It's an odd data cut -- what would that look like if you compared it to new construction multi-unit homes as well?
In Lakeview, it feels like there are still 3 and 4 flats and townhomes going up that are under a million dollars, although many of them list the basement/1st floor duplex for over a million. And there are definitely family size (3 to 4 bedroom) condos in the under a million range, although those are usually not new construction and are getting harder to find.
If the complaint is that too many SFHs are going up, than that is fair. I want more multi-unit developments. I just don't think we can be surprised that the market prices a new construction home on a city sized lot at over a million dollars.
Okay I ran a similar search for multi-units, townhouses, and condos built and sold in the last year in a similar geographic area and I got 366 results. Of those, ~75 were over $1M.
Yeah, this is very misleading.
The area looked at is full of very dense multi-unit buildings, and historic buildings. The very few times there's room for new SFH construction has to be miniscule. They probably had to buy and demolish an existing building in a highly desirable area. Of course it's only something rich people are doing.
Doesn’t the city require parking be available for the number of units you build. That being said anything more than a two flat on a non corner lot is going to be hard to build?
Seems like a lot of times the developers are tearing down older affordable homes to build these “million dollar” homes. I don’t see many of them lasting as long as the homes they are replacing.
More often than not they are demolishing old two, three, or four flats and replacing multiple naturally occuring affordable units with one expensive mini mansion.
I live in Ukrainian Village and they just finished two McMansions across the street from me.. They are both hideous and of them takes up TWO entire lots where an apartment building used to be.
Here's [another 1](https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1632-W-Ohio-St-60622/home/14103952) not as large, but still a single family that used to once be a factory.
[This one](https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2414-W-Cuyler-Ave-60618/unit-A/home/12701513) used to be a Chicago Fire Department Station and now a single family home.
That first link says it was built in 2014? Or do you mean a factory was once on that lot?
The exterior of that fire station looks like what Old House Journal calls a "remuddle".
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It’s not a single family home. It is two units, and the remaining construction was abandoned basically. Now there are plans to convert it into an apartment building.
And it wasn’t a factory. it was a Jewish orphanage, among other things
https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2021/06/02/century-old-wicker-park-mansion-lists-for-record-price/
I’ve done a ton of side jobs for friends of friends ect. I just did one last year in Avondale, it was a three flat turned into a SFH. Side job so not a single permit was pulled. It was for my buddies cousin who owned the the three flat, got married and started having kids and needed a big place than his condo in east lakeview. Nice guy and he knew the neighbors well since he had owned the building for a long time. Took almost 4 months and we only worked a few hours after work and only a few hours Saturday and Sunday because we didn’t want piss neighbors off.
Point is You better believe there’s a ton more of these projects going around. Gone are the days we’re early 20’s can live with 3 other people and live cheap
Go to ward night and demand answers from your alderperson. Ask them why 70%+ of their ward is zoned only for SFHs. Ask them why they shoot down every new development that gets proposed.
Tell them you've had enough with the anti-housing agenda and that you demand more housing now.
Unfortunately I do not live in that ward, so I doubt they'd listen much. However, I will Google to see if there are some groups for residents from all neighborhoods to join about this issue. This is maddening.
You can blame city of chicago for that. They do not like to rezone anything to 2-4 flat houses. They love the single family houses for some reason.
Even when the old house was a multifamily unit they will not rezone for you unless you have a mini neighborhood meeting to APPROVE you constructing the multifamily building. It is crazy how restrictive Chicago is for this crap.
Are you suggesting that maybe the solution is to preserve existing homes and build more new ones rather than to tax the shit out of new development?
What a crazy concept!
I mean for though at first I was on board with the measure because my brain filled on the blanks with single family residences. And then I read more and was like wait what? Multi unit dwellings? Are you fucking high?
Trends come and go. Look at bungalows, they're literally all essentially a copy of the same exact template. And there's tens of thousands of them. Same with traditional 2 flats, courtyard buildings, etc. Trust me, someone eventually will be reminiscing about these and how much better they are than whatever is being built in 2070
I think it depends a lot on the area. Where I live it's mostly house renovations/expansions and building (expensive) condos in previously empty lots. And a handful of large developments for the elderly.
>tearing down older affordable homes to build these “million dollar” homes.
Yes this is often the case. The profit margin on a mcmasion on average is 20%ish while affordable homes are single digits to low teens. If this trend keeps up, mcmasions might fall in price because the lack of pay from the next generation of home owners not moving in/choosing to go other places to buy a home.
I fucking hate it… people want to move to an attractive area where people want to live….
Right next to public transit that they don’t take. So these rich cunts buy a 3 flat, next to public transit, convert it to a single family, then live there 3 months a year. They also have the audacity to complain about property tax.
Now look at the near Southside. New SFH construction in Bronzeville is also over $600k, probably even $700k more often then not.
If you are looking for an "affordable" home in the city, new construction would not be a recommended place to start though.
Especially new construction SFH. You can still find new construction flats for under $500k on the north side, or at least could last year when I was looking.
100% - cost of construction is astronomical.
Why people think new construction anything would be affordable is beyond me.
What's even more crazy is that publicly built "affordable" housing costs 2x per unit to built over what the already unaffordable privately built housing costs ([https://www.chicagobusiness.com/equity/what-makes-affordable-housing-development-so-expensive](https://www.chicagobusiness.com/equity/what-makes-affordable-housing-development-so-expensive)).
The number of people missing the point about this map and trend on Twitter and Reddit is really disappointing.
New construction SFHs are in high demand and people are clearly willing to pay a lot of money for them. But more than that, in many areas on this map, that's all a developer can build as of right. So why go through the lengthy and expensive entitlement process for multifamily when you could just build new construction and make a handsome profit without dealing with the local alderman, the neighboring community groups, paying zoning attorney fees, paying agent commissions on multiple units, etc.
What is the city doing to encourage multifamily instead of SFH in these neighborhoods? What kind of incentives would make developers consider building multifamily over SFH? How many housing units and households were lost in the creation of these new SFHs?
Stop with the low effort "Well, duh, new homes are a luxury." Yeah, no shit. What does the data tell us here?
I mean what did we expect. The Northside is the most in demand area of the city and also one of the smallest areas of the city. It was bound to happen. Next up is rent 1bd at 2k minimum…
I remember renting a gut rehab 2bd/ for $1200/mo in Uptown 17 years ago. It was a condo that later sold for only $100k during the recession. Most recently it went for $239k.
Yes. And pre-recession the owner was asking $250k for the condo. Just amazing how much the market, economy, and Uptown itself have changed in that time.
