Who's moving back to Illinois? Where from and why?

[Bluefox]

That’s one thing I noticed about Chicago - huge difference between neighborhoods. Even $500k isn’t much in the more desirable neighborhoods. And the really cheap homes are cheap for very good reasons - normally location is the big factor. I’m sure bigger than San Antonio.

[Don Cuccino]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

It's really difficult, almost impossible to compare a city like Chicago to San Antonio. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods and each one of them has a different real estate market and a different price point. You can get a house in Garfield Park for $75K and the same house in Lakeview would cost $500K. That's why housing prices in Chicago are skewed somewhat. Those $75K units bring the average price down.

San Antonio more or less has similar pricing throughout the entire city as there aren't huge differences in areas like there are in Chicago. There are some lower end areas, but nothing like Englewood or Garfield Park.

Home selling prices in Chicago and San Antonio might be similar, but you will get a much newer home and a larger home in San Antonio than you will in Chicago for the same price.

As a better example, this home is only 10mi or a 15min drive from downtown and is selling for $260K.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4...83977472_zpid/

This is pretty typical for a single family home in Chicago. This home is about the same distance from downtown as the San Antonio home, but it's half the size, looks like it hasn't been updated in 20+ years, and is about 60yr older.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5.../3627039_zpid/

You can find a house like the San Antonio one in Chicago, but you'd have to buy in a suburb like Orland Park and have a grueling commute to downtown. And more than likely, the home wouldn't be from 2014.

People who aren't used to Texas see 10 miles and think it's in the boonies but 10mi in Texas is only about a 15min drive. That's how long it took me to walk 3/4mi to the bus in Chicago.

Chicago, like NYC, Boston, DC, was built much earlier than San Antonio. 100 years ago the population in Chicago was 2.7 million. San Antonios was 163k, so of course Chicago will have much older architecture, but that's the appeal. A lot of people who have moved to Chicago prefer vintage housing over new construction. That's why places like Wicker Park , Logan Square, Lakeview took off, because of their greystones and Victorian houses. Nobody moves to Phoenix for it's vintage housing stock and nobody moves to Brooklyn Heights for it's new construction buildings.

You keep mentioning North side neighborhoods, which everyone familiar with chicago know is the most desirable part of the city. Compare homes in Berwyn or Archer Heights which is 10 miles away and you will see much lower prices.