So I’m casually browsing Gold Coast over a morning coffee, and I start to detect an unnaturally wild spread in pricing at one location: 1000 North Lake Shore, near Lake Shore Drive’s big bend. Three bedrooms from the $350s to almost $2 million? That can’t be right…right?
It’s not, because I was looking at listings from two different buildings: 1000 Lake Shore Drive, a relatively stumpy high-rise dating back to 1953, and 1000 Lake Shore Plaza, a much taller tower built one decade later. Once I was able to separate the listings out by building, everything made sense. Drive‘s homes are significantly less expensive than Plaza‘s, and, lately, at least, more likely to be short sales.
The median list price at 1000 Lake Shore Drive is in the $220s; the median at 1000 Lake Shore Plaza is in the $970s. At least three homes at 1000 Lake Shore Drive are priced below their 2002 and 2003 sale prices; all of the homes at 1000 Lake Shore Plaza (or all the ones whose sales histories are available) are listed above their last sale prices, considerably so in most cases. The average time on market at 1000 Lake Shore Drive is 183 days; at 1000 Lake Shore Plaza, it’s 176 days, skewed heavily by one 653-day listing — The average without it is 97 days.
The current low, median, and high prices for both buildings are as follows:
1000 Lake Shore Drive
- Low: $128,980 for unit #803, a one-bedroom / one-bath. Listed 190 days ago for $135,000. Last sold in 2002 for $150,000.
- Median: $248,986 for unit #301, a two-bedroom / two-bath with 1,200 square feet. Listed 190 days ago for $349,000. Last sold in 2000 for $248,000.
- High: $424,900 for unit #905, a three-bedroom / three-bath with 1,740 square feet. Last sold in 2003 for $354,000.
1000 Lake Shore Plaza
- Low: $649,000 for unit #44D, a two-bedroom / 2.5-bath with 2,100 square feet. Listed 133 days ago for 720,000.
- Median: $975,000 for unit #12A, a three-bedroom / 3.5-bath with 2,400 square feet. On the market a whopping 653 days.
- High: $1.99 million for unit #35B, a three-bedroom / 4.5-bath with 4,200 square feet. Last sold in 2006 for $1.32 million.
I have been renting a 3/3 at the 1000 N Lake Shore Drive building for the past year or so. I am fortunate enough to be on the 3rd floor, which most people don’t realize comes equipped with a 1000+ s.f. terrace (not visible from the street, but lies between the Drive and Plaza buildings). Unfortunately, as bad as this building looks from the outside, it’s no better on the inside. Before I moved in, the price points made it appear an attractive option in the Gold Coast, However, the reality is that I would never buy in this building. The assessments are astronomical, and the building seems poised for several specials due to the its myriad shortcomings. As much as I love the expansive outdoor space, I decided to buy in Lincoln Park. It’s never fun to tell people I live in the “eyesore on LSD” . . . tolerable as a rental, but a non-starter as an owned unit.
chi-dad is absolutely right. I also am a renter. I’ve lived here 7 years. This is a fine building to rent in, but it’s a bad investement. The problem here is the direct result of the housing market crisis, where banks loaned money with complete disregard to the borrower’s ability to pay, and as a result, many of the rental units were rented out to deadbeats and trouble makers, just so the unit owners could pay their assessments and mortgages. The banks screwed up many condos throughout the country. There’s a lot of other problems here too, such as a condo board that is only interested in being treated like royalty and worrying about themselves and their supporters and nobody else, but it’s still a nice place to live – better to rent than to own.