Redfin: 25 Neighborhoods that “Have It All”

[Steely Dan]

i know we chicagoans probably sound like a broken record when we go on and on about our city's remarkably high urbanism : cost ratio, but here's some more data, however grossly over-simplified it might be. 13 of the 25 neighborhoods listed below are in chicago.

25 Neighborhoods that “Have It All”: Affordable Homes, Highly Rated Schools, An Easy Commute AND Plenty of Inventory:

1. Dunning (Chicago, IL)
2. Ashburn (Chicago, IL)
3. Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh, PA)
4. Jefferson Park (Chicago, IL)
5. Elmwood Park (Chicago, IL)
6. Oak Park (Oak Park, IL)
7. Wrigleyville (Chicago, IL)
8. West Ridge (Chicago, IL)
9. North Park (Chicago, IL)
10. Evanston (Evanston, IL)
11. Edgewater (Chicago, IL)
12. Campustown (Urbana, IL)
13. Independence Heights (Houston, TX)
14. Andersonville (Chicago, IL)
15. Lincoln Square (Chicago, IL)
16. Shaker Heights (Shaker Heights, OH)
17. North Miami Beach (North Miami Beach, FL)
18. Belmont Gardens (Chicago, IL)
19. Lafayette Place (San Antonio, TX)
20. University Circle (Cleveland Heights, OH)
21. Cadillac Heights (Dallas, TX)
22. Speigle Heights (Lexington, KY)
23. Fort Worth (Fort Worth, TX)
24. Central City (Birmingham, AL)
25. Mount Adams (Cincinnati, OH)


We identified the neighborhoods using the following criteria:

Affordability: Zip codes were selected that had a median home sale price below the national median of $291,700*.

Home Selling Speed: Several months of falling inventory and strong demand mean the most desirable homes go off the market within days of being listed. Selected zip codes had a median days on market of at least 46**.

Highly Rated Schools: Neighborhoods with a GreatSchools rating of 5, which is considered average, or higher were chosen.

Transit: Neighborhoods with a Transit Score® of at least 50, indicating many nearby public transportation options, were included.

Low Crime Rates: Using crime data from BestPlaces, our ranking favored places with lower reported violent crime.


Methodology: The analysis rated zip codes across 80 markets according to median sale price and median days on market in November according to the Redfin Real-Time Housing Market Tracker, as well as Transit Score from Walk Score® and school ratings from GreatSchools. The final ranking was determined by ranking zip codes according to each criteria described above, along with crime rates from the “violent crime scale” on BestPlaces.net, and then taking the average of all those rankings to rank order the top 25 zip codes. Local Redfin agents assisted in identifying the neighborhood name that most closely matched each zip code.

source: https://www.redfin.com/blog/2018/01/...inventory.html

[Steely Dan]

i mainly posted this list because i get to brag that i live in one of those 25 neighborhoods.

[Centropolis]

i personally think chicago is massively under-rated nationally (along with parts of other midwestern cities that are even more under-rated).

some of these are dumb...”fort worth.” what a great “neighborhood!”

[cabasse]

north miami beach huh? interesting. surprised that it meets all of the criteria (especially the combo of affordability and plenty of inventory)

birmingham deserves a shout out. i haven't been in 10 years but i've heard from more than a couple of people that downtown is the 'place to be' now.

[JManc]

Independence Heights? Seriously? Of all of Houston, they chose this area?

[The North One]

Whoever made this obviously has a thing for Chicago, most of these are just streetcar suburbs, bungalow neighborhoods or old 20's towns that became suburban nodes that can be found pretty much anywhere.

[599GTO]

That will be a no from me, unfortunately. I'll stick with TriBeCa.

[tdawg]

NYC was clearly stung by a lack of affordability.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i personally think chicago is massively under-rated nationally (along with parts of other midwestern cities that are even more under-rated).

for sure. across the board, midwest urbanism is MASSIVELY under-rated on a national scale.

after having recently done a lot of home shopping in milwaukee when we were considering moving up there, you can live like a middle-class king for a $300K mortgage up there.

however, i think the school issue really hurts milwaukee for a list like this, which is why nothing from brew city is showing up here (and schools were a big concern of ours as well).

