Joe, an alert YoChicago reader, writes that he saw three “luxury condo” developments on the west side of Western Avenue between 41st and 47th over the weekend. Why, he asks? The location is not near a park, it’s not particularly near the Orange Line, and it’s in the western part of the Back of the Yards neighborhood.” Joe points out that you can probably buy a detached house nearby for less than the condo prices, which start in the $270s. (That’s the starting price at Westernview condos, pictured above.)
The median price of a house in New City (the official community area for the neighborhood usually called Back of the Yards) was $134,500 in 2005, according to the Chicago Association of Realtors, and in McKinley Park, to the north, it was $219,500. By contrast, the new Westernview condo development, at 4000 S. Western, has 36 three-bedroom condos starting in the $270s.
The project is advertised as McKinley Park, but since it’s south of Pershing Road, it really falls on the Back of the Yards / Brighton Park border. Like Joe, we’d love to hear who’s buying new condos in this neck of the woods and why they’re willing to pay so much more than the price of a nearby single-family house (is the appeal of lower maintenance and that new condo smell really this strong?). Click “Comments” below to let us know.
While you’re at it, we’d love to know when McKinley Park acquired such cachet that developers in Back of the Yards and Brighton Park felt the need to stretch its borders to include their projects.