List Price: $3.428 million
Sale Price: $2.75 million

The Property: This 9,400-square-foot house is one of several newcomers on a street in southeast Hinsdale. It has four levels, including the basement, all served by an elevator. "You can stand on the top floor and look all the way to the lowest level as the staircase winds around," says Joanne McCafferty, the Brush Hill Realtors agent who sold the house for the builder, Eagle Crest.

Although the 12-room house has a busier façade than some of the more refined homes-both new and old-in its prestigious neighborhood, it does have all the requisite luxury touches. The master suite (one of five bedrooms) has a steam shower, a fireplace, and a balcony. There is a library with lots of mahogany millwork, a home theater and a wine room in the basement, six-plus bathrooms (all with heated floors)-and the covered rear porch has its own fireplace. The house sits on a nearly half-acre lot.

Price Points: The house was officially on the market for 1,108 days (from the start of construction), and the sale price was 20 percent below the final list price. But in fact the builders took an even bigger hit: the house was originally priced at $3.895 million, which means that the builders ultimately sold the place for 29 percent less than its initial listing. The land alone cost Eagle Crest $1.3 million four years ago, McCafferty says.
In tony Hinsdale, the playing field is dense with multimillion-dollar homes. This week there were 24 homes listed for sale for $2 million or more, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois; over the past year, the suburb had 18 sales in that price range. In the end, McCafferty says, when a buyer moving in from out of town offered $2.75 million for the completed house, the builder "had to let it go and get on with his life." 

Buyer: Not yet identified in public records

Listing Agent: Joanne McCafferty, Brush Hill Realtors, (630) 920-0666