Buying in Mckinley Park - how is the neighborhood these days? (Chicago: apartment, crime)

[NDIrish3947]

Grew up in SW burbs, fiancé grew up in Beverly. Currently live in NYC and love the city, but are moving back to Chicago to be closer to family/friends and to actually be able to afford a house rather than a tiny apartment. We were originally looking at Bridgeport, but are a little bit priced out. We think our best bang for our buck would be in McKinley Park, as there are some great new homes being built that we have our eye on. We like the fact that it is close to the loop, and we can get back to Beverly in about 20 minutes down Western & hop on Orange line to loop for work. We have lived out of the state for the past few years, are late 20's, and are wondering if the neighborhood is trending in the right direction? Is the ROI worth it... wondering if value will go up as it is just south of booming Pilsen and West of Bridgeport. How are K-8 schools? Would be willing to go public if they are decent, and take the 4 year private plunge for high school, or Whitney Young... granted we are a few years from even thinking about kids. Any new restaurants or bars popping up, or same old Lindys Chili lol? We are both white, and I know this should not matter, but we all know how segregated Chicago is. Thoughts?

[TBideon]

20% Asian and growing. It's getting there.

[WestSideMillennial]

Would you consider Bronzeville?

[dtcbnd03]

Originally Posted by WestSideMillennial

Would you consider Bronzeville?

OP - love the screen name...go irish! I don't know much about Mckinley Park but I like that the Orange line and 55 access are right there. If the Asian population is growing there and spilling over from Chinatown and Bridgeport then you know the neighborhood is on the up and up.

It does seem for Beverly access off 90 you could look at Bronzeville and the green line. Bronzeville has been booming in pockets and is very nice.

[Nearwest]

I'm in Brighton Park (the neighborhood which borders McKinley Park to its west) a few times a month and have noticed a large number of foreign-born Chinese who are riding on the Archer Ave. bus (route 62) to that neighborhood. Many seem to exit in the 6 block stretch between Rockwell Ave. and Kedzie Ave. So, I'm presuming that this Chinese population has been moving southwest along Archer into both McKinley Park and BP from Chinatown.


Also, there are still segments of the once sizeable Polish and Lithuanian populations who resided in Brighton Park. The Lithuanians are concentrated in the south central area of BP, near California Ave., especially south of 43rd St. I have a
Lithuanian American friend who lives on 46th St., and he mentioned that the largest ethnic background of his neighbors is Mexican.


There is some ethnic diversity in Brighton Park, but the vast majority of the public school students appear to be Hispanic.


On the whole, the housing stock in Brighton Park is modest and unremarkable. This is also true of McKinley Park.

[OKParker]

Originally Posted by Nearwest

I'm in Brighton Park (the neighborhood which borders McKinley Park to its west) a few times a month and have noticed a large number of foreign-born Chinese who are riding on the Archer Ave. bus (route 62) to that neighborhood. Many seem to exit in the 6 block stretch between Rockwell Ave. and Kedzie Ave. So, I'm presuming that this Chinese population has been moving southwest along Archer into both McKinley Park and BP from Chinatown.


Also, there are still segments of the once sizeable Polish and Lithuanian populations who resided in Brighton Park. The Lithuanians are concentrated in the south central area of BP, near California Ave., especially south of 43rd St. I have a
Lithuanian American friend who lives on 46th St., and he mentioned that the largest ethnic background of his neighbors is Mexican.


There is some ethnic diversity in Brighton Park, but the vast majority of the public school students appear to be Hispanic.


On the whole, the housing stock in Brighton Park is modest and unremarkable. This is also true of McKinley Park.

Agree with this assessment of Brighton Park, McKinley, and Bridgeport housing stock - it's not the extravagant older stock of some neighborhoods, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

McKinley Park is a great investment right now and has good transit access. I tried buying a couple buildings there in 2018. The park is awesome too. It is only going up, but it'll be 10 years until its as nice as Bridgeport in terms of the bar/restaurant scene.

[BRU67]

It's pretty heated right now because there's a lot of speculation with respect to multi units in the city in general and Bridgeport in particular, which McKinley Park borders. That creates a double whammy where decent MLS properties will draw multiple bids probably over the ask.

So it might be hard to find a good value. I recommend looking at some of the near suburbs such as Berwyn if you're looking for more value.

[JoePO]

Originally Posted by Nearwest

I'm in Brighton Park (the neighborhood which borders McKinley Park to its west) a few times a month and have noticed a large number of foreign-born Chinese who are riding on the Archer Ave. bus (route 62) to that neighborhood. Many seem to exit in the 6 block stretch between Rockwell Ave. and Kedzie Ave. So, I'm presuming that this Chinese population has been moving southwest along Archer into both McKinley Park and BP from Chinatown.



Also, there are still segments of the once sizeable Polish and Lithuanian populations who resided in Brighton Park. The Lithuanians are concentrated in the south central area of BP, near California Ave., especially south of 43rd St. I have a
Lithuanian American friend who lives on 46th St., and he mentioned that the largest ethnic background of his neighbors is Mexican.


There is some ethnic diversity in Brighton Park, but the vast majority of the public school students appear to be Hispanic.


On the whole, the housing stock in Brighton Park is modest and unremarkable. This is also true of McKinley Park.

We sold my mom's house (which was in that stretch mentioend above) in BP about 18 months ago to an Asian couple. As a member of the Lithuanian population I would say that the older/original Lithuanian contingent in BP has essentially disappeared (suburban migration in the 80'/90s or death of the oldest contingent, like my mom, in the more recent decades), and is being replaced, but at a much smaller rate, by more recent immigrants from Lithuania. Same goes for Poles. The neighborhood is majority Hispanic. The Lithuanian concentration was centered around Immaculate Conception parish (44th & California), which was one of the largest Lithuanian parishes in Chicago, and operated an elementary school which offered Lithuanian classes and Lithuanian cultural activities. The school was sold off to CPS years ago and is operated as a charter school. It is now essentially a Hispanic parish.

At present I think the crime/homicide rate in BP (gang-related) is too high for me to recommend buying a home there. McKP and Bridgeport are better options from a crime standpoint. How soon BP will turn around in the manner that McKP and Bridgeport have is not clear to me. I think it would take 5+ years.

[TBideon]

Brighton Park is definitely not worth investing, and I wouldn't anticipate any kind of noticeable turnaround in five or ten years. The surrounding Archer Heights and McKinley Park are stable, working-class neighborhoods, so you're better off buying a place there. Brighton Park is just not worth the headaches.

[Kmanshouse]

Why is everyone talking about Brighton Park when the OP specifically asked about McKinley?