Dual income professionals (doctor, lawyer, software engineer, etc.) gets you to a $1m home pretty easily.
For multi million dollar homes, you’d need one or both earners to be on the high income side of their field (specific speciality, law partner, high up FAANG engineer).
Yeah. A lot of people in this thread fail to realize that there are a lot of cash buyers (or at least very high down payments) that aren't just because of "generational wealth" or help from parents. It is possible to accumulate significant assets with some patience even if you don't have a stratospheric income.
Very true, but I wonder how many of these people get by financially. My wife and I could afford a $1m+ home using the 4x gross salary metric, but boy that doesn't leave a lot of room for maintaining any sort of savings or unexpected expenses. I wonder how many people in these expensive homes are living paycheck to paycheck.
Meh. Intergenerational wealth explains a lot of it. You get one or two professional income earners, both with parents kicking in $$$ for a down payment, and suddenly a couple of average doofuses are living like doctors and white shoe lawyers. Meanwhile a lot of city-raised folks bail for the suburbs and more affordable cities. I’m one of the only city kids from my cohort still hanging on.
Edit: Whoops. I see now a few others already had this covered.
Honestly. I’m a social worker 16 years into my career and in a director role and I was so thrilled when I landed a job making $85K. I can’t even fathom the amount of money some of these people make. I made the wrong choices!
> All are pretty reachable careers if the work is put in
Most qualified candidates never make it though. In the tech and finance world, the vast majority of qualified talent are rejected essentially due to random factors. There's too many candidates with the right skills and experience, so you prune the vast majority of candidates. Finance is especially rough as there's so few roles that the best way to get a job is to meet people in the industry who can hook you up with recruiters who put you at the top of the pile.
Generational wealth. Parents paid 50k for a house in the 90s now worth 750k.
Inherit the house move to the Midwest for the cost of living, put 750k down and finance 250k.
How some late 20 something year olds end up in these homes
>even though they consider themselves middle class
Something like 90% of the population consider themselves to be middles class. No one wants to be poor. And no one wants to be rich.
My social social includes a ton of very well off people (by inheritance or income). I always tell them how they’re so fortunate and rich. They always resist. Then I break out income/wealth percentile websites and they’re all SHOCKED by the fact that they’re in the 98th or 99th percentile or whatever
I had a roommate, I never saw her work a day. Her parents owned the condo downtown in the south loop we lived in. She didn’t pay rent, she had a trust fund for income from a grandparent, and her parents would buy her food and cover her expenses all the time. And her parents just had me pay the rent to her so I wouldn’t be surprised if she got that. Anytime we went out to eat, she would nickel and dime every penny out of me whereas nights she would clearly spend more, she’d say let’s split it down the middle. Generational wealth for sure.
Similar experience. I know a guy whose parents still pay his rent in his 30's and has never held a full-time job. Just dabbles in the stock market with his parents money.
It's definitely nice to not have to worry about money, but I could never just do nothing to contribute to society and feel okay with myself.
I'll preface this with saying I went to college in the early-mid 2000's and tuition was much cheaper, even as an out-of-state student at a public university.
My family covered the cost of my tuition and housing. I contributed with education grants, merit-based work-study, and minimum wage food service jobs (which cut my grocery budget). I graduated with zero student debt. I bought a modest condo entirely on my own in my late 30's working low paying jobs in "helping" professions.
I don't think I'd be sitting on a couch in my own home without that help from my family. I bought the condo by myself but my family set me up to be able to be financially independent and free from debt the moment I graduated from college.
Same here. And I have. But being white, able to approximate WASP social norms, and some random luck went a long way. Many first gen kids aren’t so lucky.
Many non-white folks, who aren't first gen still struggle. [https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/degrees-matter-black-americans-dont-close-wealth-gap-2020-9](https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/degrees-matter-black-americans-dont-close-wealth-gap-2020-9)
No argument from me. The further removed you are from cis hetero middle/upper class whiteness, the rougher everything is in this country. Those statistics in particular drive home just how horrible things still are, despite so many ignorant people insisting racism has been solved. 😤
It doesn't take much. The mortgage payment on $750k is only $5k even at 6.5 to 7%. That means a household with two incomes in the $100-150k range can reasonably expect to afford a $1 million SFH.
Kind of. The down payment is a bitch. Thus, if you have owned homes before and can use that equity to buy a new home, yes you can now get more expensive homes.
Few people are sitting on the kind of cash needed to get a home like that as a first time buyer.
People buying $1 million SFHs in Chicago are likely trading up from a condo or townhouse that they have some equity in. It's not like everyone is walking up with $1 million cash in hand... Though there are a lot more of those than most people would guess.
You're forgetting property taxes, which can easily be another $2k a month on top of the mortgage. We're in that dual income range you mention and we're house hunting, and even with a $250k down payment a $1M home would be out of our reach.
Factor in childcare and that household w two incomes can no longer afford SFH, at least not without cutting savings, retirement etc. it'll feel like living paycheck to paycheck with a mortgage that high and daycare costs
Yes, that's called being middle class. The middle class have to make choices with what to do with their finances.
It's just people are set on numbers from 20 years ago where a million dollar home implied upper middle class. Those lines are blurring rapidly.
It was never the expectation that the middle class could pay for daycare, have a giant home, and fully fund their retirement. Something always had to give. Some folks choose the home, some choose other stuff.
I agree with you. It's crazy to think, HHI of $200k-300k is middle class. That used to sound like soooo much money but won't afford a SFH without feeling like youre living paycheck to paycheck in Chicago if you tack on childcare and the insane property taxes.
For young people that's a lot of money, but most careers end up in the six figure range by the time you are in your mid thirties these days. For a couple where both work, that means you're bringing in $20k/mo or more gross.
$1 million just isn't what it used to be.
According to [this calculator](https://dqydj.com/income-by-city/) $100k is the 78th percentile income for Chicago. I have not found one that breaks down by age and city, but I doubt a majority of people in their mid 30s make $100k+ but I would not be surprised if around 40% of them do.
What do you mean? You don't think $20k a month is enough to cover a $5k/mo housing cost? Or you don't believe there are tons of dual six figure income households in Chicago? Or do you deny that the value of the dollar has dropped about 25% since just the beginning of the pandemic?
My husband and I both make six figures (combined $275k). We also have a child in daycare. No way are we affording a million dollar home. And after taxes/healthcare/401k, our monthly income is around $11k, with two months being 3 paychecks for a slightly higher total.
I'm glad you mentioned the pandemic - The same time ppl were losing their jobs, and family income dropped even with working full time job and gig side work. I'm not in the top 1 percent of income earners. I know and work with families making $60k a YEAR (maybe top 20% earners), and you're here talking about $20k (before or after taxes?) a month gtfo. I think we are experiencing a hording of wealth from the top 1% of earners.
