Multi-family housing community sold for $70M as suburban Chicago housing market stays red-hot

A 672-unit housing community in the Chicago suburbs was sold for $69.5 million by commercial real estate firm CiTYR as the suburban housing market remains red hot across the country.

New York-based CiTYR sold the community, The New Colonies, in Steger, a suburb 35 miles south of downtown Chicago, to Bender Companies, according to JLL, which brokered the off-market deal. Bender Companies specializes in the acquisition and management of value-add multifamily assets.

The New Colonies, built in 1973, consists of 72 studios, 390 one-bedrooms, 150 two-bedrooms and 60 three-bedrooms averaging 676 square feet.

“Robust demand and tightening availability have supported strong rent growth in suburban Chicago thus far in 2021,” said David Gaines, managing director of JLL.

Average asking rents increased by over 6 percent this year, pushing the year-over-year growth in multi-housing rents in the Chicago area to its highest level in more than a decade, Gaines added.

Chicago-area homes have been on the rise since last year as more people sought more space and took advantage of record-low mortgage rates during the pandemic.

The median home sale price in the nine-county region rose about 16 percent to $300,000 from January to June in 2021 compared to the same period last year, according to Illinois Association of Realtors. Home sales took off beginning in August 2020 when 13,360 homes sold in the Chicago area, a year-over-year increase of nearly 20 percent.