News regarding Chicago's housing market can be a mixed bag at times. While the median price of Chicago homes grew at a rate below the national average in 2015, that's not to say that all aspects of the market are unhealthy. A good case in point would be Chicago's new home construction which has grown steadily over the past several years. At the start of 2012, 809 newly built homes were listed for sale in the city. By June of 2015 that number had grown to 2,294 listings and continues to trend upwards. Keeping tabs on this data is NewConstruction-Chicago.com, a site that recently launched a cool interactive map. Created by compiling closing data from the Multiple Listing Service in 2015, the map shows the highest concentration of sold newly-constructed homes on the city's North Side.
The neighborhoods just north and northwest of downtown such as Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, Wicker Park, and Ukrainian Village are seeing tremendous growth when it comes to building new homes. The high-end segment did especially well with 180 new Chicago homes selling for more than $1,000,000 in 2015. While new construction is typically positive for most neighborhoods, it can also have the consequence of reducing housing stock and population as multi-unit buildings and even multiple adjacent lots are often swallowed up and replaced by single family homes -- as seen most notably in Lincoln Park. As a result, neighborhoods like Logan Square and Avondale are seeing notable progress in the sub-$1,000,000 segment as upper-middle class residents are looking further northwest to build after finding less value in some of the more tony northside neighborhoods. Compared to their neighbors to the north, downtown and the areas south and southwest of the Loop showed relatively little new home activity in 2015. With new condo projects in the pipeline, 2016 and 2017 should see an uptick in new home sales closer to downtown.
·New Construction Market 2015 [NewConstruction-Chicago.com]
·Report: Chicago Saw Nation's Lowest Home Price Growth [Curbed Chicago]
·Who would have guessed that Lincoln Park was seeing population loss? [Crain's]
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