It was a gloomy day in late December with about 8 inches of snow on the ground when I narrated this video illustrating the 5-minute walk from the train station to a 6-bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home renting for $5,000 a month in Kenilworth. The video itself was shot on a sunny late summer day.
The gracious home at 531 Essex Rd, on a half-acre lot, was listed at $1,995,000 in April of this year. It was reduced several times to $1,549,000, went under contract in October, and closed two weeks ago at $1,300,000. It’s hard to know what to make of the renderings shown with the listing – they don’t resemble the existing home.
One way to look at that annual $60K rent is that it’s almost exactly the cost of keeping two kids in private schools in the city.
Joseph Sears School (K-8) and New Trier High School, some of the best public schools in the state, are a 2-minute walk from this home. The Metra station, as you can see in the video, is a very pleasant 5-minute walk.
The property taxes on the home are nearly half the annual rent, making this a relative bargain on a rent vs own analysis.