List Price: $949,000
Sale Price: $830,600

The Property: Built in 1968, this 12-room brick French-styled home on a one-acre lot left the hands of its original owners for the first time in November. Set on a hilltop cul-de-sac in an Oak Brook neighborhood of mostly bolder architectural homes—some outrageously so—this relatively reserved home has five bedrooms, hardwood floors in most rooms, and a big lawn. The kitchen and five baths (three full, two partial) are all original and need updating, says the seller’s agent, Kathleen Steber.

Phyllis and Thorman Giesche—he was the owner of a Glen Ellyn shoe store that has now been in his family’s hands for more than a century—had the house built for themselves almost 40 years ago. Thorman died in 2005; his widow listed the house for sale in April. The sale, to buyers not yet identified in public records, closed on November 7th.

Price Points:  When it first went on the market, the house was listed at $1,299,900, which was later cut to $949,000. The final sale price was a full 36 percent off the original list price. Steber says a “very quiet” housing market in Oak Brook hindered the home’s sale. The buyer, Steber says, is a transferee from another state who plans to do all the upgrading “and have that value come back to him when the market improves.”

Listing Agent: Kathleen Steber, Coldwell Banker, (630) 954-4600