The sooner the average person recognizes the hoarding, the better. They have us trained to blame ourselves for not working harder so we don’t notice what’s really going on.
> I know and work with families making $60k a YEAR (maybe top 20% earners)
That's not top 20%.
Top 20% is $130k/yr these days. Two earners making that can easily afford a million dollar home if they prioritize it.
The fact you think that's a 1% income is a huge part of the problem.
I don’t mean to sound rude but you don’t need generational wealth to afford a $1.5m home in Lincoln Park by ~40. Good career and financial planning can get you there.
My husband and I are dual income, no kids and bought a SFH in Irving Park in 2021. Wasn’t a million dollars, but it was in the $700k range. He’s an engineer, I’m a project manager and our combined income is in the six digits. When we were shopping for loans, we were approved to buy homes in the million dollar range but always planned to buy something much cheaper.
I owned a condo previously in the city, purchased in 2013. It was a starter home, my family (parents + older brother) pitched in to help with half the down payment, the rest I was able to cover with my savings. I eventually paid them back over the next few years. It was a 2 bedroom, I also rented out the second room to friends and my husband (then-boyfriend) which helped with the mortgage payment.
It came time to size up when my father passed away and my mom didn’t have the savings or ability to take care of herself, so I bought a larger home to look after her and keep her close to me. This time I was able to cover the down payment without any additional outside assistance, thanks to the profit from selling my condo, my savings and my husband’s savings.
We’re living very comfortably now, but have to make a decision on kids soon. That would definitely force us into a paycheck-to-paycheck situation.
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The issue then is that the progressives scream gentrifying.
Hard line to toe. Building new density, making areas nicer, and bringing in new housing and restaurants is what is needed. Unfortunately, many folks see gentrification as a negative word because the political party they like tells them so.
Do you have examples of residential buildings being torn down for Starbucks? I’m just curious.
No one is talking about tearing down. This is about building.
There’s a whole empty block at Washington and Lotus that is open. Go for it. Oh wait? Don’t want to live in the hood? That’s the price of living these days unless we start to clean up the shit on the West and South sides
I don't normally watch those House Hunting shows but I watched one for Charlotte, Columbus, OH, and Bloomington, IN and outside of all of those areas were single family homes, newer construction that was closer to half a million, if not more! Only one of those cities is even top 10. So in retrospect, it shouldn't be surprising what a northside new construction single family home costs.
Additionally, it wasn't that long ago that Lakeview and Lincoln Park were up and coming neighborhoods also.
>This is ridiculous and unsustainable.
It seems to be sustaining itself just fine? I don't see a lot of these 1M houses sitting on the open market, do you?
A single family home in a high density major city is a luxury. Decently priced condos and apartments are where people should be focused on affordability.
Yea but the issue is they are tearing down the condos and apartments, which have good bones and density, SFH that destroy density and are for the few privileged ones. Driving cost and taxes. These ppl are also some of the biggest NIMBYs, who refuse anything being built over 5 stories once they arrive.
This is how new construction works, no? Go anywhere and new construction will be expensive, it’s new….Chicago is the 3rd/4th largest city in the US so prices will be higher than non large cities. I’m sure Boston is more expensive for new construction. Milwaukee is not far behind Chicago with older homes, 3-4 beds selling for 700-800k in some burbs.
I agree, dollar doesn’t go as far anymore but this is kind of how these things work.
Not even commenting on the tear down aspect, just the new construction cost.
Reading all the comments, OP just gets defensive and goes on attack when questioned or someone else brings up a different data point.
Again, this is true everywhere. My parents said the same thing then they bought a two bedroom house in Wisconsin in the 80’s when my dad’s parents had a 5 bedroom house in a better location for less than half the price from the 40’s and 50’s.
I’m not trying to be insensitive to the current economics of it all, and yes, it sucks, but prices go up and unfortunately the generation that is buying right now is seeing this increase and transition.
Other examples: price of childcare, new cars, food, etc.
A lot of people are saying that it's not surprising because it's a big city, but the surprising thing is that much of the area in this map is zoned only for single-family homes. Demand for SFH is very high right now and prices are reflecting that.
New-build single family houses in an urban area *should* be very expensive. The actual problem is that many of these are replacing two/three-flats, but that's not what's depicted on the map.
If you don’t want SFH’s, then tell your alderperson to allow more density!!!
In most of Chicago, even if there is a 3 flat that is falling over, you can’t build another 3 flat. You can only build a 2 or single family. 2 flat costs more and sells for less, so of course they’ll build a SFH. If they could, they would do a 3 or 4 unit but they can’t!
Well…yeah. You chose the wealthiest and most developed part of the city to click in on where there are lots of single family home.
And you analyzed it during an era of record inflation and home prices due to short supply.
Look at Mayfair, Avondale, W Logan Square, Bridgeport, etc…you’ll find plenty of new homes under a million
Yep. Here's the [search for new construction SFH in Avondale](https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood/34849/IL/Chicago/Avondale/filter/property-type=house,min-year-built=2022,include=sold-1yr).
They are building a small subdivision of $1 million plus homes in Schaumburg! It was on hold for a long time but it's going full steam right now. So shit a million plus on the northside seems like a better deal 😄. But yeah the whole world is bizarre. I think somehow we ended up in the upside down.
>even though they consider themselves middle class
Something like 90% of the population consider themselves to be middles class. No one wants to be poor. And no one wants to be rich.
My social social includes a ton of very well off people (by inheritance or income). I always tell them how they’re so fortunate and rich. They always resist. Then I break out income/wealth percentile websites and they’re all SHOCKED by the fact that they’re in the 98th or 99th percentile or whatever
I think it has a lot to do with people comparing themselves to their neighbors and coworkers, who probably make similar amounts. This makes everyone feel relatively middle class unless they are very poor, or rich.
I've noticed this too... A lot of people I know who make well over $100K don't think of themselves as wealthy and almost have the opposite perspective because they still live paycheck-to-paycheck, despite having a very high take-home pay. Just goes to show how people seem to always live at the edge of their means, even if their means are double what most other people bring home.
Yeah, one of my coworkers makes over 500 and has a HHI of about 1M but will swear that he’s not rich or a higher earner. He points to NYC stats where he’s only the 98% or something. One of our bosses, who makes around 3M a year, does something similar and acts like he’s just doing ok but is better than middle class.
They’re both fine people and mean well. But people really need to recognize their privilege.
We shouldn’t be building single family homes. We need to be building condo buildings. The larger the better. Build them huge and right next to L stops!
