Mansion in St. Charles Sells After 6 Years

An 11,400-square-foot St. Charles mansion whose builder once asked $4.8 million for the eco-friendly home finally has sold after nearly six years on the market, according to ChicagoMag.com.

The closing price on the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home and its 1.7-acre lot was $1.776 million when the sale was concluded Jan. 3, ChicagoMag.com reported.

Built in 2007 by Robert Lord, the house featured a variety of energy-saving features that included geothermal heating. But no one has ever lived in it. Troubling signs appeared in the housing market after prices peaked in 2006, after which the “housing bubble” burst, according to Wikipedia. The decline continued in 2007.

When the Great Recession began in 2007, prices continued to tumble. Increasing job losses at that time had an impact on the housing market as well — fewer people could afford to buy homes, and those who could were afraid to because of the nation’s economic instability. But the job losses also increasingly sent homes into foreclosure, creating a housing glut that kept home prices low.

The Lord mansion was not immune and sat empty. In 2009, ChicagoMag.com reported, Lord’s lender began foreclosure proceedings and its price began to drop.

The closing on Jan. 3 preceded a report by the Mainstreet Organization of Realtors that St. Charles home sales in December saw a 75.9 percent spike from a year earlier. St. Charles Patch wrote about the report on Jan. 17. December’s figures marked the continuation of a trend for increasing home sales and rising prices in St. Charles.