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Why people love it

Locals call it the Triangle: quiet residential blocks bounded by rail lines on all three sides, in the smallest of Chicago's 77 community areas. It is the kind of place where nearly half the homeowners have been on the block for years.

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What's drawing people

Buyers priced out of nearby bungalow neighborhoods and Avalon Park are finding the same brick housing here for less, and the numbers show it. Two flats around the Triangle traded at a $301,050 median, the strongest small multifamily figure of any area in this corner of the city.

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The value

House medians doubled from $98,075 in the 2013 to 2015 window to $199,500 today. With so few parcels in the neighborhood, supply stays tight, and tight supply protects value.

What people say about Burnside

Single family median $199,500 on 53 sales in 2023 to 2025, double the $98,075 of a decade ago.
26 two flat sales at a $301,050 median, the highest two flat median among the far south areas I track.
The least populous community area in Chicago, about 2,254 residents, so inventory is genuinely scarce.

Locals call it the Triangle: quiet residential blocks bounded by rail lines on all three sides, in the smallest of Chicago's 77 community areas.

Burnside is a triangle of streets hemmed in by three rail lines, which is exactly why people who live there like it. There is no through traffic to speak of. It grew up around the Illinois Central's Burnside station and repair shops in the 1890s, built by Hungarian, Polish, Italian and Ukrainian railroad and factory families, and it has been a homeowner's pocket ever since.

The stock is brick: bungalows, story and a half singles, and a meaningful seam of two flats. Sales run about 30 houses a year, which sounds small until you remember this is geographically the smallest community area in Chicago. Scarcity is a feature here, not a bug.

Prices bottomed in the mid 2010s around $98,000 and have climbed every window since, reaching $199,500 in 2023 to 2025. Two flats have done even better, with a median over $300,000. The Triangle is quietly tracking its better known neighbors to the north and west.

Burnside fits a buyer who wants calm blocks and brick construction without paying neighboring area prices, and a small investor who understands that in a neighborhood this size, a well kept two flat rarely comes up for sale twice.

Last updated August 2026.