Buyers Making Tracks to Public Transit

Ahhhh…summer in Chicago, the Cubs and White Sox are thrashing it out on the North Side, the beaches are alive with the sounds of volleyball games and splashing surf, and Lake Shore Drive is crammed with motorists looking to squeeze every dollar they can out of the small mortgage payment they are forking over at the pump every week.

One developing impact of these higher gas prices is that buyers are rapidly losing interest in living on the boundaries of urban areas where a car is absolutely essential to get to work and play. As evidenced, in part, by the Neumann Homes collapse, new buyers may not be as eager to invest in homes as far away as Oswego and Grayslake.

Despite the Brown Line construction delays that have made everyone question the efficiency of the El, it seems that a lot of new home buyers are looking to the CTA and similar regional public transit systems as their ticket to lowering commuting costs.

Of course, the El is still a fairly reliable alternative to your gas-guzzling vehicle of choice. And at $2 per trip you can’t beat the price. All of the neighborhoods that I will be focusing on, from Wrigleyville (Addison Red Line) to Wicker Park and Bucktown (Western/Damen/Division Blue Line) and Lincoln Park, have excellent access to the El and various bus lines. In addition, most of these neighborhoods have bike lanes on the major thoroughfares, which may be the single best way to get around this summer.

It is possible to live too close to public transportation. I once lived in a unit that was so close to the Red Line tracks that the conductors waved to me when I sat on my back deck.

Next time we’ll take a closer look at Wicker Park and Bucktown, and where exactly is the dividing line, anyway?