West Elsdon neighborhood now reaching appreciation acceleration

[John Clark]

Interesting to watch. Akin to chartists plotting stock movements.

West Elsdon will never gentrify; it didn't go down and hit bottom, it's just been trundling along at a languid pace for years. Now, however, as areas to the northeast have picked up (Archer Heights, Brighton Park, etc.), West Elsdon is finally seeing more rapid appreciation before. For a long time there was resistance to run-of-the-mill bungalows breaking the $300,000 sale price level. This Summer they are starting to crack it. It will be interesting to plug in the data from the past three years, see how bungalows crowded the $300k level but didn't break it, and compare that to prices for the next two years and see if appreciation rates take off.

No, I'm not in the market down there, so it's just an intellectual exercise for me.

[Henry Lazerow]

I think these places will also fall way harder then the market in any form a pull back. For example if Avondale drops 20% I can see Bronzeville, East Garfield Park, East Side, West Elsdon, etc. fall 40-50%. That's what happened in 2008 to east garfield it sold high right before and then got completely destroyed at a much faster rate then north side. 

Brighton Park is great and a solid area now with good income buyers/renters moving in you can get $1200 for a 2br pretty easily now when its updated which brings in cashflow at current prices still. I am focusing a lot on that areas as well as Mckinley Park, Bridgeport and Pilsen for a short term rental. I have a client bringing in $3-4k a month off a 2br first floor airbnb in Pilsen.