Does the Gold Coast neighborhood feel as dense as the Upper East Side (NYC)? (Chicago: low income, real estate market)

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

Look on Zillow. You will see it.

Hardly. About 80 of the 1125 properties currently listed on Zillow are under $400K and over 70 of the 80 under $400K are co-op apartments. When you "buy" something in a co-op apartments, you aren't actually buying that property. You don't own it. You're buying shares in the corporation who owns the building it's contained in. Whenever you see a place in NYC that is cheaper than average and its neighbors, it's a co-op 9 times out of 10. You don't own actually buy the unit.

[jonnynonos]

And 10 that aren't apparently.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

And 10 that aren't apparently.

Less than 10 actually - I counted 7 but it could have been 8. Out of 1125 properties. You're talking about less than 1% of all properties available. Pretty much around 2/3 or 3/4 of 1%. You could find outliers like this in every neighborhood in any major city, but they're few and far in between. The chances of you finding an actual place in the UES for under $400K that you will actually straight up own is extremely difficult.

[CharlesMcintyre]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

I'm not sure what your point is, but while it's true you could find 1 br in the GC for $200k, these are in the very least desirable buildings, with prices at the most desirable going up to probably $1-1.5mm. A perfunctory Zillow search showed comparable UES 1 brs for $400k, not $800.

I'm not sure anyone would be surprised that NY reality is twice as expensive as Chicago's; it's probably more, but it's nonsensical to compare a bargain basement GC condo to a midrange or desirable UES condo.

I was pretty sloppy when I compared these neighborhoods. My point was to point out the differences between them. If you pay 200K for one bedroom apartment in the Gold Coast it will of course not be something fancy. Still, it is considerable cheaper than New York and in particular Upper East Side. The housing market in Chicago is still, compared many major cities in both the US and in Western Europe, still relative inexpensive. This makes it possible for people with more modest incomes to buy property which they would not be able to do in for example Boston, San Francisco, Seattle or New York. However, it does not make Chicago into a cheap city just cheaper than other cities. If you make 50K in Chicago you come much further on the housing market than someone who makes 50K in New York. Still, it should be noted that median salary are lower in Chicago than in New York so for many Chicagoans the cost of living is still high – in relation to what they make. I started out with writing that Gold Coast and Chicago is difficult to compare with New York City and its neighborhoods. It would be my guess that the entire central Chicago can be captured within what is Midtown in Manhattan. So to answer OP:s questions I said that No – it is a significant difference between Chicago and New York. I really don’t know what Chicago should be compared with. It is much larger than the rest of the cities in Midwest and cities like Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia are rather different from what Chicago is.

[jonnynonos]

Ok, so do we all think that having house prices that on average are $1 mm vs. $2 mm is what the OP is talking about?

Do you think that is his concern?

Unless he is Donald Trump Jr I doubt it.

Compared to virtually anywhere else in America or the world they are both enormous concentrated areas of wealth.

Since he's concerned about public transportation I doubt he's worry lying if he can get a pet house on the 30th as opposed to the 40th floor .

[marothisu]

I was responding to what you were talking about. Don't get angry at me for directly responding to that. In any case, when comparing two areas, this is one consideration and it's how some people think of it. Regardless, I think we've talked about all that we need to know regarding the feel of the two areas.

[UC18]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Less than 10 actually - I counted 7 but it could have been 8. Out of 1125 properties. You're talking about less than 1% of all properties available. Pretty much around 2/3 or 3/4 of 1%. You could find outliers like this in every neighborhood in any major city, but they're few and far in between. The chances of you finding an actual place in the UES for under $400K that you will actually straight up own is extremely difficult.

And they're outliers for a reason. I would assume them to have a ton of past assessments due, or to be completely gutted, or to have some environmental factor making them unlivable, forcing the owner to sell so far below the typical price for the neighborhood. I would throw out at least the bottom and top 1% (if not 5-10%) when discussing prices in an area.

[UC18]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

Compared to virtually anywhere else in America or the world they are both enormous concentrated areas of wealth.

And this similarity has been pointed out. Differences (of which there are several) are also being pointed out. You took issue with one of the major differences, citing very misleading data, so you were corrected. Moving on.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I was responding to what you were talking about. Don't get angry at me for directly responding to that. In any case, when comparing two areas, this is one consideration and it's how some people think of it. Regardless, I think we've talked about all that we need to know regarding the feel of the two areas.

It is buffoonish to ask for anything but a so called qualitative opinion between two such areas. If you compared the UES to a block in the United Arab Emirates that happened to contain some ridiculous new ultra luxury developments, would it really be of value?

Within 10 or 20 square blocks of downtown Chicago you will find anything from $200k to $20 mm condos; I was going to say earlier that the wealthiest zip code is likely whatever the Park Hyatt is in, as that is where several of the city's wealthiest residents live.

In short, it is as wealthy and cosmopolitan as you are going to find in any US city outside of NY and maybe LA, and, yes, that is pretty much the area in Chicago.

If Chicago was NY, it wouldn't be Chicago, it would be NY.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by UC18

And this similarity has been pointed out. Differences (of which there are several) are also being pointed out. You took issue with one of the major differences, citing very misleading data, so you were corrected. Moving on.

There is no misleading data; there is just offhand estimates.

Go ahead and find data if you want; I've expressed my opinion in the post above.