A Favorite Area for Armchair Investors: West Garfield Park

"Arm-Chair" Investors are those who do NOT want to live in the property they buy (a more precise term for this would be "NON-owner occupied"). The question we ask here is: Where have ‘arm-chair' investors like that been concentrating their investments?

Our work with arm-chair investors has led us to believe that SEVEN Chicago neighborhoods are particularly popular for those buying non-owner occupied, cash-flow property. For instance, Bill Bein, Chicagoland2to4Flats.info's founder, owns property in Grand Crossing (a south side neighborhood)-and he has now helped many different buyers buy in all of these areas.

• The west side neighborhoods are: Humboldt Park (census tract 23), East Garfield Park (census tracts 27), West Garfield Park (census tracts 26) and North Lawndale (census tract 29)
• The south side neighborhoods are: Woodlawn (census tract 42), South Shore (census tract 43) and Greater Grand Crossing (census tract 69).

We will look at each of them in previous and future posts. In this post we look at the third one: West Garfield Park

• East and West Garfield Park (census tracts 27 and 26) have a joint article on the city's official site at http://www.chicagoneighborhoods.cc/neighborhoods/garfield.html

A major cultural asset nearby, and shared with East Garfield Park, is the Park District's Garfield Park and Garfield Park Conservatory, which is set up for both adults and children who want to spend some time with wonderful plants.

The Encyclopedia of Chicago, compiled by the Chicago Historical Society, has an article on it:

"... Before 1873, most people who saw the farms scattered on the square mile west of the future Garfield Park were on their way somewhere else. ..."
See more at http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1338.html

The Chicago Park District's Garfield Park Conservatory, which lies exactly between the East and West Garfield Park neighborhoods. This is a marvelous greenhouse which brings the rainforest to Chicago and provides places for children to climb and play, among other things.

See the East Garfield Park post for the map of this area.