Moving to Chicago woodlawn area

[lepoisson]

Buying a lower priced property certainly saves a lot of money on housing, but good luck selling it. Like another poster said, it's not uncommon for properties to remain on the market for a year. You could rent it, but the quality of tenants likely won't be that great.

[MassVt]

Why do people only look at a price tag, instead of considering the complete picture? This sounds like a disaster in the making...

[chet everett]

In addition to the excellent suggestions from others about the challenges for the locations the OP has mentioned, the whole history of how UofC manages its property acquisitions in Hyde Park and the adjacent areas creates a special set of circumstances that adds significant risk for anyone unfamiliar with those processes. Given that there has been a period of acquisition and construction that almost certainly distorted the relative worth of some properties, and theat period is now largely coming to a cyclic lull there are undoubtedly some sellers still hoping to rope in an naive buyer with inflated prices -- for folks who sold their apartments to the University for things like the expanded dormitory offerings the profit they saw TOGETHER WITH the likely loss of future potential renters made for a relatively easy decision. Even if the University simply "banks' those properties for future uses that shift in land use still was easy for a landlord with local awareness to assess. The pace of various projects related to the University's Medical Center Campus is similarly likely to have temporarily distorted selling prices. Even the specifics of what impact there might be from change to the schedule for the Obama Presidential Center are giving potential investors reason to take a step back from acquisitions -- Obama Foundation delays presidential center groundbreaking until next year - Chicago Tribune

The UofC has a large presence but the "path" of where future building efforts will be focused is critical -- https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSerie...b&wmode=opaque

There are is also a very active group of community members (more than a few that also have ties to the University...) that are quite critical of the decisions made in the area -- https://thebaffler.com/salvos/there-...e-neighborhood

[Chicago South Sider]

If you must move to Woodlawn stay east of Cottage. Personally, I will be moving out soon. I will likely move to the South Loop until I can get out of Chicago for good.