It's no surprise to Chicagoans that the city's housing market has been bouncing back since the deep freeze of the recession years. Home sales have been on the rise, and in many popular neighborhoods, houses don't stay on the market for very long. In fact, Chicago's housing market has so much going for it right now that real estate brokerage and search site Redfin has named the Ukrainian Village as the hottest neighborhood in the country for 2016. So, what does this actually mean? According to Redfin, on a national level, home buyers have become exhausted by the prices seen in cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to Redfin, Chicago offers many of the same benefits these cities offer — public transportation, thriving independent business corridors, a strong sense of community —but Chicago has one very important leg up: affordability.
Redfin says that buyers are looking to buy in neighborhoods that have a unique character and an inventory of houses that are in their price range. And Ukrainian Village is a neighborhood that many buyers are looking at right now. It's a diverse neighborhood that features an equally diverse mix of architectural styles, and houses that list in the neighborhood are generally scooped up within a few weeks. According to listing information, the median sale price for a house in the Ukrainian Village is $472,000 — a very reasonable and attractive number for future homeowners. And while it is located very close to several other hot, quickly-gentrifying neighborhoods, Ukrainian Village has a quiet, residential feel to it.
As for the rest of the city, Redfin predicts that the West Loop and East Village will be the second and third hottest neighborhoods for home sales this year. This shouldn't be a shocker to those who have been keeping up with recent real estate trends. The West Loop has a 100% sale-to-list average, and homes only stay on the market for a median of 11 days. Construction sites can be spotted throughout the West Loop, as new hotels, offices, and apartments are being built in the neighborhood. In addition, the West Loop is home to Chicago's premier food and beverage strip, Restaurant Row. But of the top three hottest neighborhoods for Chicago, East Village has the highest median sale price of $482,200. And like the others, sellers have a very, very high chance of selling their house.
While there are many reports on the housing market, Redfin's annual top neighborhoods report tends to get more right than wrong. Last year, it picked Andersonville as the hottest neighborhood for Chicago and seventh for the nation. For 2014, the brokerage predicted that Humboldt Park home sales would be strong, and before that in 2013, Redfin declared Logan Square as the hottest neighborhood for Chicago.
·Redfin Predicts the Hottest Neighborhoods of 2016 [Redfin]
·Previous Redfin coverage [Curbed Chicago]
·Market Report archives [Curbed Chicago]
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