Good news for those that bought a home in Chicago’s Lincoln Park during the height of the last housing bubble: your home may finally be worth what you paid. That’s according to a new study from Corelogic Inc., which showed home prices in the Chicago neighborhood are now just 2.5% off their peaks from 2007.
Crain’s Chicago Business took an in-depth look at the state of the Chicago housing market in general and home prices in Lincoln Park in particular, which can be accessed here. There are a few takeaways from the article that are relevant to our purposes.
In addition to home prices in Lincoln Park, the neighborhoods of Bucktown, Lakeview and the Near North Side are also nearing their 2007 peaks home prices As one agent told Crain’s Chicago Business: “They’re the solid-gold neighborhoods. They have some chic-ness and people gravitate to them.”
CoreLogic also reported that for the first time in seven years, all 235 Chicagoland area codes saw home price increases in 2013. With that said, however, the pace of the recovery remains uneven in the Chicago-area. Home prices in neighborhoods like Marquette Park, Cicero, Archer Heights and Gage Park all remain at least 50% below their peaks.
The reason for that, according to most experts, is there remains a big supply of distressed homes in those neighborhoods. Investors are continuing to only look for bargains and are unwilling to bid the prices back up to their old peak.
For Lincoln Park, however, things are vastly different. Crain’s Business Journal called it a “feeding frenzy” that has resulted in bidding wars being the norm and properties going for well over the asking price.