If you want an at-a-glance overview of changes in year-to-year price and sales volume in Chicago’s 77 official community areas it’s hard to beat the “heat map” published periodically by the Chicago Tribune. Check out the PDF map here.
Most neighborhoods show year over year increases in median price and sales volume, although quite a few north side neighborhoods trended down.
I’m not sure how much stock I’d put in those figures, as they don’t distinguish between the types of housing sold. At times a large influx of (relatively) inexpensive condos into a neighborhood like Lake View can knock the average down, as the prior year the sales figures represented more single family homes and 2 flats, etc.
the only figure I trust (and it’s pretty hard to really pin down) is the price of an empty 25 X 125 lot, keeping the zoning constant.
Ditto on what Carter said. From personal experience, I know that a couple of big Bridgeport condo developments came online in the late spring–I suspect that the accounts for the huge increase in number of sales, as well as the dip in median price.
Similarly, zones with multiple neighborhoods can also result in a lot of noise. Looking at the New City figures, I suspect that most of the increase can be traced to an increase in Canaryville sales (as opposed to the cheaper Back of the Yards and Fuller Park real estate).
I also agree that the numbers aren’t very telling. If they separated Condos from Single Family, it would help.
Along the lines of what everyone else is saying, these statistics are virtually worthless. A large new development of high end townhomes in a neighborhood could make it look like prices in the neighborhood are skyrocketing whereas a large new development of affordable one bedroom/studio condos could make it look like real estate prices in the neighborhood are plummetting.
There are, however, many neighborhoods in which the stats are not biased by current development activity.