0
0
0

Chicagoland’s Top 10 Schools in Affordable Housing Markets

by Peter Thomas Ricci

The Chicagoland area has some of the best schools in the country, but are homes affordable in those schools’ neighborhoods?

realtytrac-good-schools-affordable-housing-markets-2015

Good schools are one thing, but affording homes in those areas is an entirely different matter.

According to a new report from RealtyTrac, of the 1,823 ZIP codes in the U.S. with at least one good elementary school (those that test above state averages), 65 percent had housing markets that were unaffordable to average wage earners, meaning they required more than one-third of monthly income. In those ZIP codes, the median sales price in 2015 was $411,873, 95 percent higher than ZIPs without good schools.

The scenario in Chicagoland, however, was significantly different. With 179 affordable ZIP codes with good schools, the Chicagoland region had the most ZIP codes of any metro area (second-place Detroit was far behind with 44), while of all the Chicagoland ZIP codes RealtyTrac studied, 72.6 percent were affordable to local wage earners.

Courtesy of exclusive numbers from RealtyTrac, we’ve charted the top-performing elementary schools in both Chicago and the surrounding suburbs – in both affordable and unaffordable ZIP codes. We should note two things: first, in regards to test scores, the state average is a score of “1.0”; and second, for more information on what CPS schools are selective enrollment, click here.

School Name Suburb 2014 Test Scores Median Sales Price % of Wages Needed to Buy
Eisenhower Academy Joliet 2.21229944 $53,000 8.7%
Fairview Elementary Hoffman Estates 2.14898249 $166,750 18.3%
Ivy Hall Elementary Buffalo Grove 2.11897188 $265,000 23.5%
Herbert Hoover Elementary Schaumburg 2.11050392 $165,000 18.2%
Thomas Dooley Elementary Schaumburg 2.06895664 $190,000 20.9%
Arcadia Elementary Olympia Fields 2.0639121 $162,550 17.9%
Chippewa Elementary Palos Heights 2.06262157 $235,500 25.9%
Fairview South Elementary Skokie 2.02321118 $190,000 20.9%
Prairieview Elementary Bartlett 2.003557 $224,000 26.2%
Park View Elementary Lombard 1.99979827 $197,250 23.1%
School Name Suburb 2014 Test Scores Median Sales Price % of Wages Needed to Buy
Middlefork Primary School Northfield 2.31597257 $825,000 90.8%
John Laidlow Elementary Western Springs 2.21732094 $565,000 62.2%
Madison Elementary Hinsdale 2.21295636 $686,667 80.4%
Brook Forest Elementary Oak Brook 2.20149183 $500,000 58.6%
Walden Elementary Deerfield 2.18540643 $446,000 39.6%
Meadow Glens Elementary Naperville 2.18292015 $337,000 39.5%
Kildeer Countryside Elementary Long Grove 2.18223909 $410,000 36.4%
McKenzie Elementary Wilmette 2.17853819 $629,500 69.3%
Barbara B Rose Elementary South Barrington 2.17104701 $435,250 38.7%
Highlands Elementary Naperville 2.16575371 $360,000 42.2%
School Name Neighborhood 2014 Test Scores Median Sales Price % of Wages Needed to Buy
Decatur Classical Elementary West Ridge 2.35199145 $140,000 15.4%
Keller Elementary Mount Greenwood 2.33174703 $210,000 23.1%
Edison Elementary Albany Park 2.32285828 $250,000 27.5%
McDade Elementary Chatham 2.2881631 $55,000 6.1%
Lenart Elementary Chatham 2.2665386 $52,000 5.7%
Poe Elementary Roseland 2.25484989 $36,000 4.0%
Oriole Park Elementary Norwood Park 2.05553955 $240,000 26.4%
Disney II Elementary Old Irving Park 1.94537403 $248,000 27.3%
Canty Elementary Dunning 1.86757336 $220,000 24.2%
Stone Elementary West Ridge 1.7992994 $199,000 21.9%
School Name Neighborhood 2014 Test Scores Median Sales Price % of Wages Needed to Buy
Skinner Elementary Near West Side 2.22450941 $331,000 36.4%
Lincoln Elementary Lincoln Park 2.17702573 $452,500 49.8%
Hawthorne Elementary Lakeview 2.13258221 $381,500 42.0%
Bell Elementary North Center 2.1079522 $365,000 40.2%
Edgebrook Elementary Edgebrook 2.08054952 $367,500 40.4%
Andrew Jackson Elementary University Village 2.07880165 $331,000 36.4%
Coonley Elementary North Center 2.02397641 $365,000 40.2%
Sauganash Elementary Sauganash 2.01389356 $367,500 40.4%
Wildwood Elementary North Edgebrook 1.96302576 $367,500 40.4%
Burley Elementary Lakeview 1.96180856 $381,500 42.0%

Read More Related to This Post

Join the conversation

New Subscribe

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.