Experienced Real Estate Professional Fred Latsko Highlights the Hottest Real Estate Areas in Illinois

The Illinois real estate market has had its fair share of struggles since the 2008/2009 financial crisis ended, having one of the slowest growth rates in the U.S over the past decade in terms of median home values.

According to data compiled by Zillow, Illinois homes grew by just 10.7% in value on average between 2010 and September 1, 2019, ranking it 45th out of 49 states (there was no data available for Vermont). Illinois also has one of the highest rates of underwater mortgages in the country at nearly 15% of the state’s homeowners, close to double the national average.

The news isn’t all bad, however, particularly for those currently in the market for property in Illinois says Fred S. Latsko, the owner and CEO of Latsko Interests, a prominent and respected real estate developer that manages properties in several states, the majority of which are found in Chicago’s affluent Gold Coast area.
As Frederick Latsko points out, that weakness in some segments of the Illinois housing market presents significant opportunities for buyers to snatch up property at below-market rates. That’s especially true in Chicago, home to the country’s third-largest metro area and more than 30 Fortune 500 companies, which provides an important anchor for the housing market and economy of the entire state.

Median home price growth in Chicago has greatly outpaced that of Illinois as a whole says Fred Latsko, rising by close to 30% since the beginning of 2014. The Chicago market is expected to show further growth through the end of 2021 but not before a projected 1.5% stumble in home prices between mid-2019 and mid-2020, providing an enticing opportunity for buyers to perfectly time their entries into the market.

Markets to Look Out For

Bargain hunting aside, Illinois also boasts some legitimately burgeoning real estate areas that should be of prime interest to potential investors, including the Calumet Heights, Gage Park and West Ridge areas, which have been some of the strongest in the state when it comes to detached single-family homes. These areas feature stable prices and strong inventories and could be particularly attractive to those looking to purchase rental properties.

For buyers in the market for condos or townhouses, Fred Latsko points to the Grand Boulevard, Kenwood and Lincoln Square areas as some of the most exciting and fastest-growing in the state.

It’s not just Illinois’s residential property scene that is promising, as Chicago’s office space market is coming off its best year in over a decade. The fourth quarter of 2019 featured positive net absorption of over 500,000 square feet, ranking it as the single best quarterly period over the past four years. That strong close to 2019 also pushed positive net absorption for the full year up over 1.8 million square feet.

Fred Latsko, whose real estate development company owns and operates several premier commercial properties throughout Chicago, says the market for downtown office space is heating up considerably thanks to the October opening of the Old Post Office, which has reeled in clients like Pepsi, Walgreens, and Uber. A 55-story skyscraper on N. Wacker Drive is also set to open later this year.

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