“Home Alone” house in Winnetka lands buyer fast

The iconic Winnetka house featured in beloved Christmas film “Home Alone” lured a potential buyer just a week after hitting the market. 

The 10-bedroom, 9,100-square-foot estate on Lincoln Avenue, listed for $5.25 million on May 24, was marked “contingent” by May 31, indicating a tentative agreement between the sellers and buyers pending certain conditions, Crain’s reported. 

Contingencies typically include home inspections and financing arrangements. The prompt inquiry suggests it could sell at or above its $577 per square foot asking price, which would be a rarity as most luxury homes in Chicagoland undergo at least one price chop before landing a buyer. 

Katie Moor of Coldwell Banker Realty is representing the sellers, Tim and Trisha Johnson, who bought the house for $1.59 million in 2012, marking the first time it changed hands after the film was released in 1990.

Since buying it, the Johnsons have extensively renovated the property, adding about 5,100 square feet, including a kitchen expansion, family room, attached garage and an indoor sports court. 

Many original features of the house remain intact, though. The owners maintained the essence of its cinematic history, preserving iconic features such as the front door and the living and dining rooms, which played significant roles in the film. 

The house itself played a central role in “Home Alone,” with many scenes shot inside and around the property. Director Chris Columbus has described the house as simultaneously “warm and menacing,” a perfect setting for the film’s mix of comedy and suspense. 

Meanwhile, another North Shore mansion with a cinematic past, the Kenilworth colonial from “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” has been taken off the market after a price cut from $2.65 million to $2.25 million. 

Elsewhere in Winnetka, a 12,700-square-foot mansion at 139 Sheridan Road hit the market last month at just under $11.8 million. Even if it sells for considerably less than the asking price, it would become the most-expensive residential transaction in the Chicago area this year, topping a $9.3 million condo sale in Chicago’s Gold Coast. 

—Quinn Donoghue 

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