Want to live in my old home?

Seminary rowhouses, Chicago

It’s 2047 N Seminary, in DePaul, the right-most of the four rowhouses in the picture.

Rubloff currently has it listed at $1,169,000, down from the $1.7M it was listed at several years ago, and up from the $275k I sold it for in 1980 and the just over $600K the current owner paid in 1993. The changes, from what I can see in the terrible pics at Rubloff’s site, are not for the better, at least to my taste. The first-floor ceilings are nearly 12 feet, not the 10 feet stated in the listing. The home is no longer as open and airy as it was when I’d completed my gut renovation. The real estate taxes were (gasp!) $450 when I sold it and are now stated as $15,000.

During the 30+ years I’ve followed the single-family home market in the DePaul area, prices have repeatedly been subject to wide upward and downward swings. That’s due, I believe, to demand sharply outpacing supply when the economy’s on an uptick, and the thin supply finding an even thinner pool of buyers during down cycles. We’re in a sharp down cycle now, which ought to be good for patient buyers.

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