Three Reasons Why Multifamily Investors Should Invest In Rogers Park Real Estate
Welcome to “An Essex Broker’s Guide To,” a monthly series where Essex Realty Group, Inc. brokers share their expertise about the neighborhoods they focus on. This month Director Jacob Goldstein shares his guide to Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.
Jacob joined Essex Realty Group in July 2016 and has since been involved in over $100 million of investment real-estate transactions. As a Director, Jacob assists clients in the successful acquisition and disposition of their multi-family and mixed-use assets throughout the Chicagoland area with a special concentration on the Rogers Park neighborhood.
Prior to joining Essex, Jacob worked as a Leasing Agent for a nationally recognized residential brokerage firm and helped manage a portfolio of Chicago area rental properties while attending the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Jacob is known for his strong work ethic, market knowledge, persistence, empathy, and problem solving abilities. Outside of work Jacob enjoys boxing, exercising, traveling, live music, and playing the guitar.
Q: What is your favorite thing about Rogers Park?
Jacob: My favorite thing about the Rogers Park neighborhood is its location within the city of Chicago. Rogers Park is a lakefront community, situated on the far north side of Chicago. Residents flock to the neighborhood for its excellent access to Lake Michigan and its beautiful beaches. Rogers Park is located just south of Evanston, which has a charming downtown area, and just about nine miles north from Chicago’s central business district in the Loop. The neighborhood also has great public transportation, making it very easy for residents to commute north to the Northshore suburbs or south towards downtown Chicago.
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Rogers Park?
Jacob: This is a very hard question for me to answer because Rogers Park is home to some of the city’s best hidden gems! What makes the restaurants in Rogers Park so unique is the large variety of cuisines offered. Rogers Park is culturally diverse and one way this diversity shines is through the delicious mom-and-pop style restaurants throughout the neighborhood. Some of my favorites include Peckish Pig, BopNGrill, and Buffalo Joe’s off of Howard.
Q: If you had one hour to spend in Rogers Park, what would you do?
Jacob: An easy way to spend an hour in Rogers Park would be to head to the beach! Did you know the Rogers Park neighborhood is home to the greatest number of beaches in Chicago? There are ten total. These beaches are unique though, rather than long sandy stretches instead they are situated at the end of streets and separated by lake front residential and multi-family property. You could also spend an hour wandering around Loyola University Chicago’s beautiful lakefront campus. The University is 150 years old this year and features beautiful buildings and sprawling green quads.
Q: Give me three reasons why I should invest in Rogers Park?
Jacob:
- Compared to multi-family opportunities offered in other northside Chicago lakefront communities, Rogers Park offers investors the opportunity to purchase property at a cheaper price per unit and with higher returns.
- In the early 20th century Rogers Park was known to be the most densely populated area in the city of Chicago. Today, there is still many opportunities for an investor to add-value through remodeling and renovating the plethora of unique vintage product that the community has to offer. This can be done by adding building amenities for tenants or making cosmetic updates to kitchens and bathrooms within these vintage buildings. Both of these strategies could lead to increased rental income.
- There will always be rental demand within the neighborhood as a result of its great location. Rogers park is home to Loyola University which means students and university staff will always need a place to reside close by. Rogers park Is situated nine miles north of Chicago’s Loop and offers residents great transportation options including Lakeshore drive, the CTA Red and Purple Lines, the Metra, as well as multiple bus routes making it easy to get from one place to another.
Q: What do you think is the most underrated thing about Rogers Park?
Jacob: I think the most underrated thing about the Rogers Park neighborhood is the variety of retail and restaurant destinations the community has to offer. You can find almost any style of cuisine in Rogers Park as well as some of the most unique mom-and-pop retail storefronts and that is part of the reason why Rogers Park is such a special place within the city of Chicago.
Since 1990, Essex Realty Group, Inc. has served Chicago’s investment real estate market as a top multifamily real estate brokerage firm. Contact us to learn more about our recent Chicagoland multifamily and mixed-use property sales and talk to a Chicago multifamily broker today.