How many of you have had the chance to go back to the neighborhood where you grew up and see first hand how the real estate crisis is affecting the homes/people? My old nieghborhood is filled with solidly constructed classic style homes. On the fringes and stuck into pockets are some much more upscale and recently built houses; several of which are now in foreclosure. I was sorry to see these homes squeezed in over the years, but am sorrier to see them go into forclosure. Can a neighborhood survive this?
I grew up in the city of Chicago. Most of my family (I have 5 bros and 3 sisters) still live in the Chicago area. The specific area I grew up in (Logan Square) went from blue collar to declining neighborhood to urban professional in the amount of time since I've left.
The area I grew up in is fairly close to downtown Chicago, and as a result is not being affected as much as outlying suburban areas of Chicago. Transportation to downtown from the Logan Square area is excellent, and the closer that residential properties are to the center of the city, the better they are maintaining their values. I'm sure gas prices have a lot to do with it.
i grew up in an eastern suburb in Cleveland, and my mom's neighborhood looks the same as it did when i left 24 yrs ago....But when i was home last summer for longer than a couple days...she & i were walking around the block and even there, I saw several homes that had become foreclosed on....
Such a different site because where i live, homes have been foreclosed on for many many years...
Originally posted by cordovamom: I grew up in the city of Chicago. Most of my family (I have 5 bros and 3 sisters) still live in the Chicago area. The specific area I grew up in (Logan Square) went from blue collar to declining neighborhood to urban professional in the amount of time since I've left.
The area I grew up in is fairly close to downtown Chicago, and as a result is not being affected as much as outlying suburban areas of Chicago. Transportation to downtown from the Logan Square area is excellent, and the closer that residential properties are to the center of the city, the better they are maintaining their values. I'm sure gas prices have a lot to do with it.
I was born and raised in Chicago, too, on the north side but further north than Logan Square. I don't know if my area ever had a name to it but I lived between Lawrence and Foster and Pulaski and Cicero avenues. I haven't been back there since 2003 but what I did notice when I was last there was the complete change in ethnicity of the neighborhood stores from what it had been to almost exclusively Asian. That surprised the heck out of me.
This down market hasn't really affected where I grew up all that much. Homes are still selling quite high due to people converting the two family homes into condos and selling each condo unit for between 350k and 450k that's the current prices which is much the same as they were when we sold our two family, people can't afford to buy the homes as a two family but they can afford to purchase them as seperate condos. It's the location, 10 minute train ride to Boston, my old house was across the street from a University, about 5 minutes on the train from Harvard Sq etc. We had prime location and it's still prime location. I watch the real estate in my old city and still talk to my old neighbors, there are very few foreclosures there.
Where I'm at now (about 40 mins west) is another story there are foreclosures all over homes selling for 30k to 60k less then what they were selling for 2 years ago etc.
Charcoal's mom -- I don't remember if that area had a name or not, but I believe there was a cemetery up in that area wasn't there? Bohemian or something like that. I actually went to Kelvyn Park High School on Wrightwood between Pulaski and Cicero I think. Been so long, my memory is fading !!
My best friend lives in my old neighborhood and I was there visiting a few weeks ago. It is a wonderful neighborhood! I would love to live there now. It is in NOVA, and it is an older neighborhood that attracted a lot of people because the costs of homes, since they were older, were affordable(for NOVA standards). There were many foreclosures and a few Advertised it on their garages with huge banners. It was shocking to me.
Posts: 1666 | Location: SE Missouri | Registered: Jan 02, 2007
One of my sisters and one of my brothers went to Schurz...they would have been in the classes of 1979 and 1981 I believe....small world if you were in one of those classes.
