Have housing prices in the Chicago area recovered from the recession? Yes and no, but mostly no.
Home values in just one in eight ZIP codes in the metro area have fully reached their pre-recession highs, according to Case-Schiller Home Price Indices data cited by Crain’s.
Data from 187 ZIP codes across the metro area show that as of the end of last year, 23 ZIP codes saw home values climb above their previous peaks and one equaled its previous high.
The three that topped the list were 60622, which includes parts of Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village, where prices are 80 percent above their last peak; 60610, in Old Town and the Gold Coast, where the gain was just under 18 percent; and 60616, which encompasses parts of Chinatown, Bridgeport and the Near South Side, where prices are up 14.4 percent.
Nationally, prices closed out the year 6.3 percent above their previous high water mark in the early-to-mid 2000s.
Low inventory in 2017 helped sellers in some of the areas that haven’t hit their full recovery. Homes were valued at least 20 percent below their pre-crash levels in 27 Chicago-area ZIP codes, down from 47 at the end of 2016.
Most of the fully recovered areas are in affluent areas on Chicago’s North Side or near Downtown, though two were in far southwest suburban Joliet.
The data are not an exhaustive representation of entire metro area, which includes 289 ZIP codes. No DuPage County ZIPs were included.
The areas that have lagged the most in their recovery are mostly on the South Side of city and in southern Cook County. [Crain’s] — Scott Klocksin