Chicago Real Estate Prices

Prices continue to go up despite talk of a bubble. In my opinion, the Chicago market will stay solid for a couple of reasons: 1) because prices never got ridiculously out of whack to begin with, unlike the coasts and 2) because this is a great city with a solid pipeline of jobs and people who want to live here. In addition, we are land-locked on the east because of the lake, so expansion is limited.

Unlike stocks and many other investments, real estate provides a very tangible benefit - you can live in it. Furthermore, as the market changes you don't see the value of your house changing in the Wall Street Journal everyday. There is less opportunity for irrational exuberance - at least on the downward side - if you suspect that your house price be going down, you simply stay in it for a little longer.