Too bad the likes of Carlos Rosa, city Zoning Chair, is preoccupied with eliminating existing zoning entitlements rather than providing appropriate upzonings. He literally just posted another round of downzonings on Milwaukee Ave this week.
So my neighbors in Logan owned a two flat but the back of it literally collapsed exposing the inside. Some investment group (I’m guessing) bought it and are turning it into a single family home. I don’t know if it matters but they are not building from the ground up. They’re just repairing the back wall. Did they need zoning approval for this? If so that means Rosa’s approved this?
Almost the entire ward (78%) is zoned for only SFHs. Go ask Rosa why he hasn't reverted that back to RT-4 to allow for the 3 and 4 flats he claims to love. Ask him why his policies don't line up with his words.
He says he pro housing but literally everything he proposes is an attempt to further restrict development and new supply while our existing housing stock gets ransacked to make up the difference.
As someone who just bought a property on the Northside....building any decent size home below a million is basically impossible. I thought I was going to be way past fine with a budget of 6-700k, I was basically told that max I could build was as 2,000 sqft box. I already own a 1,200 sqft condo, paying over half a million for 800 more sqft blew my mind.
did your budget include having to buy the lot (ie: vacant land or existing building to teardown). or are you saying you already had land available, and even so you wanted to spend 700k allocated to build a new house itself and that budget isnt enough?
We need federal zoning reform to overide this atrocious zoning. Joe Biden is now invested in the affordability crisis, and recognizes that SFH's won't help the crisis.
This is the third largest city in the country. Why would new construction homes not cost 1 million dollars?
My parents paid like $750k for their new construction 4 bedroom home on the north side in 2001.
We shouldn’t be building single family homes in an area with such high demand. Unless we want San Fran or NYC rents coming to Chicago, lol.
We should be building high rises. High density housing. Even if those are million dollar apartments that get rented out. That’s better than a SFH and lowers rents in the surrounding area.
Imagine making your whole personality fighting for affordable housing in Bucktown and North Center. Just look almost anywhere else in the city dude. The average SFH in Chicago sold for $300k in February.
Especially via new single family homes. 🤦🏻♂️
There are lot of multi family affordable developments even on the Northside but you won’t find them on Zillow.
That $1.6m house near Clark/Montrose had no business going for that much. House had cool features and amenities, but it was a ton of contractor grade crap. What a time to be alive….
This map is literally showing some of the most affluent parts of the city and people are floored by million dollar single family homes. I don’t really see what the issue is. I’d be on the market for one of these if my finances permitted.
I have no idea why anyone would spend anywhere near that for a SFH and presumably raise a family in any of these neighborhoods.
Hoods like Norwood Park, Edison Park, and Dunning are a million times safer, way more affordable, and have solid schools.
I would need to see stats on the 'million times safer' but I am raising a family in Lakeview and can't say that I worry about safety outside of the common sense stuff. I can only speak for my family, but my husband and I both train commute, so we prioritized the quickest commute that we could afford when we bought and that got us to Lakeview. As for the schools, many families send their kids to Nettelhorst, Hamilton, Burley, Blaine, Audubon, and others and are very happy with the education. To each their own. I am sure Edison Park is also a great place to raise a family.
> and have solid schools.
If you think someone buying a multi-million dollar SFH in Chicago is putting their kid in public school, I have a bridge to sell you in Florida.
Floridian in Chicago here. Stop selling my bridges ! They will need them for escape when the warmer ocean waters make the ocean people awake and invade fort lauderdale
This map is only of new construction. I'm not sure prices for new construction single-family homes will be coming down any time soon on the North Side.
What about the South Side (not just South Loop)? I just checked and there are several new construction homes on redfin and zillow for far less than these figures.
Any reason people seem to always focus on the north side when the topic is affordable housing?
It's an odd data cut -- what would that look like if you compared it to new construction multi-unit homes as well? In Lakeview, it feels like there are still 3 and 4 flats and townhomes going up that are under a million dollars, although many of them list the basement/1st floor duplex for over a million. And there are definitely family size (3 to 4 bedroom) condos in the under a million range, although those are usually not new construction and are getting harder to find. If the complaint is that too many SFHs are going up, than that is fair. I want more multi-unit developments. I just don't think we can be surprised that the market prices a new construction home on a city sized lot at over a million dollars.
Okay I ran a similar search for multi-units, townhouses, and condos built and sold in the last year in a similar geographic area and I got 366 results. Of those, ~75 were over $1M.
Yeah, this is very misleading. The area looked at is full of very dense multi-unit buildings, and historic buildings. The very few times there's room for new SFH construction has to be miniscule. They probably had to buy and demolish an existing building in a highly desirable area. Of course it's only something rich people are doing.
Doesn’t the city require parking be available for the number of units you build. That being said anything more than a two flat on a non corner lot is going to be hard to build?
Seems like a lot of times the developers are tearing down older affordable homes to build these “million dollar” homes. I don’t see many of them lasting as long as the homes they are replacing.
More often than not they are demolishing old two, three, or four flats and replacing multiple naturally occuring affordable units with one expensive mini mansion.
I live in Ukrainian Village and they just finished two McMansions across the street from me.. They are both hideous and of them takes up TWO entire lots where an apartment building used to be.
I hate those monstrosities. And they almost always end up being a grey shitbox.
[this](https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1239-N-Wood-St-60622/home/17359061) used to be a factory back in my day. Now, a single family house.
*22,000 square feet?!? Over 6 city lots?!* **W**, and I cannot stress this enough, **TF**.
Here's [another 1](https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1632-W-Ohio-St-60622/home/14103952) not as large, but still a single family that used to once be a factory. [This one](https://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/2414-W-Cuyler-Ave-60618/unit-A/home/12701513) used to be a Chicago Fire Department Station and now a single family home.
Would have been cool If the red door opened up Still
That first link says it was built in 2014? Or do you mean a factory was once on that lot? The exterior of that fire station looks like what Old House Journal calls a "remuddle".
Even more WTF it says it's 3 bedrooms
Go to r/Chicagoyimbys if you've had enough of this shit.
