WGN-Channel 9 morning news coanchor Robin Baumgarten in July paid $783,000 for a four-bedroom, 3,314-square-foot house in Lemont, and the following month, she sold her three-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot home in Orland Park for $430,000.
Baumgarten has been with Channel 9 since joining the station as a traffic and transportation reporter in 1996 from Shadow Broadcast Services. She became the station’s main morning news coanchor in 2004.
In Lemont, Baumgarten’s new ranch-style house was built in 2000 and has 4-1/2 bathrooms, crown moldings, white millwork, a family room with a fireplace and a high ceiling, a finished lower level, a three-car garage and a kitchen with custom cabinetry, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. She signed a contract to buy the house just three days after it was listed in June for $775,000, and she wound up paying $8,000 above the asking price.
Meanwhile, Baumgarten paid $378,000 in 2007 for her house in Orland Park. She first listed it in June for $424,900, and went under contract to sell it just two days later. As was the case with the home she bought, the Orland Park house sold for more than its asking price.
Built in 1982, the house that Baumgarten sold has 2-1/2 bathrooms, a new roof, newer hardwood plank floors, a family room with a fireplace, a kitchen with a center island and Mission-style cabinets and a lower level with a 27-foot family room and a 20-foot laundry room.
“(The house) was one of the typical three-step (ranches) that were built 40-some years ago,” listing agent Bob Hart of Baird & Warner told Elite Street. “Robin…totally redid the house — she changed the floor plan, and put in an open kitchen and she took that particular model and made it the model that they would build if they built it today, with an open floor plan and a great center island. Every bathroom was redone, all the flooring was perfect in the house. It was probably, in that particular price range, the nicest three-step in Orland. We’re talking about a 40-year-old house that was done with today’s standards and was beautiful, and it sold right away.”
Baumgarten did not respond to a request for comment.
Baumgarten’s new Lemont house had a $12,984 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year, while the house she sold had a $7,263 property tax bill in the 2021 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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