Housing Prices On The 606's West Side Have Grown Insanely High
By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 2, 2016 3:24PM
The 606 was already a prime focus for anti-gentrification activists within a year of opening to the public, but even they might be stunned at the degree to which the elevated bike and pedestrian path has sent housing costs skyrocketing. Single-family home prices have gone up a staggering 48.2 percent in Logan Square and Humboldt Park, according to figure from DePaul's Institute for Housing Studies cited by the Tribune.
The trail extends from its westernmost trailhead at 1801 N. Ridgeway Ave., in southwest Logan Square/northwest Humboldt Park and extends all the way east to Walsh Park in West Town. Preliminary plans to extend the trail into Lincoln Park, possibly to the former A. Finkl & Sons steel plot, are being pursued by local developers and Ald. Brian Hopkins.
That new east-to-west connective tissue has led to a spike in home prices west of Western Ave.—and the trend-ification of traditionally majority-Hispanic neighborhoods. The median price of west-of-Western homes near The 606 has shot up by some $100,000.
“The area is really, really changing, you know, because of that 606 trail," Bernadette Ray, a real estate broker with RedCo Realty, told the Tribune. "It's just becoming such a hot area."
East of Western Avenue, home prices have risen at a comparatively more manageable rate, 13.8 percent.
Mayor Emanuel faced criticism last year from affordable-housing advocates who argued that the administration’s proposal for rent vouchers and home-renovation deductions would fail to adequately safeguard future hikes in property costs.