Lakeview Housing Market Immune to Chicago Woes?

While the housing market is hurting in most parts of Chicago, Lakeview mysteriously remains somewhat immune. Not too long ago Crain’s ran an article which showed data calculated by Fiserv Lending Solutions which calculated the Case-Shiller index down to the zip code level for 76 different zip codes in the Chicago area where they had enough data. Their analysis showed that home prices had declined last year in all of those zip codes except for 6 and Lakeview (essentially 60657) was one of them. In fact, the Fiserv analysis shows Lakeview home prices actually increasing by 4.6 – 6.0%. And this is not the flimsy median price analysis that I often complain about when I see it in the Chicago Tribune. It’s a far more accurate analysis based upon sequential sales of the same homes over time.

This seems to be consistent with a recent analysis of Lakeview condo prices I did myself as part of a listing presentation for the same zip code:

The data shows that the months supply of inventory (for 2-3 bedroom and 2+ bathroom condos) for Lakeview is actually slightly better than it was a year ago. The only signs of strain are in the number of days on the market for condos that go under contract, which is trending upward.

Frankly, I’m baffled by this. With the huge and growing condo glut in the city and all other zip codes experiencing deterioration how long can Lakeview remain isolated? I lived there myself for a while and it’s a great community but doesn’t Lakeview real estate compete with surrounding communities that are offering better and better deals all the time?

For more current data on the Lakeview real estate market visit our Lakeview community profile page.