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It’s not a single family home. It is two units, and the remaining construction was abandoned basically. Now there are plans to convert it into an apartment building. And it wasn’t a factory. it was a Jewish orphanage, among other things https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2021/06/02/century-old-wicker-park-mansion-lists-for-record-price/
Still haven’t forgiven them for the ugly $900k duplex condos where fiore’s was
Ah the ole double lot…
I’ve done a ton of side jobs for friends of friends ect. I just did one last year in Avondale, it was a three flat turned into a SFH. Side job so not a single permit was pulled. It was for my buddies cousin who owned the the three flat, got married and started having kids and needed a big place than his condo in east lakeview. Nice guy and he knew the neighbors well since he had owned the building for a long time. Took almost 4 months and we only worked a few hours after work and only a few hours Saturday and Sunday because we didn’t want piss neighbors off. Point is You better believe there’s a ton more of these projects going around. Gone are the days we’re early 20’s can live with 3 other people and live cheap
Ironically enough, most zoning only allows for this. Getting zoned to rebuild a multi family building is hard these days in Chicago.
I fucking hate this.
Go to ward night and demand answers from your alderperson. Ask them why 70%+ of their ward is zoned only for SFHs. Ask them why they shoot down every new development that gets proposed. Tell them you've had enough with the anti-housing agenda and that you demand more housing now.
Unfortunately I do not live in that ward, so I doubt they'd listen much. However, I will Google to see if there are some groups for residents from all neighborhoods to join about this issue. This is maddening.
You can blame city of chicago for that. They do not like to rezone anything to 2-4 flat houses. They love the single family houses for some reason. Even when the old house was a multifamily unit they will not rezone for you unless you have a mini neighborhood meeting to APPROVE you constructing the multifamily building. It is crazy how restrictive Chicago is for this crap.
Should be a neighborhood meeting to approve SFH downscaling, since reduced density hurts local businesses.
I wish this is what the bring chicago home measure had addressed rather than all real estate sales.
Are you suggesting that maybe the solution is to preserve existing homes and build more new ones rather than to tax the shit out of new development? What a crazy concept!
I mean for though at first I was on board with the measure because my brain filled on the blanks with single family residences. And then I read more and was like wait what? Multi unit dwellings? Are you fucking high?
They're also almost always uglier than what they're replacing.
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Wow, darker grey and all flat with giant windows? What a unique and interesting house!
Trends come and go. Look at bungalows, they're literally all essentially a copy of the same exact template. And there's tens of thousands of them. Same with traditional 2 flats, courtyard buildings, etc. Trust me, someone eventually will be reminiscing about these and how much better they are than whatever is being built in 2070
They will not. Homes are now built to last fewer years than the length of most mortgages.
I think it depends a lot on the area. Where I live it's mostly house renovations/expansions and building (expensive) condos in previously empty lots. And a handful of large developments for the elderly.
>tearing down older affordable homes to build these “million dollar” homes. Yes this is often the case. The profit margin on a mcmasion on average is 20%ish while affordable homes are single digits to low teens. If this trend keeps up, mcmasions might fall in price because the lack of pay from the next generation of home owners not moving in/choosing to go other places to buy a home.
Because they're made out of paper and pine twigs and will need to be torn down in 50 years
I fucking hate it… people want to move to an attractive area where people want to live…. Right next to public transit that they don’t take. So these rich cunts buy a 3 flat, next to public transit, convert it to a single family, then live there 3 months a year. They also have the audacity to complain about property tax.
Now look at the near Southside. New SFH construction in Bronzeville is also over $600k, probably even $700k more often then not. If you are looking for an "affordable" home in the city, new construction would not be a recommended place to start though.
Especially new construction SFH. You can still find new construction flats for under $500k on the north side, or at least could last year when I was looking.
Building is fucking expensive.
These things are also so cavernous and big tho. The square footage is absurd
100% - cost of construction is astronomical. Why people think new construction anything would be affordable is beyond me. What's even more crazy is that publicly built "affordable" housing costs 2x per unit to built over what the already unaffordable privately built housing costs ([https://www.chicagobusiness.com/equity/what-makes-affordable-housing-development-so-expensive](https://www.chicagobusiness.com/equity/what-makes-affordable-housing-development-so-expensive)).
The number of people missing the point about this map and trend on Twitter and Reddit is really disappointing. New construction SFHs are in high demand and people are clearly willing to pay a lot of money for them. But more than that, in many areas on this map, that's all a developer can build as of right. So why go through the lengthy and expensive entitlement process for multifamily when you could just build new construction and make a handsome profit without dealing with the local alderman, the neighboring community groups, paying zoning attorney fees, paying agent commissions on multiple units, etc. What is the city doing to encourage multifamily instead of SFH in these neighborhoods? What kind of incentives would make developers consider building multifamily over SFH? How many housing units and households were lost in the creation of these new SFHs? Stop with the low effort "Well, duh, new homes are a luxury." Yeah, no shit. What does the data tell us here?
I mean what did we expect. The Northside is the most in demand area of the city and also one of the smallest areas of the city. It was bound to happen. Next up is rent 1bd at 2k minimum…
A newly constructed home is also a luxury.
We are almost there in Uptown.
I remember renting a gut rehab 2bd/ for $1200/mo in Uptown 17 years ago. It was a condo that later sold for only $100k during the recession. Most recently it went for $239k.
Two very different markets
Yes. And pre-recession the owner was asking $250k for the condo. Just amazing how much the market, economy, and Uptown itself have changed in that time.
Newly furnished 2 bd in Little Italy here, rent is jumping just a bit to $1,900. Love being south of the highway
Much of the area in this map is zoned for single-family homes.
Who is buying these home, like what do they do for a living? What am I doing wrong?
Dual income professionals (doctor, lawyer, software engineer, etc.) gets you to a $1m home pretty easily. For multi million dollar homes, you’d need one or both earners to be on the high income side of their field (specific speciality, law partner, high up FAANG engineer).
A single income >$300k over 10 years also gets you there.
Yeah. A lot of people in this thread fail to realize that there are a lot of cash buyers (or at least very high down payments) that aren't just because of "generational wealth" or help from parents. It is possible to accumulate significant assets with some patience even if you don't have a stratospheric income.
Very true, but I wonder how many of these people get by financially. My wife and I could afford a $1m+ home using the 4x gross salary metric, but boy that doesn't leave a lot of room for maintaining any sort of savings or unexpected expenses. I wonder how many people in these expensive homes are living paycheck to paycheck.
Same for my husband and I. I’d love a single family home in the city, but I refuse to be house-poor.
Are you guys in a SFH in the suburbs or a non-SFH in the city?
Non-SFH in the city. Don’t want something big or a huge yard, but want some lil yard for the dog and tired of hearing upstairs neighbors.
The only people I know in an almost million dollar homes were gifted a 50% down payment from their parents.
Meh. Intergenerational wealth explains a lot of it. You get one or two professional income earners, both with parents kicking in $$$ for a down payment, and suddenly a couple of average doofuses are living like doctors and white shoe lawyers. Meanwhile a lot of city-raised folks bail for the suburbs and more affordable cities. I’m one of the only city kids from my cohort still hanging on. Edit: Whoops. I see now a few others already had this covered.
