At The Sterling, a Low HOA Fee Doesn't Mean a Cheaper Unit

Pull up three listings from The Sterling at 345 N LaSalle right now and you will likely see three different assessment numbers attached to three units that look nearly identical on paper. Same bedroom count, similar square footage, same building, same view corridor toward the river. The monthly HOA fee on one might be $420. On another, $680. A buyer comparing them side by side does the obvious thing: assumes the lower number is the better deal.

That assumption is where most people get the math wrong at this particular building, and it is worth understanding why before you write an offer or price a listing.

Same Building, Different Math

This spring, three 2-bedroom, 2-bath units at The Sterling closed within about a week of each other: one for $504,500, one for $530,000, and one for $435,000. All three carried the same bedroom and bathroom count. None of them were outliers in size. That is nearly a 22 percent spread among units a spreadsheet would treat as identical.

The building's own fee structure explains part of this. HOA assessments at The Sterling run from roughly $296 to $1,268 a month, a range wide enough that a buyer evaluating two units at the same price point could be comparing two very different cost structures without realizing it. Average annual property tax for units in the building runs around $6,862.83, which adds another variable that does not move in lockstep with the assessment.

The building's assessments are not simply a size tax. A 700-square-foot one-bedroom does not automatically carry a smaller assessment than a 900-square-foot two-bedroom down the hall. What actually drives the number is what the association has bundled into it and what it hasn't.

One recent listing at 345 N LaSalle noted its assessment covered everything except electric. Another, sold in early 2025, was marketed specifically because its assessment also folded in heat, air conditioning, internet, and cable, a combination the listing agent flagged as unusually generous for the price. Two buyers looking at similar sticker prices that year were, in effect, choosing between different utility arrangements without a clean way to compare them side by side.

The Line Item Nobody Puts in the Assessment

Here is the piece of the math that catches people off guard. Parking at The Sterling sits outside the condominium association entirely. The building does not include a garage inside the association's structure. Parking lives in an adjacent eleven-story garage that owners lease separately, and Hudson Parker's own building page for 345 N LaSalle lists parking as attached but leased, not deeded and not bundled into dues.

That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. In a lot of downtown Chicago buildings, a parking space is either deeded to the unit or its cost is folded into the monthly assessment, so the HOA fee already reflects the full cost of keeping a car in the building. At The Sterling, it never does. Whatever the assessment says on a listing sheet, add a separate parking line if you plan to drive. Skip that step and you are comparing two units on an incomplete basis every time.

This is also why the $296 to $1,268 range is less useful as a ranking tool than it looks. A unit with the higher assessment that bundles heat, air conditioning, and cable might cost less to actually live in each month than a unit with the lower assessment, once you add back utilities and a parking lease the second unit's owner has to pay out of pocket.

What to Actually Compare

If you are working through two or three units at The Sterling this fall, the assessment on the listing sheet is a starting point, not the answer. A more useful comparison pulls together:

• What the assessment includes, specifically whether heat, A/C, hot water, internet, or cable are bundled in, since this varies unit to unit rather than following a building-wide standard
• Whether you need parking, and what a lease in the adjacent garage runs, since that cost never shows up in the HOA number regardless of which unit you buy
• The unit's floor and exposure, since floor tier tends to track with both price and, informally, with which units carry the newer or more generous assessment packages
• Property tax on the specific unit, which averages around $6,862.83 a year building-wide but varies by size and assessed value

None of this shows up cleanly on a portal search. It requires pulling the actual condo declaration and recent closing statements for comparable units, which is the kind of building-level homework that matters more here than it would in a building with a more uniform fee structure.

The Building Isn't Trading Like the Rest of River North

There is a second layer to this that affects how confidently you can price a unit at The Sterling right now. In spring 2026, Hudson Parker's own tracking of the building showed only four condos listed on the MLS, and three of those were already under contract. That is a thin comparable set. When a building has that few active listings, a seller pricing a unit or a buyer trying to gauge fair value is working from a small, recent sample rather than a deep well of current comps.

Broader River North condo data from late summer 2026 puts the neighborhood's median list price around $450,000 with homes spending an average of 57 days on the market. The Sterling's own inventory pattern this spring, with most of what little came up going under contract quickly, suggests the building moves faster than that average when a well-priced unit does appear, but there simply isn't much volume to confirm it with precision.

That combination, a wide assessment range plus a thin resale pool, is exactly why building-specific research matters more here than a neighborhood-wide search would suggest. Two units at The Sterling can look identical in a portal listing and carry meaningfully different true costs, and there are not enough recent closings in the building at any given time to average that difference away.

A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly

Does a higher assessment mean a nicer unit at The Sterling? Not necessarily. It more often reflects which utilities are bundled in, not the finish level or view. A unit with updated finishes can carry a lower assessment than a dated one, if the lower-assessment unit simply has fewer utilities folded into its dues.

Can I skip parking if I don't need it? Yes, and this is one advantage of the arrangement. Because parking is leased separately rather than baked into every owner's assessment, a buyer who doesn't need a space isn't subsidizing a garage cost through their HOA fee the way they might in a building where parking is bundled for everyone.

Why has so little come up for sale at the building lately? Spring 2026 tracking showed just four active listings with three already under contract, a pattern consistent with owners choosing to hold rather than sell. Fewer listings also means fewer recent comps to price against, which is part of why a building-specific pricing conversation matters more here than in a building with steadier turnover.

The Sterling rewards the kind of comparison that happens after you have already read three assessment numbers off three listing sheets, not before. If you are trying to figure out what a specific unit at 345 N LaSalle actually costs to own, or what yours could realistically sell for given how thin the recent comp pool is, Hudson Parker has spent two decades tracking this exact building down to its floor plans, its association rules, and its door staff. Request a Building-Specific Market Plan and get a comparison built around what your unit's assessment actually includes, not just what it says on the listing sheet.