Last week, when I posted my ultimate guide to new construction homes in Chicago, I remarked on how unusual I thought it was that Uptown came in only 3rd, behind Lincoln Park and Lake View, in a ranking of the price of new single family homes. So I dug into the details a bit further and realized that this was really more of a Ravenswood phenomenon than merely an Uptown phenomenon.
The Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago spans two different community areas – Uptown on the small eastern edge, past the railroad track, and Lincoln Square west of the railroad track. All those expensive Uptown new single family homes are in the Ravenswood neighborhood as are numerous Lincoln Square new construction homes.
Over the last 12 months these new homes have ranged in list prices from just over $1 MM to $2.1 MM, and this is in a neighborhood where the median household income is in the range of $61,000 – 69,000. At least those were the median household incomes a few years ago. With people buying all these expensive homes it’s possible that the median income is rising there.
Now, I think Ravenswood is an extremely nice neighborhood but I was surprised that people would be buying such expensive homes that far north when there are much closer alternatives at a lower price. For instance, take a look at East Village where I live and the new construction homes are around $800K to $1.2 MM (BTW, median income here is similar to Ravenswood). It’s evening rush hour right now so I did a Google Maps test to see how long it would take to get to Erie and Wood from State and Madison right now: 16 minutes by car and 26 minutes by public transportation. By comparison, to get to Leavitt and Lawrence would take 30 minutes by car and 44 minutes by public transportation.
Of course, I think people are going to Ravenswood for the larger lots and homes than what you would typically find in East Village but not all of the Ravenswood homes are bigger and it’s not clear that the values are any different than East Village. For instance, it appears that land values are similar, though it’s hard to quantify that, given the huge dispersion in prices of teardowns and vacant lots.
If you would like to take a closer look at these homes you can check out my Chicago new construction map and zoom in on Ravenswood. That link takes you to an interactive map where you can click on each marker for more information about a particular house, whereas the picture below is static. All the new construction single family homes are between Ashland and just a little west of Western and between Montrose and Foster.
I’ve also included a slideshow below of one of the more expensive new homes in Ravenswood at 2168 W Windsor Ave, which sold for $2,042,408. With 5100 sq ft of space it sits on a lot and a half – 37.5 x 124 – and it has 6 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 2 half baths, a 3 car garage, and 2 fireplaces. The photos below feature finishes that are quite similar to what you would find in East Village but this house is bigger than the larger ones in East Village that register about 4300 sq ft on a standard sized lot. But then again those only cost around $1.2 MM.
#NewConstruction #ChicagoRealEstate
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