WLS-Channel 7 entertainment and feature reporter Janet Davies has paid about $800,000 for a new, 11-room Victorian-style home in west Lake View.
Davies, 48, has been at “ABC-7” since 1984.
She has co-hosted the “190 North” program, hosted the station’s annual live New Year’s Eve broadcast, and reported from noted entertainment events like the Academy Awards. She also has interviewed numerous major celebrities one-on-one.
Davies’ 4,200-square-foot, two-story house, which builder Eamon Gibbons completed earlier this year, according to public records, originally was listed for $799,000. It went under contract just two days after being listed.
Davies paid $779,000 for the house, according to public records, but upgrades pushed the final purchase price to $801,881, according to multiple listing service information.
The five-bedroom home has a step-down family room, a finished lower level, a custom front porch, a large deck, two fireplaces and a kitchen with a Viking stove, a wine cooler, a SubZero refrigerator and a full granite backsplash.
Davies, whose Lake View purchase was made through a bank trust but confirmed through other public records, previously has owned several other Chicago properties.
After divorcing her then-husband, Channel 2 weatherman Steve Deshler, Davies and Deshler sold their Gold Coast home at 49 E. Bellevue Place in 1994 for $810,000.
About a month later, Davies paid $584,000 for a town home in Lincoln Park at 1958 N. Maud Ave. After buying her new house, Davies sold the Maud Avenue town home to a couple for $875,000, according to public records. Kristi Gunther of Re/Max Exclusive Properties, the listing agent for Davies’ new home, was out of the country last week and unavailable for comment.
– An eight-room Lake Forest house that until recently was rented by former Bulls center Will Perdue is for sale for $449,000, or is available as a $3,500-a-month rental.
Perdue, who was a Bull during the 1991-1993 title runs and was traded to the San Antonio Spurs in 1995 for Dennis Rodman, returned as a $5 million-a-year free agent in August 1999. The 7-foot center last year averaged 2.5 points in 67 games, connecting on just 35 percent of his field-goal tries and 48 percent of his free-throw attempts. Bulls management released Perdue in June.
This past year, Perdue rented the four-bedroom, two-bath ranch on Green Bay Road. The 45-year-old, approximately 2,026-square-foot house, which recently has been updated, sits on a fenced, wooded property, according to listing agent Jodie Trace Holder of Coldwell Banker’s Lake Forest office. Other features include a master suite with a double sink and walk-in closet, a deck and a new kitchen with a double oven and ceramic counters. The current owner purchased the house in 1997 for $327,000, according to public records. Perdue last owned Chicago-area property in 1994, when he sold a house at 876 Poplar Lane in Deerfield for $233,000, according to public records.
– A historic Queen Anne house in the Riverview Historic District of Kankakee has been listed for just $179,900. The Magruder-DeSelm house, 691 S. Chicago Ave., was built around 1891 for Henry Magruder, who later became mayor of Kankakee.
Designed by I.C. Wyckoff and situated directly across the street from a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house, the Magruder-DeSelm house underwent considerable restoration beginning in 1987. Now, the four-bedroom house is on the market at a deliberately low price, said listing agent Alexis Eldorrado of Keller Williams Fox Realty in Chicago.
The value of recent improvements, including a $38,000 custom garage built in 1989 to match the house and a new $68,000 patterned slate roof, far exceeds the purchase price, but the owners want to make the house affordable to a preservation-minded owner.
Other features include a large beveled, arched, leaded glass window; an engaged gazebo front porch with a turreted roof, spindle work railings and a frieze; and the extensive use of huge pocket doors.
The house also has three porches; two tiled fireplaces; original carved brass hardware on all doors, including carving on the hinges; an octagon tower; roof cresting; three central furnaces; and original wood floors.
The house also may be eligible for a state-sponsored, 12-year tax freeze program for historic properties, Eldorrado said.
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