The Most Expensive Home For Sale In Chicago

Jamie Dimon's Dining Room/Foyer
In case you have $9,500,000 lying around with nothing better to do you might want to consider buying this 13,500 square foot, 18 room home with 8 bedrooms, 9 full baths, and 2 half baths at 25 E Banks St in the Gold Coast (where else?). Originally built in 1880, the home apparently sits on 2 lots, one of which is 34 x 116 and the other is 25 x 32, one block from Lake Michigan. Currently, this is the most expensive Chicago home for sale in the Multiple Listing Service and it is listed by Janet Owen of Sudler Sotheby’s. Of course, you wouldn’t pay the list price any way – after all, it only has a 2 car garage.

Here is the description:

Extraordinary 13,500 sq ft family friendly home,
short stroll to lake, parks, museums & famed Mag Mile! Perfect for
formal entertaining in marvelous rooms, but also family fun, casual
entertaining, everyday living! Entire 2nd flr Master Suite w/ family BRs
above. Fabulous rooftop Terrace! Great Rm/Media Rm. Wine vault. Gym. 2
BR staff qrtrs. w/ sep. entrance. Gorgeous renovation & design by
Marvin Herman. Marvelous!

As you can see from the photo gallery below this is a truly
extraordinary home – at $9.5 MM it better be. But who has this kind of
money? It’s been more than 3 years and we’re still waiting to find out. (continued below photo gallery)

The seller of this fabulous home is none other than Jamie Dimon, the CEO and Chairman of JP Morgan Chase. He bought the place in September 2000 for $4.68 MM, presumably after he came to Chicago to become the CEO of Bank One. But Jamie puts his pants on just like everyone else does and just like a lot of other folks he thinks he’s entitled to massive appreciation on his home but no one else is buying it. It was renovated just prior to Jamie’s purchase so I don’t think he invested a lot of money in the home. Yet, the home was first put on the market in April 2007 at $13.5 MM and over the course of almost 3 years the price was cut twice, finally ending up at $10.5 MM. At that point I’m guessing they lost confidence in the realtor and switched the listing to Janet Owen, who then convinced them to cut the price to $9.5 MM. After all, isn’t that what you do when a realtor fails to deliver a miracle? Get rid of the realtor and then find a different realtor to deliver a smaller miracle. Repeat as necessary until you’re not trying to get a miracle any more and you can declare victory for finding the right realtor.

The listing indicates that this is being handled as a relocation – probably resulting from Jamie becoming president of JP Morgan Chase in 2004. However, it’s not at all clear why the house was not put on the market until April 2007. It was, after all, the bubble years so maybe he figured it was a good investment.

As a side note the cooperating commission on this one is 2%, less $275. Assuming a purchase price of $9 MM that would be an obscene $179,725. No realtor deserves to be paid that much for a single transaction. Tell you what…if you buy this one through us we’ll raise our normal rebate to 75% 🙂

0 thoughts on “The Most Expensive Home For Sale In Chicago

  1. Is that a portrait of Mao Zedong through the reception hall?
    For the love of all that is holy, could the CEO of JP Morgan Chase actually have been a closet communist?

  2. I just want to apologize for getting angry with Chase last year, because they would not refinance my current mortgage with an 8.7% interest rate. I completely understand now why it would be impossible to lower my rate… Sure a 5% rate may sound appealing to some, but there is something to be said for helping to pay the CEO of Chase’s Nicor bill…

  3. Good observation. This is a classic case of a house too big for his needs but not big enough for his ego.

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