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The Home Front

(Above) Home in the Edgewater Square development north of the Loop.

1-Nov-20 – Despite the COVID-19 plague, racial protests, downtown looting, and general political unrest, Chicago’s North Side housing market not only survived but thrived during the pandemic this summer.

Mary Jo Nathan

“Home sales activity across Chicago’s North Side roared back to life during the summer months, easily eclipsing the results posted during the same period in 2019,” said Mary Jo Nathan (left) of the Charese Team at the Compass office in Roscoe Village. “It was surprisingly clear that COVID-19 was good for residential real estate, even if it was bad for the economy and thousands of people who contracted the virus as a whole.”

Record low mortgage interest rates also played a major role in the market rebound. On July 16, 2020, home loan interest rates nationwide skidded to 2.98 percent – what was then a historic record low. It was the first time in 50 years that home loan rates fell below 3 percent, reported Freddie Mac. Since then, rates have held below 3 percent for benchmark 30-year fixed home loans.

On October 29, benchmark 30-year fixed loans averaged 2.81 percent. A year ago, the 30-year fixed mortgage average was 3.78 percent.

According to the Compass quarterly Chicago North Side Market Report, combined sales of detached and attached homes on the North Side rose 10.8 percent to 2,925 units during the July-September quarter, and the median sales price for a North Side home increased a hefty 12.4 percent to $399,000.

For the seven-county Chicago metro area, the comparable results for the quarter were a 23.6 percent increase in sales activity and a 10.9 percent rise in the median sales price, the Compass report noted.

The North Side Market Report tracks home sales in nine community areas: Edgewater, Lake View, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Near North Side, North Center, Rogers Park, Uptown, and West Ridge.

Wikipedia

“Demand for single-family homes was especially strong during the third quarter, which helps explain why sales were up so sharply in the outlying portions of the metro area where single-family homes dominate the market,” said Nathan.

She says single-family sales on the North Side increased 19 percent for the quarter, which compares with a 22.4 percent increase in all of Cook County. The attached townhome and condominium market, which accounted for 2,600 sales – nearly 90 percent of North Side transactions – delivered solid but more restrained growth, with sales up 9.8 percent for the quarter.

“At the same time, the median price of attached units gained 11.6 percent, in part because there was strong demand for larger units that come at higher price points, but also because a lack of inventory in some areas has put upward pressure on prices,” Nathan said.

Sales of detached homes registered their sharpest gains in three community areas...


300%
Near North


80%
Lincoln Square


77.8%
Uptown

Overall, detached sales rose in eight of the nine communities covered by the North Side Market Report, with only North Center seeing a slight decrease – though it also had more detached sales than any of the other North Side areas during the quarter.

Sales of attached homes increased in seven of the nine neighborhoods, led by North Center, where sales rose 63 percent. However, sales in the city’s largest attached market, the Near North Side, continued to lag, sliding 16.1 percent for the quarter.

Photo by Jeremy Atherton

“High-rise properties are not drawing as many buyers during the pandemic because the units often lack the private outdoor space in demand today, and right now buyers can be hesitant to rely heavily on elevators,” Nathan explained.

Photo by Jeremy Atherton

Nevertheless, the median sales price of an attached home rose in eight of the nine neighborhoods, topped by increases along the lakefront, with the median rising 23.4 percent in Edgewater, 14.1 percent in Lake View, and 16.4 percent in Lincoln Park.

Gazing into the future, Nathan stressed how much the North Side market would benefit from additional inventory, with only Lake View, Lincoln Park, and Near North currently posting more than a three-month supply of listings.

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North Side Median Prices – 3Q 2020

Median Price % Change
Edgewater – Detached $760,000 +1.7%
Edgewater – Attached $256,000 +23.4%
Lake View – Detached $1,335,000 +8.3%
Lake View – Attached $408,750 +14.1%
Lincoln Park – Detached $1,500,000 -6.2%
Lincoln Park – Attached $532,500 +16.4%
Lincoln Square – Detached $750,000 +3.4%
Lincoln Square – Attached $327,750 +4.9%
Near North – Detached $1,925,000 +79.1%
Near North – Attached $420,000 +6.3%
North Center – Detached $1,190,000 +9.9%
North Center – Attached $448,450 +3.4%
Rogers Park – Detached $482,500 -11.6%
Rogers Park – Attached $171,250 -2.1%
Uptown – Detached $945,000 -0.6%
Uptown – Attached $316,500 +7.3%
West Ridge – Detached $415,000 +20.3%
West Ridge – Attached $146,250 +2.6%

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