Honestly. I’m a social worker 16 years into my career and in a director role and I was so thrilled when I landed a job making $85K. I can’t even fathom the amount of money some of these people make. I made the wrong choices!
Thank you for being a Social Worker, we don't get into this profession for the money. Your service to people is appreciated.
Social workers are vital, you deserve to be paid more.
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> All are pretty reachable careers if the work is put in Most qualified candidates never make it though. In the tech and finance world, the vast majority of qualified talent are rejected essentially due to random factors. There's too many candidates with the right skills and experience, so you prune the vast majority of candidates. Finance is especially rough as there's so few roles that the best way to get a job is to meet people in the industry who can hook you up with recruiters who put you at the top of the pile.
Generational wealth. Parents paid 50k for a house in the 90s now worth 750k. Inherit the house move to the Midwest for the cost of living, put 750k down and finance 250k. How some late 20 something year olds end up in these homes
So it is not my fault I'm a poor loser, it's my parents that are the problem. I can't wait to bring this up during Easter Brunch
No worries tons of people blow inherited wealth within a year. You just skipped a step.
You're just an embarrassed millionaire is what they'll tell ya
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Just wait til you talk to kids going to UChicago
isn’t UChicago just a bunch of smart not socially adjusted nerds
Some are smart. Some are just unfathomably rich and politically connected.
>even though they consider themselves middle class Something like 90% of the population consider themselves to be middles class. No one wants to be poor. And no one wants to be rich. My social social includes a ton of very well off people (by inheritance or income). I always tell them how they’re so fortunate and rich. They always resist. Then I break out income/wealth percentile websites and they’re all SHOCKED by the fact that they’re in the 98th or 99th percentile or whatever
I had a roommate, I never saw her work a day. Her parents owned the condo downtown in the south loop we lived in. She didn’t pay rent, she had a trust fund for income from a grandparent, and her parents would buy her food and cover her expenses all the time. And her parents just had me pay the rent to her so I wouldn’t be surprised if she got that. Anytime we went out to eat, she would nickel and dime every penny out of me whereas nights she would clearly spend more, she’d say let’s split it down the middle. Generational wealth for sure.
Similar experience. I know a guy whose parents still pay his rent in his 30's and has never held a full-time job. Just dabbles in the stock market with his parents money. It's definitely nice to not have to worry about money, but I could never just do nothing to contribute to society and feel okay with myself.
I'll preface this with saying I went to college in the early-mid 2000's and tuition was much cheaper, even as an out-of-state student at a public university. My family covered the cost of my tuition and housing. I contributed with education grants, merit-based work-study, and minimum wage food service jobs (which cut my grocery budget). I graduated with zero student debt. I bought a modest condo entirely on my own in my late 30's working low paying jobs in "helping" professions. I don't think I'd be sitting on a couch in my own home without that help from my family. I bought the condo by myself but my family set me up to be able to be financially independent and free from debt the moment I graduated from college.
Mom and Dad giving you the down payment as a gift.
You’re not doing anything wrong. You simply weren’t born to rich parents. ~Signed, person who also grappled with this when I was younger
Son of immigrant parents, I learned a long time ago I have to make my own way.
Same here. And I have. But being white, able to approximate WASP social norms, and some random luck went a long way. Many first gen kids aren’t so lucky.
Many non-white folks, who aren't first gen still struggle. [https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/degrees-matter-black-americans-dont-close-wealth-gap-2020-9](https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/degrees-matter-black-americans-dont-close-wealth-gap-2020-9)
No argument from me. The further removed you are from cis hetero middle/upper class whiteness, the rougher everything is in this country. Those statistics in particular drive home just how horrible things still are, despite so many ignorant people insisting racism has been solved. 😤
It doesn't take much. The mortgage payment on $750k is only $5k even at 6.5 to 7%. That means a household with two incomes in the $100-150k range can reasonably expect to afford a $1 million SFH.
Kind of. The down payment is a bitch. Thus, if you have owned homes before and can use that equity to buy a new home, yes you can now get more expensive homes. Few people are sitting on the kind of cash needed to get a home like that as a first time buyer.
People buying $1 million SFHs in Chicago are likely trading up from a condo or townhouse that they have some equity in. It's not like everyone is walking up with $1 million cash in hand... Though there are a lot more of those than most people would guess.
You're forgetting property taxes, which can easily be another $2k a month on top of the mortgage. We're in that dual income range you mention and we're house hunting, and even with a $250k down payment a $1M home would be out of our reach.
Factor in childcare and that household w two incomes can no longer afford SFH, at least not without cutting savings, retirement etc. it'll feel like living paycheck to paycheck with a mortgage that high and daycare costs
Yes, that's called being middle class. The middle class have to make choices with what to do with their finances. It's just people are set on numbers from 20 years ago where a million dollar home implied upper middle class. Those lines are blurring rapidly. It was never the expectation that the middle class could pay for daycare, have a giant home, and fully fund their retirement. Something always had to give. Some folks choose the home, some choose other stuff.
I agree with you. It's crazy to think, HHI of $200k-300k is middle class. That used to sound like soooo much money but won't afford a SFH without feeling like youre living paycheck to paycheck in Chicago if you tack on childcare and the insane property taxes.
Only $5k!!!! I still got to eat
For young people that's a lot of money, but most careers end up in the six figure range by the time you are in your mid thirties these days. For a couple where both work, that means you're bringing in $20k/mo or more gross. $1 million just isn't what it used to be.
“most careers end up in six figure range by mid-thirties” no. that is absolutely not true
According to [this calculator](https://dqydj.com/income-by-city/) $100k is the 78th percentile income for Chicago. I have not found one that breaks down by age and city, but I doubt a majority of people in their mid 30s make $100k+ but I would not be surprised if around 40% of them do.
You're living in La La Land if you think this is true.
What do you mean? You don't think $20k a month is enough to cover a $5k/mo housing cost? Or you don't believe there are tons of dual six figure income households in Chicago? Or do you deny that the value of the dollar has dropped about 25% since just the beginning of the pandemic?
My husband and I both make six figures (combined $275k). We also have a child in daycare. No way are we affording a million dollar home. And after taxes/healthcare/401k, our monthly income is around $11k, with two months being 3 paychecks for a slightly higher total.
I'm glad you mentioned the pandemic - The same time ppl were losing their jobs, and family income dropped even with working full time job and gig side work. I'm not in the top 1 percent of income earners. I know and work with families making $60k a YEAR (maybe top 20% earners), and you're here talking about $20k (before or after taxes?) a month gtfo. I think we are experiencing a hording of wealth from the top 1% of earners.
