Last week I wrote about all the new construction in Chicago’s East Village. The other interesting thing I noticed about my new neighborhood when we were doing our search was that the prices in East Village really haven’t fallen that much over the last few years. A lot of home buyers will look at the Case Shiller home price index for Chicago and note that since the bubble peak the average area home has lost close to 36% of its value. So then they expect that every home in every part of the city has lost 36%. But it just doesn’t work that way. You know…it’s all about location, location, location.
If we take a look at the higher end single family home transactions over the last 12 months and compare the most recent sale price to the previous sale price (where the information is available) it becomes clear that the price drops in East Village have been much lower than 36%. The data displayed in the table below gives you a pretty good feel for the fact that prices are down maybe 15 – 20% since the bubble peak and are actually higher than they were in 2004 – which is a lot more than you can say for many parts of Chicago.
I attribute this price strength to the fact that the area is clearly improving, with new and more expensive homes being built – not to mention that until now it has been more affordable than the usual desirable areas of the city and it’s fairly close to downtown, the Kennedy, and a variety of public transportation options.