Crain's article - Chicago neighborhood home prices (Naperville, Downers Grove: real estate, neighborhoods)

[Vlajos]

Who would of thought that 9 of the 10 top areas for home appreciation in the Chicago area over the last decade were in the City.

Uptown sees decade's biggest uptick in home prices | Residential News | Crain's Chicago Business

[thelizardking]

It doesn't surprise me at all.

[chet everett]

What is the saying, "When you start in a pit every direction you move is up"???

It is sort of striking how the list is strongly biased toward areas that even with "improvement" are still not without well known problems -- even the one zip code that is arguably most desirable, 60610, is shared not just with Old Town / Gold Coast but also by Cabrini Green...

{I am going to be especially harsh just to tweak the OP --}
Gentrification of desirable areas has been happening for two or three decades, that pushes speculators into more and more borderline areas. Going forward the gains in many of those neighborhoods will probably prove ephemeral as the confluence of overbuilding, dissatisfied families fleeing for better schools and people priced out / fed up by politically ineptude / run away taxes walk away from underwater trainwrecks.

The sort of appreciation seen in a town like Downers Grove is driven by forces only remotely similar to gentrification -- DG has many of the same qualities as further west / more well known Naperville and is much larger / more affordable than Hinsdale to the east. Thus folks that felt unable to afford Hinsdale or unwilling to live as far out as Naperville "migrated" to DG.
Because there were no "undesirable" types driven but instead gains that due not to speculation but rather by broader acknowledgement of the value represented by the area my prediction is that such increases will prove more durable over the long haul.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by thelizardking

It doesn't surprise me at all.

Exactly. What happens to DG when Sarah Lee moves back to the City?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Exactly. What happens to DG when Sarah Lee moves back to the City?

Most folks who work at the Sara Lee campus don't spend much money in the town. When the place was vacant, aver Speigel moved out, Downers Grove made no special effort to attract tenansts.

For starters the revenue attributable to any one employer in Downers Frove is insignificant to the honesty managed and sensible budget. Secondly the nice balance that Downers Grove has between residential, commercial and retail space gives them could stability.

It is not like the City of Chicago scrambling to keep residential property taxes artificially low while corporate clinet of Mike Madigan appeal their commercial real estate assessments in a corroupt and shameless effort to reward the connected and stick it to everyone else.

The transparency and fairness will also help to e sure that gains in value in well managed towns are not fleeting as insider deal makers rejigger who gets the short end of the stick...

[QOESTE]

Anybody else surprised to see Garfield Park on that list?