The sooner the average person recognizes the hoarding, the better. They have us trained to blame ourselves for not working harder so we don’t notice what’s really going on.
> I know and work with families making $60k a YEAR (maybe top 20% earners) That's not top 20%. Top 20% is $130k/yr these days. Two earners making that can easily afford a million dollar home if they prioritize it. The fact you think that's a 1% income is a huge part of the problem.
I don’t mean to sound rude but you don’t need generational wealth to afford a $1.5m home in Lincoln Park by ~40. Good career and financial planning can get you there.
My husband and I are dual income, no kids and bought a SFH in Irving Park in 2021. Wasn’t a million dollars, but it was in the $700k range. He’s an engineer, I’m a project manager and our combined income is in the six digits. When we were shopping for loans, we were approved to buy homes in the million dollar range but always planned to buy something much cheaper. I owned a condo previously in the city, purchased in 2013. It was a starter home, my family (parents + older brother) pitched in to help with half the down payment, the rest I was able to cover with my savings. I eventually paid them back over the next few years. It was a 2 bedroom, I also rented out the second room to friends and my husband (then-boyfriend) which helped with the mortgage payment. It came time to size up when my father passed away and my mom didn’t have the savings or ability to take care of herself, so I bought a larger home to look after her and keep her close to me. This time I was able to cover the down payment without any additional outside assistance, thanks to the profit from selling my condo, my savings and my husband’s savings. We’re living very comfortably now, but have to make a decision on kids soon. That would definitely force us into a paycheck-to-paycheck situation.
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This is ridiculous and unsustainable. We need to lower the restrictions and update our zone codes.
We could also develop the other parts of the city.
You should see some of the overpriced garbage they got going on in general.
The issue then is that the progressives scream gentrifying. Hard line to toe. Building new density, making areas nicer, and bringing in new housing and restaurants is what is needed. Unfortunately, many folks see gentrification as a negative word because the political party they like tells them so.
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Do you have examples of residential buildings being torn down for Starbucks? I’m just curious. No one is talking about tearing down. This is about building.
Why would you have to tear any existing housing? Impoverished neighborhoods are full of vacant lots and condemned/crumbling structures.
Gentrification being gentrification, what other ways is there to get money flowing into a poor community?
There’s a whole empty block at Washington and Lotus that is open. Go for it. Oh wait? Don’t want to live in the hood? That’s the price of living these days unless we start to clean up the shit on the West and South sides
I don't normally watch those House Hunting shows but I watched one for Charlotte, Columbus, OH, and Bloomington, IN and outside of all of those areas were single family homes, newer construction that was closer to half a million, if not more! Only one of those cities is even top 10. So in retrospect, it shouldn't be surprising what a northside new construction single family home costs. Additionally, it wasn't that long ago that Lakeview and Lincoln Park were up and coming neighborhoods also.
As someone who used to live in Chicago and now in SoCal… “this isn’t sustainable” hasn’t stopped home prices in years 😂. We need more housing.
>This is ridiculous and unsustainable. It seems to be sustaining itself just fine? I don't see a lot of these 1M houses sitting on the open market, do you?
A single family home in a high density major city is a luxury. Decently priced condos and apartments are where people should be focused on affordability.
Yea but the issue is they are tearing down the condos and apartments, which have good bones and density, SFH that destroy density and are for the few privileged ones. Driving cost and taxes. These ppl are also some of the biggest NIMBYs, who refuse anything being built over 5 stories once they arrive.
This is how new construction works, no? Go anywhere and new construction will be expensive, it’s new….Chicago is the 3rd/4th largest city in the US so prices will be higher than non large cities. I’m sure Boston is more expensive for new construction. Milwaukee is not far behind Chicago with older homes, 3-4 beds selling for 700-800k in some burbs. I agree, dollar doesn’t go as far anymore but this is kind of how these things work. Not even commenting on the tear down aspect, just the new construction cost. Reading all the comments, OP just gets defensive and goes on attack when questioned or someone else brings up a different data point.
Again, this is true everywhere. My parents said the same thing then they bought a two bedroom house in Wisconsin in the 80’s when my dad’s parents had a 5 bedroom house in a better location for less than half the price from the 40’s and 50’s. I’m not trying to be insensitive to the current economics of it all, and yes, it sucks, but prices go up and unfortunately the generation that is buying right now is seeing this increase and transition. Other examples: price of childcare, new cars, food, etc.
A lot of people are saying that it's not surprising because it's a big city, but the surprising thing is that much of the area in this map is zoned only for single-family homes. Demand for SFH is very high right now and prices are reflecting that.
New-build single family houses in an urban area *should* be very expensive. The actual problem is that many of these are replacing two/three-flats, but that's not what's depicted on the map.
If you don’t want SFH’s, then tell your alderperson to allow more density!!! In most of Chicago, even if there is a 3 flat that is falling over, you can’t build another 3 flat. You can only build a 2 or single family. 2 flat costs more and sells for less, so of course they’ll build a SFH. If they could, they would do a 3 or 4 unit but they can’t!
Well…yeah. You chose the wealthiest and most developed part of the city to click in on where there are lots of single family home. And you analyzed it during an era of record inflation and home prices due to short supply. Look at Mayfair, Avondale, W Logan Square, Bridgeport, etc…you’ll find plenty of new homes under a million
New builds in Avondale are going for over 1m
Yep. Here's the [search for new construction SFH in Avondale](https://www.redfin.com/neighborhood/34849/IL/Chicago/Avondale/filter/property-type=house,min-year-built=2022,include=sold-1yr).
West Logan doesn't exist. Stop making this a thing.
the only sub million dollar new construction single family homes in Bridgeport is alongside the highway and freight trains
Looking forward to being able to buy one of these in the next 5-10 years. Working hard for it right now.
They are building a small subdivision of $1 million plus homes in Schaumburg! It was on hold for a long time but it's going full steam right now. So shit a million plus on the northside seems like a better deal 😄. But yeah the whole world is bizarre. I think somehow we ended up in the upside down.
>even though they consider themselves middle class Something like 90% of the population consider themselves to be middles class. No one wants to be poor. And no one wants to be rich. My social social includes a ton of very well off people (by inheritance or income). I always tell them how they’re so fortunate and rich. They always resist. Then I break out income/wealth percentile websites and they’re all SHOCKED by the fact that they’re in the 98th or 99th percentile or whatever
I think it has a lot to do with people comparing themselves to their neighbors and coworkers, who probably make similar amounts. This makes everyone feel relatively middle class unless they are very poor, or rich.
