Chicago Trends - Looking for BP Members Insights

[Ryan Bird]

Why are the home prices in Chicano stagnant or coming down? I’m looking at northwest suburbs specifically and either prices are the same or have come down since 2015. Not a generalized trend - but I was looking at areas like schaumburg, hoffman estates, palatine, lake zurich, mount prospects, prospect heights, arlington heights, wheeling  etc . Trying to see if buying single family/townhomes now and renting them is worth it (profits after mortgage and tax) in these areas or if I should wait/look at other markets. Do you see any property appreciation in the coming years in Chicago? If not, what the main blocker (tax?) is? There are lots of tech opportunities booming in Chicago at least in my domain and I’m surprised it’s not reflecting on housing markets appreciating compared to what I'm seeing at other major cities. Thoughts?

[John Warren]

@Ryan Bird the northwest suburbs are stable, and are frankly really nice places to live. I have a good friend who I sold a home to in Palatine, and we shopped Schaumburb, Rolling Meadows, and Arlington Heights quite a bit. The thing to remember is that most of those A class suburbs won't make sense for rental purposes. If you want cash flow, you will need to move to a B or C class neighborhood. You should touch base with @Martin Vehlow. He has found some interesting cash flow plays in the Northwest burbs recently.