Last July Bill and Sherry Kaplan, long-time friends, took me on a driving tour (video playlist) of Riverwoods, the closest-in approximation of a rural lifestyle in Chicago’s north suburbs.
Riverwoods’ one-lane roads, some of which are still unpaved, make it seem more forest preserve than inhabited place.
We interrupted our drive half a dozen times to pause at and walk through some of the homes. One of them, at 2 Deepwood Trl, had originally been listed at $1,975,000, was priced at $1,150,000 when we visited. When I asked what accounted for the steep price drop, Bill responded “the market,” and suggested that values overall had dropped by 40% in Riverwoods.
The 6-bedroom, 4 ½ bath, 5,500+ square foot, 3-car garage home still hasn’t sold, after 9 months on the market. The price has been reduced to $1,050,000, and the home is also offered for rent at $6,000 a month. Riverwoods homes in this price range take a year to sell in a normal market, Bill noted,
Bill and Sherry know Riverwoods well, as residents since the 80s, as veteran real estate agents, and through Bill’s service as Mayor of the village. My relationship with them dates to the 70s, when Bill was a legal client, and the 80s when we were partners in a condo development in Northbrook.