Unit 1S at 7708 S Essex Ave is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath duplex that’s listed as 3,300 square feet and described as “completely remodeled with all stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, juccuzzi [sic] baths, hardwood floors and garage parking.”
The condo was originally listed for $189,900 in June of 2010. It went under contract shortly after the price was reduced to $14,500 but came back on the market recently at that price as a bank-approved short sale.
Sound too good to be true? Perhaps not, when you consider its location in a part of South Shore that’s come to be known as Terror Town, i.e. the area bounded by 75th and 79th Streets, Colfax Ave and Yates Blvd.
A local resident, Donnell Johnson, was recently quoted in the Sun-Times:
“It always has been bad in this neighborhood. That’s how they got the name Terror Town, but it ain’t never been bad within the neighborhood,” Johnson said. “Now it’s become where you’re fighting your neighbor. You can’t even go to the store because you get into it with him and he see you, then he’ll be waiting outside the store to shoot you.”
There’s an old saying in the real estate business that anything will sell if the price is right. Is the price right for this condo? Are there Chicago neighborhoods so troubled that properties won’t sell, regardless of price?
You’ll pass the corner of 77th and Essex in a drive through Terror Town in the latter part of the above video.