LINCOLN SQUARE — A newly built single-family home in Lincoln Square fetched north of $2 million, leading the pack of priciest home sales in the neighborhood in 2014.
The top five, all new construction, ranged from $1,640,000 to $2,042,408. All were located in an area bound by Lawrence and Montrose avenues to the north and south, and Damen and Lincoln avenues to the east and west.
Eric Rojas, a real estate broker with Kale Realty, provided an analysis of the neighborhood's home sales on his blog The Chicago Real Estate Local.
"The more million dollar new construction sales there are on a block, the more similar-budget buyers will enter the market and push up competition for the existing homes," he said.
Patty Wetli says Lincoln Square is still cheaper than some surrounding neighborhoods:
In all, 94 single-family homes closed in Lincoln Square with a median price of $565,000 as of Dec. 26, compared with 123 homes and a median price of $575,000 in 2013, according to stats provided by Rojas.
The top three homes were all built by Landrosh Development, which has been active in the neighborhood for more than a decade.
Patrick Landrosh, the company's founder, recalled selling his first million dollar home in 2001.
"So it's come a long way," Landrosh said of the market.
Landrosh said his company builds for a "pretty discrete demographic. Families with two, three or four kids who want to stay in the city, plant their roots and grow into the neighborhood."
The "core pocket" of Lincoln Square in which most of his homes are situated is particularly appealing to buyers, he said, in that it's less dense and less vertical than comparable areas in places such as Lakeview.
"It feels neighborhoody," Landrosh said.
But Lincoln Square is still "light years away" from Lincoln Park, where developers pay $1 million for land alone, he said.
"Lincoln Square will remain steady," said Landrosh, who also lives in the neighborhood. "It's never been a booming place where prices have gotten out of control."
Still, the higher prices being paid for new construction do affect prices of existing homes, Rojas said.
Developers are competing with each other, and with prospective homeowners, for these properties, which are viewed as an opportunity for rehab or teardown, according to Rojas.
"For instance, a brick bungalow on a 30-foot by 125-foot lot that sold in 2011 for $360,000 was bought by primary owners to live in and fix up as they go," he said. "That same house and lot size on the same street has sold for $410,000 cash purely to be developed and resold for over $1 million."
"Basically, prices have gone way up on homes that need a lot of maintenance or updating," said Rojas.
Landrosh said he is sensitive to the negative image associated with teardowns.
"I have never taken down a house that shouldn't have been," he said. "You find a place here and there" that's unsafe or prohibitive to rehab "and you pick it up."
And yes, he conceded, the homes that he builds in the footprint of a former two-flat or bungalow are larger than their predecessors.
"People have used the word 'McMansion.' I'm not a big believer in that word," said Landrosh. "Our homes might be bigger than 90 years ago, but everything is bigger. We're bigger. Life is different."
He makes an effort, he said, to incorporate architectural elements — pitched roofs and front porches, for example — that are common to the neighborhood, but ultimately his designs are driven by buyer demand.
"Guys like myself aren't competing to build a big house just to build a big house. I try to build as small as I can," Landrosh said. "At the end of the day, people want space."
Older homes typically feature a first floor with a living room, dining room and kitchen, and maybe a tiny bedroom, he said.
"They're missing a room — the family room," Landrosh said. "Kitchens weren't that big; now they're huge. If I built to the 1930s [size], I'd be out of business."
