New Eastside
New Eastside is framed by three of the most valuable pieces of Chicago real estate that aren't for sale: Millennium Park to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, and the Chicago River to the north. The neighborhood was largely built from scratch over the past 25 years, and the intentionality shows — in the building quality, in the consistency of demand, and in a price-per-square-foot that leads the downtown market. This is not a neighborhood people stumble into. They research it, compare it, and choose it deliberately. That buyer profile shapes everything about how the market here behaves, including what it looks like when it's time to sell.
Data current through Q1 2026 — updated quarterlyWhat this neighborhood is made of
The building stock is predominantly highrises — 86% of in-scope complexes — with newer construction ages relative to the rest of downtown and floor plans that skew toward larger configurations. Looking at trailing two-year sales, 2-bedrooms and 3-bedrooms together account for roughly 60% of what sells here. Studios are a small fraction at approximately 4% of closed sales, anchored largely by 400 E Randolph, a nearly 1,000-unit building whose scale shapes the smaller-unit data for the neighborhood.
At the upper end, St. Regis Chicago and Cirrus represent the newest premium product in the market, with pricing that reflects both building quality and their position as the addresses buyers choose when they've decided New Eastside is the answer and want the best of it.
What you're writing a check for every month
| Unit size | New Eastside | Downtown | ↑/↓ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $1,995 | $1,764 | ↑ $231 |
| 1BR | $2,988 | $2,608 | ↑ $381 |
| 2BR | $5,010 | $4,074 | ↑ $936 |
| 3BR | $10,364 | $8,113 | ↑ $2,251 |
| 4BR+ | $22,503 | $12,610 | ↑ $9,893 |
New Eastside is the most expensive neighborhood in this analysis at the larger unit sizes, and it isn't close. A 2-bedroom runs about $5,010 per month — $936 above the downtown median. A 3-bedroom at $10,364 is the highest in the market. The buyers here are deliberate. They've run the comparisons and chosen this address knowing what it costs. The premium reflects newer buildings, Millennium Park and lakefront access, and a market position that has been consistent across multiple periods.
At the 4-bedroom-plus level, $22,503 per month reflects what transacted in this period rather than a stable benchmark — this segment closes in small numbers and the figures shift with building-level activity. The buyer at this price point isn't comparing against other downtown neighborhoods. They're looking at a short list of ultra-luxury buildings, select full-floor or half-floor penthouses where views or footprint are genuinely irreplaceable, and equivalent addresses in other major markets.
What's selling and how New Eastside compares
| Unit size | #Sold | Share of Downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 24 | 6% |
| 1BR | 188 | 6% |
| 2BR | 228 | 7% |
| 3BR | 126 | 9% |
| 4BR+ | 16 | 7% |
| All units | 582 | 7% |
New Eastside generated 6.8% of all downtown closings in the trailing two years — 582 transactions from a limited number of complexes. The 3-bedroom segment is where the neighborhood's market share is most notable: 126 closings represent 9% of all downtown 3-bedroom sales. That concentration at the upper end reflects consistent demand for a level of building quality and location that doesn't exist elsewhere downtown.
Understanding the data requires keeping the building mix in mind. 400 E Randolph's scale shapes the smaller-unit figures. At the upper end, St. Regis Chicago and Cirrus drove higher closing volume this period — both buildings saw more transactions than a year earlier — and that activity is what moves the neighborhood's medians. When a meaningful share of a period's closings comes from those buildings, the neighborhood's price-per-square-foot and unit-level medians reflect their positioning more than any market-wide trend.
What's happening with values here
New Eastside's price per square foot is $490 — the highest in the downtown market at $119 above the overall median, and a premium that has widened. The 2-bedroom median of $599,500 is the highest for that unit size downtown. Year-over-year, most size categories show price declines: studios -4.5%, 2-bedrooms -1.1%, 3-bedrooms -6.0%, 4-bedrooms-plus -29.1%, with 1-bedrooms the exception at +5.0%. A closer building-by-building look explains most of what's happening: softer demand at 400 E Randolph weighed on the smaller-unit figures, while the mix of St. Regis and Cirrus closings — which varied from the prior year at both buildings — drove the upper-end swings.
| Unit size | Median Sale Price | vs. Downtown | Price Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $220,000 | ↑ 12% | ↓ 4.5% |
| 1BR | $352,500 | ↑ 20% | ↑ 5.0% |
| 2BR | $599,500 | ↑ 26% | ↓ 1.1% |
| 3BR | $1,377,500 | ↑ 41% | ↓ 6.0% |
| 4BR+ | $3,175,000 | ↑ 112% | ↓ 29.1% |
The 4-bedroom-plus median moved from $4,100,000 to $3,175,000 year over year. In a segment that closes in small numbers, the prior-year figure reflected a specific concentration of closings at prices that aren't represented in the current period's mix. For sellers, the neighborhood median is the starting point. The building-level conversation is where pricing actually gets resolved.
What this data can't tell you
Everything above is aggregate data, and aggregate data has a ceiling. It can tell you where New Eastside sits relative to the rest of downtown, how its pricing has moved, what carrying costs look like across the building stock. It cannot tell you whether a specific building is well-governed, whether its reserves are adequate, whether its amenity spend is efficient, or whether a particular floor plan holds value the way the building's median suggests it should.
Those questions don't resolve at the neighborhood level. They resolve at the building level — and in some cases, only in conversation.