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Chicago Distinctives

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Several factors combine to make Chicago a unique real estate market. For one thing, there is more owner-occupied housing in Chicago than in any other metropolitan area in the United States. Gentrification and beautification of urban neighborhoods have spread like wildfire since the '90s, and the North Side and West Loop especially have seen a huge trend of converting rental properties into condominiums. New buildings also add to the fun: downtown Chicago as a whole saw the creation of 36,999 new residential units between 1990 and 2003. Dozens of neighborhoods experienced 8-12% appreciation annually in the late '90s and early 2000s. Projections are good for continued growth within the city limits, as well as in "Chicagoland”’s ever-burgeoning suburbs.

Chicago's well-developed public transportation network is another distinctive feature of the city, which may contribute to your real estate decision. If you want to live in the suburbs and work in the city, but hate driving in traffic, Chicago has exactly what you need. Few cities can rival it for convenience, accessibility and extensity of the transportation network.

In addition to the huge condominium market in urban Chicago, there is also a market in housing cooperatives. New York City and Chicago are the two main places in the United States were such a market exists. With a housing co-op, residents of the building hold membership shares in a corporation that owns the building. Rather than owning your own individual unit, as you would with a condominium, you own a share in the value of the building. There are various advantages of this system, which you can investigate at www.coop-housing.org .

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