About This property

Bronzeville’s home boom accelerates

Featured in Crain's Chicago Business

Sales of half-million-dollar homes had already taken off before the pandemic, but with 2020's low interest rates and lifestyle changes prompting a desire for more space at home, they've soared even higher.

The past few years’ boom in half-million-dollar home sales in Bronzeville picked up speed in recent months, thanks in part to the twin fuels of 2020’s real estate market: low interest rates and many households’ need for more space so they can comfortably work, school and exercise at home.

The third factor, specific to Bronzeville, is that “what you can get here, you’re not going to find for the same price anywhere else in the city,” said Britta Rivera, a Baird & Warner agent who specializes in the neighborhood.

Home sales rise most in 7 years

“Everybody needs more space now,” Rivera said, “and you’re getting more of it in Bronzeville.”

The average square footage of a home sold for between $500,000 and $750,000 in the past three months is 3,600 in Bronzeville, according to a Crain’s analysis of Midwest Real Estate Data records. That’s big compared to 2,850 square feet in Bridgeport, 2,400 in Hyde Park, and 2,000 in Lakeview.

In the South Loop, Bronzeville’s northern neighbor, the average square footage in that price range is 1,600, and most of those homes are condos, which often aren’t the COVID-era buyer’s preference because of shared common spaces and little or no backyard.

“People don’t want to be squished together now,” said Sybil Martin, a Coldwell Banker agent who represented a newly built five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house on South Champlain Avenue that sold for $682,500 in late August.

Martin declined to say where these buyers came from, but said that, like many others, they “wanted yard space, basement space for the kids when they’re stuck inside, so they come from downtown and the South Loop, where you can’t get that.”</P.

In the 12 months ended Sept. 23, 84 homes in Bronzeville sold for $500,000 or more, compared to 59 in the previous 12 months. When Crain’s first started documenting the boom in half-million-dollar sales in Bronzeville, in June 2019, there had been 34 houses sold in the price range in the prior year.

Most of the sales are new construction on formerly vacant lots, or rehabs of the handsome 19th- and early 20th-century homes that remain on many blocks in the historic swath of the South Side that runs from 31st Street to 51st Street east of the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Half-million-dollar home sales are becoming old news in Bronzeville, as more than a dozen recent sales were in the $600,000s or higher. In 2020 there have been two sales at over $800,000, including the record-setter: a 4,500-square-foot house built in 2011 on Oakwood Boulevard that went for $895,000.

The boom in Bronzeville attracted development partners Jasmine Layne and Charles McKever, whose firm, Wright Layne, has previously built or rehabbed about a dozen homes in Pullman, South Shore and Woodlawn. For their first project in Bronzeville, they’ve rehabbed what was a distressed and run-down 19th-century greystone owned by the Cook County Land Bank into a stylish home with five bedrooms, glass walls on the staircase and wine room and a kitchen island long enough to seat six.

Wright Layne is asking $779,000 for the 5,000-square-footer on Forrestville Avenue. “Bronzeville,” McKever said, “is a bargain with or without the COVID factor.”

This exceptional 3800 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bath homes are designed to offer functional floor plans and timeless finishes. The distinguishing features of this vintage multi-level brick facade home with limestone accent consist of a mansard roof, Juliet balcony, expansive ceiling heights, new energy-efficient windows, dual zoned high-efficiency HVAC and smart nest thermostats. Historic architecture styling and modern conveniences consist of seamless hardwood floors, coiffured ceilings, state of the art kitchen with Quartz counter-tops and Bosch stainless steel appliances. This masterpiece offers incredible bedrooms, spa baths with rain shower, body sprays and freestanding soaking tub. The lower level is equipped with a lavish family room with a wet bar and optional theater room or gym. Custom your future...

Amenities

Floor Plans

• Floor Plans

Exterior Features

• Facade: Renaissance brick with limestone accents and Hardie Board combination
• Exterior walls and roof insulated as per new energy code (R-21 and R-49)
• Thermal insulated casement Low-E Windows, with grids
• Two car garage w/aluminum door and remote opener
• Architectural style asphalt shingles roof
• Dust to Dawn security lights
• Recessed lighting throughout
• Custom Entrance metal railings
• Insulation: two-inch cellulose
• Entry Door with decorative glass
• Aluminum and Copper soffit
• Zone Heating & Cooling
• Rubber & Mansard Roof
• 9-12″ ceding heights

Kitchen

• Custom cabinetry with glass door toppers (total height 54″)
• Farmhouse sinks with designer chrome pullout spray faucet
• French Door Refrigerator with pull out freezer drawer
• Bosch stainless steel appliance package
• Pendant lighting over waterfall island
• Range with custom exhaust hood
• Energy-efficient dishwater
• Under-cabinet LED lighting
• Subway tile back-splash
• Under counter microwave
• Quartz counter-tops
• Wine refrigerator
• Built in wine rack
• Garage disposal

Flooring

• 3 ¼” Oak hardwood flooring in 1st-floor areas and stairs
• 6 inches of closed-cell foam installation at the roof
• Staircase throughout is selected oak treads with iron balusters
• Custom Recessed Lighting Throughout
• Internet, cable television and telephone ready
• Master Bedroom – Electric Heated Floors
• Electric fireplace
• Wide Generous Floor Plans

Bathrooms

• Quartz counter-tops with under-mount vitreous china rectangular bowl and 4″ backsplash
• Volume control shower head and body spray system (Rain spa) (Master Bath)
• European glass frame-less shower doors enclosure
• Premium flooring and tub surround
• Separate custom vanities
• Grohe Faucets
• Kohler toilets
• Freestanding tub (Master Bath)
• Decorative custom mirrors

Windows & Doors

• Farmhouse sinks with designer chrome pullout spray faucet
• Custom single panel 8-foot shaker style solid core doors
• Energy savings, insulated casement windows
• Pendant lighting over waterfall island
• Subway tile back-splash
• Steel entrance door

Laundry

• Whirlpool Super Capacity Washer & Dry (1 set)
• Walk-in laundry rooms; hook up with washtub in basement
• Porcelain tile floors
• Second-floor full size stackable

Painting

• 1 coat of primer/sealer
• 2 coat of flat designer paint
• Standard three colors throughout
• All trim painted white semi-glass