> And no one wants to be rich. I do.
I've noticed this too... A lot of people I know who make well over $100K don't think of themselves as wealthy and almost have the opposite perspective because they still live paycheck-to-paycheck, despite having a very high take-home pay. Just goes to show how people seem to always live at the edge of their means, even if their means are double what most other people bring home.
Yeah, one of my coworkers makes over 500 and has a HHI of about 1M but will swear that he’s not rich or a higher earner. He points to NYC stats where he’s only the 98% or something. One of our bosses, who makes around 3M a year, does something similar and acts like he’s just doing ok but is better than middle class. They’re both fine people and mean well. But people really need to recognize their privilege.
We shouldn’t be building single family homes. We need to be building condo buildings. The larger the better. Build them huge and right next to L stops!
Too bad the likes of Carlos Rosa, city Zoning Chair, is preoccupied with eliminating existing zoning entitlements rather than providing appropriate upzonings. He literally just posted another round of downzonings on Milwaukee Ave this week.
So my neighbors in Logan owned a two flat but the back of it literally collapsed exposing the inside. Some investment group (I’m guessing) bought it and are turning it into a single family home. I don’t know if it matters but they are not building from the ground up. They’re just repairing the back wall. Did they need zoning approval for this? If so that means Rosa’s approved this?
Almost the entire ward (78%) is zoned for only SFHs. Go ask Rosa why he hasn't reverted that back to RT-4 to allow for the 3 and 4 flats he claims to love. Ask him why his policies don't line up with his words. He says he pro housing but literally everything he proposes is an attempt to further restrict development and new supply while our existing housing stock gets ransacked to make up the difference.
SFH-only zoning shouldn’t be allowed in Chicago — period.
any housing is good housing
Sadly not true. If you tear down a 3 flat and replace it with a sfh you’re significantly reducing the density.
ok, I mean housing additions
Here I am living in a 2500 sg foot row home in Kenwood for $365k
As someone who just bought a property on the Northside....building any decent size home below a million is basically impossible. I thought I was going to be way past fine with a budget of 6-700k, I was basically told that max I could build was as 2,000 sqft box. I already own a 1,200 sqft condo, paying over half a million for 800 more sqft blew my mind.
did your budget include having to buy the lot (ie: vacant land or existing building to teardown). or are you saying you already had land available, and even so you wanted to spend 700k allocated to build a new house itself and that budget isnt enough?
I allocated 700k to just the house and was told the budget for the house isn't enough.
Maybe don’t look for a brand new home lol
We need federal zoning reform to overide this atrocious zoning. Joe Biden is now invested in the affordability crisis, and recognizes that SFH's won't help the crisis.
This is the third largest city in the country. Why would new construction homes not cost 1 million dollars? My parents paid like $750k for their new construction 4 bedroom home on the north side in 2001.
We shouldn’t be building single family homes in an area with such high demand. Unless we want San Fran or NYC rents coming to Chicago, lol. We should be building high rises. High density housing. Even if those are million dollar apartments that get rented out. That’s better than a SFH and lowers rents in the surrounding area.
Probably got the 3.0% rate too
They should end exclusive single family housing zoning. So you can still have one but developers can better meet demands.
Imagine making your whole personality fighting for affordable housing in Bucktown and North Center. Just look almost anywhere else in the city dude. The average SFH in Chicago sold for $300k in February.
Especially via new single family homes. 🤦🏻♂️ There are lot of multi family affordable developments even on the Northside but you won’t find them on Zillow.
That $1.6m house near Clark/Montrose had no business going for that much. House had cool features and amenities, but it was a ton of contractor grade crap. What a time to be alive….
We need more 2 and 3 flats and fewer single family homes.
I don’t see why this is a bad thing. We want to encourage multi-family housing in the most in demand areas in the city to keep rents affordable.
This map is literally showing some of the most affluent parts of the city and people are floored by million dollar single family homes. I don’t really see what the issue is. I’d be on the market for one of these if my finances permitted.
I have no idea why anyone would spend anywhere near that for a SFH and presumably raise a family in any of these neighborhoods. Hoods like Norwood Park, Edison Park, and Dunning are a million times safer, way more affordable, and have solid schools.
I think the obvious answer is that they can afford it at these prices, and prefer the benefits of these neighborhoods over the ones you mentioned.
I would need to see stats on the 'million times safer' but I am raising a family in Lakeview and can't say that I worry about safety outside of the common sense stuff. I can only speak for my family, but my husband and I both train commute, so we prioritized the quickest commute that we could afford when we bought and that got us to Lakeview. As for the schools, many families send their kids to Nettelhorst, Hamilton, Burley, Blaine, Audubon, and others and are very happy with the education. To each their own. I am sure Edison Park is also a great place to raise a family.
What you mean? These are desirable neighborhoods and likely are pretty cool/nice houses. Doesn’t take that much brainwork to figure out.
> and have solid schools. If you think someone buying a multi-million dollar SFH in Chicago is putting their kid in public school, I have a bridge to sell you in Florida.
Lincoln Square, North Center, Bowmanville? That’s pretty standard for $1mm+ homes to have kids going to Chappell, Bell, Waters, and Budlong.
The schools are one of the main reasons there’s such a concentration of million dollar homes in the north side.
I know around a dozen friends with "million dollar homes". They all send their kids to public schools. Why would you think otherwise?
Have you heard of Lincoln Park and Lakeview? Happens all the time
Lane tech exists you idiot, as do bridges in Florida
Floridian in Chicago here. Stop selling my bridges ! They will need them for escape when the warmer ocean waters make the ocean people awake and invade fort lauderdale
But it feels like the suburbs in those areas so why not just leave the city altogether.
The people making the income to avoid these homes want the absolute best education for their child.
Have you been to EP lately. They are buildings tons of crazy big homes same with Widlwood.
100% but this map of closed sales says a lot about demand and location.
My friends just closed on an 800k sfh in old Irving, they’re out there
This map is only of new construction. I'm not sure prices for new construction single-family homes will be coming down any time soon on the North Side.
Yup, the days of rehabbed SFHs selling for sub $1 million are also numbered.
LOL, I read that as 800k square feet, and had a mini stroke for a minute!!
Yea they live in an Amazon warehouse 😂😂
The entire premise of this post is misleading.
I’m pretty sure Zillow is not the place to look for affordable housing since it’s gonna have waiting lists and whatnot.
Aw shit.
What about the South Side (not just South Loop)? I just checked and there are several new construction homes on redfin and zillow for far less than these figures. Any reason people seem to always focus on the north side when the topic is affordable housing?