The Bloomingdale Trail, also known as The 606, is Chicago’s answer to New York’s High Line. It’s an elevated greenway, built on a former train track that stretches from Hermosa to Bucktown. Since opening in June, it’s already a favorite with cyclists, joggers and strollers.
Highly anticipated, the trail had been in some stage of planning for more than a decade. Sure, everybody loves a park, but there were fears that The 606 would trigger big price increases in area housing, particularly in Logan Square and Humboldt Park, which in recent years have been among Redfin’s hottest neighborhoods.
Five months after the park’s debut, has it pushed prices up? The answer, it seems, is no. Properties within two blocks of the trail have seen a run up in value, but homes further away have appreciated substantially more since 2010.
Do buyers pay a premium for the promise of a park?
We looked at all homes purchased within two blocks of the trail (between Armitage Avenue and North Avenue) and compared them to homes purchased within portions of the same neighborhoods (between Fullerton Avenue and Division Street), but not as close to the trail. Here are this year’s numbers:
It’s a slam-dunk, right? Well, no, not so fast. For years, homes hugging the once-abandoned rail line have been more expensive than those farther away. The fact that they’re fetching higher prices now is nothing new.
Why are prices higher near the trail? That’s not totally clear, but historical data suggests it’s not the trail itself.
While there’s been talk of the trail for over ten years, the final design plans weren’t unveiled until 2013. It’s hard to believe people would be buying into the trail much before that, considering the unreliability of the city of Chicago, its finances and its promises.
Yet, every year since 2007 prices for homes closer to the trail have been more expensive (sometimes substantially so) than home prices farther from the trail.
If the trail were driving up prices, you’d expect that in the last three years, the price gap between the near and far area would increase. It hasn’t. In fact, the gap has gotten smaller. Sellers farther from the trail are still getting 87 percent of what their closer-in neighbors are getting. That’s more pricing power than they had five years ago, when the trail was still just an un-funded possibility.
As for prices rising both near and far from the trail, there are broader factors at work as well. Since the low point of the housing crash in 2010, prices have risen in all of Chicago (up 30 percent since 2010) and even more sharply in all of Logan Square (up 37 percent) and much more sharply in Humboldt Park (up 332 percent), while Bucktown is not too far behind (up 21 percent).
In other words, the trail is going through places that are already hot. “A few buyers prioritize proximity to the trail, but for most it’s not a decision driver. Generally, it’s a nice amenity for those who have already decided they want to live in a given neighborhood that happens to be along the trail,” said Redfin agent Al Medina.
The Bloomingdale Trail is great for the city of Chicago. And that’s an argument for building more landscaped urban parks, not for worrying about whether a new neighborhood amenity will drive up prices.
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