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'Coonley Effect' Boosts Home Prices in North Center

By Patty Wetli | August 30, 2013 10:01am
 As Coonley's reputation grows, so do home prices within its boundaries, according to a real estate broker.
As Coonley's reputation grows, so do home prices within its boundaries, according to a real estate broker.
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Coonley Elementary

NORTH CENTER — Can you put a price on a good neighborhood school?

Try a million bucks, according to at least one real estate broker.

In his Chicago Real Estate Local blog, Eric Rojas of Kale Realty recently analyzed the values of properties sold within the attendance boundaries of Coonley Elementary in North Center.

While the number of single-family home sales from Jan. 1 through Aug. 25 was dead even with the same period in 2012 — in both cases, 35 homes were sold — the median sale price was up 12 percent in 2013 to $720,000, according to Rojas.

An even more striking figure: Only six single-family homes are currently on the market within all of Coonley's area, which stretches at some points from Ravenswood Avenue to the Chicago River and Montrose Avenue to Irving Park Road.

Of those six homes, Rojas noted, five were listed above $1 million.

Rojas first identified the "Coonley effect" in 2011, when home prices in North Center jumped $60,000 versus 2010.

"In our analysis, Coonley School with its recent grants and Regional Gifted Center designation has been the largest factor in the increase of home prices," he wrote at the time.

Coonley boasts a Level 1 "excellent" performance rating from Chicago Public Schools, having made marked academic gains in the past decade. In 2001, just 25 percent of students were meeting or exceeding state standards; that figure is now 88 percent.

As families have flocked to the area, the school experienced growing pains.

This year, two pre-K Coonley classes are being housed at nearby McPherson Elementary due to space constraints. Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) has allocated approximately $17 million in Tax Increment Finance dollars toward a proposed Coonley annex.