RODKIN: Great House in Chatham for $219,900

8605 South Wabash Avenue

Chicago Magazine's Dennis Rodkin writes about this home you see above in Chatham. It's great to see Chatham houses are still worth writing about in mainstream publications.

List Price: $219,900

The Property: This house in Chatham looks sort of ordinary on the outside, but inside, it sizzles. The box-beamed ceilings in the open-plan living and dining room, a sharp new kitchen, stylish tile finishes in the three baths, and a big master bedroom with a sitting room and ample closets are all very crisp and tastefully done. You can see all that in the listing photos.

See what I mean? It’s a polished place, far jazzier inside than you’d guess when looking at it from the street.

There are five bedrooms, a first-floor office or sitting room, and a two-car garage. The lot is extra big: 35 by 160 feet, compared to the city standard of 25 by 125 feet. The immediate neighborhood is mostly bungalows and two-stories of different eras, some with pre-World War II charm and others younger and plainer.

This house is a foreclosure rehab, bought by the rehabbers in April for $35,000. I haven’t been able to reach the rehabbers or their listing agent, so I don’t know the home’s condition when they got it, and I don’t know what mechanical systems or other major components were replaced or upgraded during the rehab. Potential buyers should ask about that.

Later in the article they did discuss over foreclosure rehabs in the neighborhood which either had been sold or is listed in the $200K+ range. It seems Chatham housing is still a solid investment if you want to rehab homes and sell them for the right price.

They also made sure to note the amenities that exists nearby and that includes Target, Walmart, Luversia's, Chatham Foods, and even mentions the Chatham 14 Theaters located near the Chatham Ridge Shopping Center. That in addition to the transportation options noting the expressway, CTA buses, and the Metra. However they still had to add one thing about Chatham:

Like many parts of the South Side, in the past several years Chatham has struggled with a high crime rate—significantly higher than was the norm in this long-stable community. The Chicago Tribune’s crime index shows that while crime in the neighborhood is high, property crime and quality of life crime have been dropping since 2007–2008. Violent crime is down, too, but less steeply. The crime rate is bound up with the shockingly high black unemployment rate, which in Chicago has been running more than twice the rate of joblessness for whites.

Clearly, potential buyers of this house will want to think through the implications of the neighborhood crime rate, and determine whether they believe the risk of buying here is too high relative to other comparably priced neighborhoods.

Anyway, if you want to live in Chatham you can always click through to the article or the actual listing and get the process started to own this home!