Media Columnist Robert Feder Reports Sale Of Highland Park Home

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Chicago area media columnist Robert Feder announced last month he has finalized the sale of the Highland Park home where he has lived for the past two decades.

"I sold my house today and said goodbye to Highland Park after 20 years," Feder said in a Sept. 27 social media post. "On to a new chapter in the New Year," he added, referencing Rosh Hashanah and the start of the Hebrew Year 5780.

Feder and his wife Janet, who died last December, purchased the house for $433,500 in May 1999 from its builder, records show. The four-bedroom, 2,860-square-foot home sits on a 0.21-acre lot on the corner of Deerfield Road and Ring Court, a small cul-de-sac few blocks from the border with Deerfield and within Deerfield School District 109.

With the held of real estate broker Judi Berger Shefler, Feder opted to sell the house for $290,000 in an off-market sale to a Chicago-based rehabbing company, Feder told Crain's Chicago Business, which first reported the sale. Selling to a rehabber allowed Feder to avoid a potentially lengthy and costly process of modernizing the interior.

Feder said the house has remained essentially uncharged for the past 20 years, explaining he had "neither the time, the money nor the interest" to spend on extensive updates, according to Crain's. He said he plans spend the next year living in a one-bedroom apartment before determining his next move.

According to the Lake County Assessor's Office, the estimated fair market value of the property for taxing purposes is about $540,000. Its 2018 property tax bill was more than $13,800.

Feder, who grew up in Skokie and graduated from Niles East High School and Northwestern University, covered local media for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1980 to 2008. Since 2017, his column has appeared in the Chicago Daily Herald.

• Address: 955 Ring Court, Highland Park
• Built: 1996
• Square Feet: 2,858
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 2 full, 1 half
• Last Sold: $433,500 in May 1999
• Sale Price: $290,000 in Sept. 2019