Great escape! Riverbank area houses in North Center

Wow, so cool! This house sits overlooking the river on West Berteau.  They added a massive picture looking west.

Chicago has no end to interesting pockets to live in.  The North Branch riverbank area of North Center offers a great escape just off busy North Western Ave and West Irving Park Road. I dropped my son off at Revere Park for flag football and took a run headed north quickly enhanced by the riverbank trails. The eastern bank of the river between Irving Park Road and Montrose offers a nature respite with single family homes backing right up to the riverbank.

So cool here's another angle.

A full gut renovation near completion a half block from the riverbank in North Center. I counted at least a half dozen tear-down or gut rehabs in process walking around a couple blocks.

The rectangle section between West Montrose Ave and West Irving Park Road and North Western Ave to the river (shown below) has seen a lot of sales and rehab activity in the last 12 months. It's a quiet, tree-lined area located in popular Waters School district.  22 single family homes have closed in this section of North Center near the river in the last 12 months. The median price over the last 12 months is a healthy $899,000.

I spend a little time walking the river trail on the east bank and then head over to the west bank of the river to run the large Horner Park running path. When we were buying a house back in 2010 I was fixated on Lincoln Square and the Winnemac Park area we were currently living. I never gave this awesome section consideration. Looking back it should have been a top option due to parks and schools.  Here's some trail photos from last week's walk.

Six (6) two-flat buildings sold in the same area over the last 12 months for a median price of about $525,000. Consider a multi-unit purchase as a cheaper way to get into the neighborhood you want.