The owner of Robert Prevost’s childhood home pulled his listing for the property shortly after the Chicago native was elected the new pope.
Photo: RLB Realty Group, Inc.
A listing for an unassuming brick house in the south suburbs of Chicago was abruptly pulled off the market on Thursday after the owner learned that he had been trying to flip the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV. The three-bedroom (with an indeterminate number of baths — reports have varied from 1.5 to a hard-to-picture three) where Robert Prevost lived in Dolton, Illinois, decades before being elected the first American pope, had been for sale for more than 100 days with a recent asking price of $199,900. That number could change, says listing agent Steve Budzik: “Every idea’s up in the air right now.”
According to Budzik, the current owner is a real-estate investor and licensed electrician who has rehabbed and flipped a number of properties in the area and who purchased the house at 212 E. 141st Place for $66,000 in May 2024. It looks like he installed some granite and subway tile in the kitchen and replaced the hardwood flooring with vinyl planks before putting it back on the market. The layout, however, is the same as when Prevost’s parents purchased the house in 1949, per Budzik.
What ideas might the owner have in mind then for the overnight landmark? “Some sort of museum or viewing center,” Budzik says. “Possibly like a short-term rental, where people can stay for the night.” (A similar idea for an Airbnb treatment of Donald Trump’s childhood home in Jamaica Estates flopped, for what it’s worth.)
The owner, who according to Budzik is expecting a new child any day now with his wife and is “probably” going to take a week before deciding next steps, could also just cash out now. The New York Post reported that four people put in offers after the news broke about its religious connection, and Budzik tells me he let a few people in to see the space and was on his way to meet another. If they wind up selling, they could easily get $400,000, Budzik estimates. “Maybe I’m way off. Maybe somebody’s willing to pay more,” he says. Not sure how the new pope would feel about that.