That’s a question to wonder about as you’re anxiously tracking the drumbeat of stories on whether the new home market in Chicago is cooling off.
During the last few years new construction projects have been proliferating in Chicago neighborhoods that haven’t seen new construction in quite a while. YoChicago’s New Homes search (still under development) is tracking projects in 92 separate neighborhoods. Ninety-two! Go back half a dozen years and the number would likely have been half of that or less.
As hot neighborhoods become pricier, and land becomes scarcer, developers have been meeting the demand for affordable units by venturing into new areas. To date, there’s been little or no tracking of overall market activity – the institutional housing analysts tend to track only projects with 50 or more units.
Has the market for new homes been cooling or heating up? I’m not sure anyone knows for certain.