlord would want that shit? One thing breaks and it's nearly impossible to replace". Clearly she does not understand the rental real estate business whatsoever and it shows, because last I had checked their finished building never sold to anyone.

[Via Chicago]

i mean its like the equivalent of Bar Rescue. some caricature of an actual person comes in and throws a bunch of visual diarrhea against the wall and jets off to the next place, and it makes for decent background entertainment while youre folding laundry or whatever but it dosent actually make for a good home or a good neighbor. all they need to find is one sucker.

[VivaLFuego]

There's also a whole wide world beyond the city limits with very affordable single families and small-scale multi-families that are exceedingly affordable, in safe neighborhoods, with walkable amenities and a 20-30 minute Metra ride from the Loop.

There are expensive neighborhoods, but there is no regional affordable housing crisis.

[Via Chicago]

hell, the bnsf from berwyn is faster than the average L commute (15 minutes on average). the housing stock is also significantly better than what you will find in many of the "hot" neighborhoods (like Bridgeport or Pilsen). craftsman bungalows for 200-250k for days.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

hell, the bnsf from berwyn is faster than the average L commute

Yes there are a number of city neighborhoods that are as car dependent as a suburb, while being a longer commute to downtown and with less space than you could get outside the city.

[VivaLFuego]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

hell, the bnsf from berwyn is faster than the average L commute (15 minutes on average). the housing stock is also significantly better than what you will find in many of the "hot" neighborhoods (like Bridgeport or Pilsen). craftsman bungalows for 200-250k for days.

Indeed. The BNSF, Rock Island, and MD-W all have compelling options.

Berwyn and Blue Island both have walkscores in the 85+ range in their downtowns, along with <25 minute travel times to downtown, complete sidewalk networks, very affordable and architecturally interesting housing stock. Beverly deserves mention, though the economics are questionable unless you're a city employee because even though it's relatively affordable, the prices are still bid up by folks with the residency requirement.

Elmwood Park and Franklin Park start to push the boundaries on travel time due to the way the MD-W is scheduled, but they get honorable mentions. Forest Park is also in the mix though my impression (whether backed up by data or not) is that it's less consistent in re: being able to assume safety walking on the street.