Shopping for a new condo in the five-figures can be depressing, especially when all those tantalizing, multi-million-dollar homes are constantly being dangled in front of your nose. Well, buck up. You do have options, including Edgewater Terrace, where $97,000 gets you a one-bedroom condo in a newly rehabbed building at 5952 N Winthrop Ave.
Two-bedrooms also are available, priced up to the $240s, and all units have designer carpeting and appliances and new bathrooms. Yes, this address is part of the once-notorious Winthrop-Kenmore corridor, where a quarter of the buildings stood vacant in the early ’70s and the label “Arson Alley” stuck all too well. But that was then. As this Fannie Mae report details, neighbors have been working to clean up these streets for more than 30 years.
On the surface at least, their efforts seem to have paid off. The vacant buildings are gone, and there have been a large number of condo conversions, boosting ownership in the dense lakefront strip. The changes have been major, but have these blocks turned the corner or do they still have a ways to go? Send us your thoughts.