Retired WMAQ-Channel 5 investigative reporter Renee Ferguson on Sept. 19 sold her longtime six-bedroom, 3,519-square-foot vintage house in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood for $775,000.
The multiple Emmy-winning Ferguson, 75, retired from Channel 5 in 2008 after 21 years at the station and after 35 years in broadcasting, including previously working at CBS News and at WBBM-Channel 2, where she also hosted the talk show “Common Ground.” Since retiring from NBC 5, Ferguson has at times handled press secretary duties for several politicians.
In Kenwood, Ferguson and her husband Ken Smikle, who died in 2018, paid $340,000 in 1987 for the three-story house. Built in 1900 and located just two blocks north of former President Barack Obama’s home, the house has 4-1/2 bathrooms, two fireplaces, two internal staircases, leaded glass windows, many original details and hardwood floors on all three levels.
Ferguson first listed the house in June 2022 for $1.85 million and cut her asking price to $1.75 million before taking it off the market in September 2022. She then relisted it in May 2023 for $1.35 million and cut her asking price almost exactly a year later to $1.295 million. Ferguson reduced her asking price one final time in July to $895,000, and she went under contract the following month.
Ferguson did not respond to a request for comment.
The house had a $20,472 property tax bill in the 2023 tax year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
