Like much of the Northwest Side, the Dunning community is a haven for the middle-class, with block after block of neat-as-a-pin homes and countless shopping malls where residents can spend their hard-earned cash.
With station wagons parked on the street, sidewalks swept and the boys replaying the Super Bowl in a game of one-on-one football on the parkway, about all that`s missing in this ”American dream” neighborhood is the white picket fence.
Maybe that suburban flavor, in our chain-link fence kind of town, is what makes Dunning-and neighboring communities like Montclare, O`Hare and Norwood Park-such a popular dwelling spot for the city employees bound by Chicago`s residency requirement.
”It`s as close as they can get to the burbs without actually leaving the city,” says one landlord of the Northwest Side`s propensity for attracting Chicago`s police officers, firefighters and other city employees.
Dunning`s boundaries, roughly, are Belmont Avenue on the south, Cumberland Avenue on the west, Austin Avenue over to Narragansett Avenue on the east and city-locked Harwood Heights on the north.
Malls and leafy streets
Originally settled by farmer-turned-real estate developer Andrew Dunning, the community`s moniker took on later significance as the original name for the Chicago State Mental Hospital. Though the Chicago Read Mental Health Center remains as a reminder of that era, the Dunning of today is more recognizable for its leafy streets and shopping malls, including Harlem-Irving Plaza, Dunning Square and Forest Preserve Plaza.
Dunning`s housing market covers a wide range of prices and styles. On one end of the spectrum are small frame homes, priced in the $50,000 to $65,000 range, making them affordable for low-end buyers. New two-flat buildings, on the other hand, might fetch as much as $280,000, according to appraiser Russell Hume of Hume Associates, a realty and appraisal firm. And the high number of new buildings, according to Hume, is an indication of stable property values.
”We`re not seeing a downturn in real estate property values (like some areas) because as property deteriorates, someone buys it and fixes it up or they buy the land and build,” he says.
One part of Dunning where you`re unlikely to see new construction is Schorsch Village, bounded by Addison, Belmont, Harlem Avenue, and
Narragansett. A neighborhood of 900 historic English ”T”-style homes built in the 1930s, Schorsch Village and its mostly middle-class residents take great pride in maintaining their homes, which often sell for $140,000 to $160,000, according to Irv King, vice president in charge of buildings for the Schorsch Village Association. These roomy, 2-story homes look deceptively small from outside.
”They`re tremendously built homes,” says King. ”They`re built like forts, and you really can`t find homes like them anywhere else.”
Even with its abundance of single-family homes, Dunning has an ample supply of apartments. Newish, multi-unit buildings anchor street corners, especially on the main strips like Irving Park Road, Addison Street and Belmont, and there are similarly concentrated pockets of larger rental units in Dunning`s western sector.
Rents tend to run in the $450 to $550 range for a one-bedroom layout, and two-bedroom apartments run from $500 to $600. Landlords, many of them two- and three-decade Dunning residents, tend to live on the premises, or else they provide an on-site janitor.
Transportation in and out of the Loop is available, but indirect. Buses run along the main avenues-Belmont, Addison, Irving Park-and make the trip in about 45 minutes. The Kennedy Expressway, about a 15-minute drive from the heart of Dunning, makes for about a 35-minute drive downtown.
