The last time Larry Johnson and his wife, Lois, looked for a new home was more than four decades ago, when they piled their kids in the car and drove to see new homes sprouting in communities outside Chicago’s city limits.
This brief flurry of house-hunting ended when the Johnsons returned to their sturdy, yet elegant brick home in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood, certain that they were living in the best home and neighborhood they could find.
“We looked at homes in the `burbs in the `50s,” recalled Johnson. “But we decided that it (the suburbs) wasn’t for us. It was like going to Kmart when you’re used to Marshall Field’s.”
Unlike the suburban tract houses they saw, their charming home was built in 1910 by Larry’s grandfather. The couple take such pride in it that they have since placed a gold-colored plaque on the exterior that recounts the history of its ownership.
In today’s highly mobile society, the plaque signifies permanence. The Johnsons, it seems, are something of an anomaly. Unlike other people who seem to be packing boxes nearly as soon as they have unpacked, the Johnsons have stayed put in the same house, on the same block and street where Larry Johnson was born 70 years ago.
In 1997, the National Association of Realtors reports, 4.2 million homes were sold across the United States. A survey of home buyers done by the association in the same year showed that the average time that respondents spent living in their homes was seven years.
The trend toward mobility has been noticed by Mary Ellen Considine, a Realtor for Keller Williams Realty in Chicago. She said she also has observed many clients moving an average of every five to seven years.
“They (today’s buyers) aren’t like the older generation,” she said. “They are so mobile. Today, many young people have a double income. They have more money to work with and they can buy up.”
A bigger house, better schools, a job relocation are just a few of the reasons why people may decide to pull up stakes and settle elsewhere. There are just as many important reasons why some people, like the Johnsons, continue to live, not just in the same neighborhood, but in the same house.
Although they could have found a home in the suburbs that was suitable for raising four children, the Johnsons stayed in Andersonville because of their love for the neighborhood and because they felt a strong link to the community.
When Larry Johnson was growing up, Andersonville was a bastion of Swedish immigrants, and he remembers many of his neighbors speaking in their native tongue as they passed one another on the street.
Today, the neighborhood is an ethnically diverse melting pot. Nonetheless, it has retained its essential appeal as a safe place where families can raise their children, according to Johnson.
“This is a quiet area. People take pride in their buildings. We sit on our porches and go to bed early,” he said.
The Johnsons make a point of being involved in the community. That involvement, in turn, has contributed to making Andersonville a place where they have continued to enjoy living.
Larry Johnson is chairman of the local neighborhood association, the Foster Avenue Improvement Association (FAI).
Recalling battles he has fought through the years to keep his neighborhood safe and attractive, he said with a grin, “I’m a Viking descendant, and I think you have to protect your turf.”
In the early 1960s, for example, Johnson said the state and federal government had plans to expand the number of turn lanes from Clark Street onto Foster Avenue.
Neighbors banded together to oppose the plan.
“We stopped it cold in its track,” Johnson said with a note of triumph still ringing in his voice. “That’s how the FAI got started. Foster Avenue is a residential street–not (a busy street) like Irving Park or Montrose.”
At about the same time the Johnsons were nixing a move to the suburbs, Pat and Bill Hewitt were moving from Chicago to Oak Lawn. They have lived there for the past 47 years in the first and only home they ever purchased.
“We’ve stayed in this house because it’s very well-located in the heart of Oak Lawn,” said Pat. “It’s just very comfortable and we’ve never outgrown it.”
The couple have a brick Cape Cod on a corner lot where they raised three children.
Recalling what Oak Lawn looked like when they moved there, Bill said, “It was open land. There was a lot of space. I had gardens here for years. I still do.”
Like the Johnsons, the Hewitts have a history that is linked with the community. Pat Hewitt’s grandfather, Frank J. O’Brien, was the first justice of the peace in Oak Lawn.
In addition to their strong roots, the Hewitts take an active interest in local affairs, including most recently attending a village board meeting where they and others objected to the increased construction of condominiums in the community.
“I just think they’ve taken over,” said Pat Hewitt. “Some of our beautiful, old (single-family) buildings have been taken down to make room for them.”
A sense of commitment and stability is what long-time owners who stay in the same home, on the same street, bring to a community, said Vernon Hein, a real estate agent with Baird & Warner in Highland Park. Even Realtors, whose bread and butter depends on the sale of homes, have to admire them, he said.
“I think that sort of ownership speaks to stability,” he said. “In the past, people bought homes and stayed there. Now, people stay in homes for a fraction of the time.”
Hein is selling a Colonial-style home in Highland Park. It was custom built in 1937 and the original owner, who loved the home’s beautiful views of Lake Michigan, never opted to move elsewhere until now. The owner is relocating to a retirement community.
The house’s history of having just one owner is an attractive selling point that Hein will trumpet along with its beach access and superior construction.
“I’m making it clear in the advertising that it’s a one-owner home,” he said. “It’s been exquisitely maintained. In this era when very few people own property for very long–it’s a bonus. It’s most unusual.”
Although relocation every few years seems these days to be a recurring rite of adulthood, it is not something that Joe and Lori Leane are planning to do.
Lori, 37, and Joe, 34, recently purchased a five-bedroom home in Mt. Prospect. They moved from their first home in Des Plaines and now have settled down for good.
“I don’t plan to move. I’m happy here,” said Lori. “We knew when we found a (second) house that this would be it. We’ll never upgrade or downgrade.”
The Leanes, who are parents of young girls, Jenna, 1 and Mara, 4, said they looked hard to find a home they loved in the school districts, both elementary and high school, where they want to send their children.
“First, I liked the school district,” said Lori. “Second, I liked the location and the neighborhood. Our house is on a half-acre and there are a lot of grown trees in the neighborhood.”
Lori said she grew up in Arlington Heights, in a house that is five minutes away from her present home. Like the Johnsons and the Hewitts, she felt a strong connection to the area that she now calls home again.
“I’m familiar with it. It’s very comfortable to me,” said Lori.
Besides the feeling of being at ease, there are other benefits of long-term ownership that the Leanes have found. The decorating changes that they plan to make to their home will be made without considering whether a potential buyer will also like them.
“If you start gutting the kitchen, you’re not wondering if you’ll make your money back when you sell,” Lori said.
Long-term homeowners may adapt their homes to their changing conditions, such as adding a room when a baby is expected. Over the years, however, they also see things in their neighborhoods change. Those changes, it is hoped, are for the better. Johnson cited the construction of a new elementary school in his neighborhood.
“We’re getting more children into the area. That’s a real plus,” he said.
Community improvements
Similarly, Hewitt said she is pleased to see improvements in her southwest suburban community. The streetscaping and resurfacing of 95th Street, a major thoroughfare through her town, are welcome changes, she said.
“We can see (the village) is trying to keep things up. They’re going to make it look old-fashioned with (decorative) street lamps,” she said.
Of course, it’s not a given that property values will increase, but staying in a well-loved home and neighborhood may have that as a reward as well.
The property that Hein is selling was purchased for $13,500 in the 1930s. Now, the land and house are listed at $899,000.
Of course, homeowners may want to keep in the family the properties that they have owned and cherished over the long haul.
“My middle son has told me if we ever want to sell our house, he’ll buy it,” said Hewitt with a laugh.
For now, however, the Hewitts, the Johnsons and the Leanes have no plans to sell.