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by The North One

Whoever made this obviously has a thing for Chicago, most of these are just streetcar suburbs, bungalow neighborhoods or old 20's towns that became suburban nodes that can be found pretty much anywhere.

Chicago does well on the criteria chosen. Add in weather, civic finances/governance, crime (beyond just the neighborhood) and other factors and it probably wouldn’t do as well. It’s all about the criteria.

I knew I wouldn’t see any San Francisco neighborhoods on the list as soon as I saw housing affordability was a criterion.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Well... I work in #24.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

for sure. across the board, midwest urbanism is MASSIVELY under-rated on a national scale.

after having recently done a lot of home shopping in milwaukee when we were considering moving up there, you can live like a middle-class king for a $300K mortgage up there.

however, i think the school issue really hurts milwaukee for a list like this, which is why nothing from brew city is showing up here (and schools were a big concern of ours as well).

theres inner suburbs with ( NON magnet or special...meaning thats where you go if you live there period) public HIGH schools down here rated 7 and above (one with a 9) with that are part (streets with two flats etc)
or completely city-level urbanism so not sure what all the criteria was..

https://www.greatschools.org/missour...n-High-School/

https://www.greatschools.org/missour...s-High-School/

[Centropolis]

cleveland heights high school has a 3...

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Chicago does well on the criteria chosen. Add in weather, civic finances/governance, crime (beyond just the neighborhood) and other factors and it probably wouldn’t do as well. It’s all about the criteria.

I knew I wouldn’t see any San Francisco neighborhoods on the list as soon as I saw housing affordability was a criterion.

You seem to suggest that this list by Redfin was cherry picked for Chicago.

I would certainly disagree. Truth is, you just get way the hell better deal there than in sundry overrated coastal city.

And west-coast based Redfin is picking up on that.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

You seem to suggest that this list by Redfin was cherry picked for Chicago.

I would certainly disagree. Truth is, you just get way the hell better deal there than in sundry overrated coastal city.

And west-coast based Redfin is picking up on that.

You seem to suggest that the sun and the coast are overrated.

I would certainly disagree.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

You seem to suggest that this list by Redfin was cherry picked for Chicago.

I would certainly disagree. Truth is, you just get way the hell better deal there than in sundry overrated coastal city.

And west-coast based Redfin is picking up on that.

Here's the truth: The market (what people are willing to pay to do it) shows where people want to live. But affordability forces a compromise on them that ultimately determines where a lot of them choose to live. You do get a better "deal" in many midwestern cities. I myself have often rethought whether I'd be happier in my little 2 bedrooms in SF or in a much grander place in, say, Pittsburgh. But so far the many attractions of Northern CA, which I am lucky that, unlike so many, I CAN afford, keep me here. And I am not one of those who ignore other parts of the country because they aren't familiar with them. I've been to just about every state and grew up in the East and lived 40% or so of my life there.

[JManc]

Actually...Chicago is coastal.

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by cabasse

north miami beach huh? interesting. surprised that it meets all of the criteria (especially the combo of affordability and plenty of inventory)

birmingham deserves a shout out. i haven't been in 10 years but i've heard from more than a couple of people that downtown is the 'place to be' now.

That was my reaction to North Miami Beach as well. Not really affordable (at least not the decent parts), not good schools and poor commute to downtown, not served by Metrorail (or anything other than busses). So how did it make the list again?

[Centropolis]

its obviously dominated by chicago - my guess is that there is some bias here. then they clearly half-assed the research beyond that for “stuff that isn’t chicago” probably based on what a group of people were familiar with...

i can think of multiple non-chicago neighborhoods across the midwest that would more than qualify and satisfy the public school rankings. many of these picks do not!

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by homebucket

You seem to suggest that the sun and the coast are overrated.

I would certainly disagree.

Where the hell did I say that the sun and the coast are overrated?

I love coasts. I love the sun. I interact with both regularly