Lincoln Park is a magnet for both college students and homebuyers looking for upscale condos and detached homes. You can find casual, late-night food that caters to the college campus crowd and stately brownstones within walking distance of one another. Here’s a look at life in this North Side Chicago neighborhood.

Luxury Living

Most people associate Lincoln Park with an upscale housing market. The neighborhood’s median home sale price is in the mid $500s, according to Neighborhoods.com data, but homebuyers will find options on the market that fall far above and below that price point. 

For example, a 25,000-square-foot mansion listed for a record-breaking $50 million recently came off the market. Also, in one of the neighborhood’s condo buildings, owners have listed a unit—complete with a gold ceiling—for $2 million.

Although these glamorous options make headlines, Lincoln Park is home to some more reasonably priced options as well, with some current listings priced below $200,000. Lincoln Park is certainly one of the city’s more expensive neighborhoods, but it doesn’t exclusively contain multimillion-dollar homes. 

Accessibility

woman with stroller walking across neighborhood intersection in front of businesses

Some single-family homes may have garages, and some condos may come with an assigned parking spot. If not, street parking in Lincoln Park is a challenge even on a good day. Not only do you have to compete with residents, but you also have people from other neighborhoods and the suburbs flocking to the beach and the zoo. Parking availability is a noteworthy consideration for any homebuyer browsing Lincoln Park.

If you would rather eschew the ritual circling of the block and promising yourself you can squeeze into that parallel parking spot, the neighborhood is rich in public transit options. The CTA’s Brown, Purple, and Red lines run north and south through the neighborhood’s center. Residents can hop on at either the Fullerton (Brown, Red, and Purple lines) or Armitage (Brown and Purple lines) stations. Commuters who work downtown can reach the Loop in about 25 minutes on the train. Additionally, 13 CTA bus lines pass through the neighborhood. 

Lincoln Park also scores highly on walkability and bikeability. Walk Score ranks the neighborhood at 94 out of 100 for pedestrians and 90 out of 100 for bicyclists. This is an attractive quality for anyone considering a move to the neighborhood, particularly students taking classes on the DePaul campus. 

Abundant Greenspace

tin man statue in front of park with woman walking by
The famous Oz Park

Lincoln Park is considered a part of Chicago’s “Emerald Necklace,” a name given to a string of parks during the 1893 World’s Fair. The name still holds true today with plenty of parks and open space in the neighborhood. The entire eastern edge of the neighborhood along the lake is a swath of open space that includes the North Pond Nature Sanctuary, Diversey Harbor, Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, and North Avenue Beach.

While that verdant strip along the lake gives people plenty of outdoor space, it’s also home to a number of the city’s highly prized cultural attractions. Shed the chill of Chicago’s winter inside the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Visit animals from all over the world at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Learn about the natural world at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and show your Chicago pride by visiting the Chicago History Museum. 

Even further into the interior of the neighborhood, residents have access to more park space. For example, Oz Park, named for its “Wizard of Oz” theme, has a playground, community garden, sports fields, tennis courts, and basketball courts.

Neighborhood Eats and Nightlife

Eating out in Lincoln Park can mean sitting down at an old favorite, like tapas restaurant Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, or discovering somewhere new. For example, Parson’s Chicken & Fish, a beloved staple of fellow North Side neighborhood Logan Square, recently joined the dining scene in Lincoln Park. 

Much like its homes, the neighborhood’s restaurants have an impressive range of price and styles. If you want the restaurant equivalent of a gold-ceilinged condo, the decadent tasting menu at Alinea is right up your alley. On the casual end of the spectrum, Pequod’s Pizza does pizza in the pan and by the slice. 

Likewise the neighborhood’s bar scene has a refreshing variety that serves a wide range of moods. Oenophiles will flock to J9 Wine Bar, while craft beer drinkers will crowd the Local Option brewpub. If you want live music with your drinks, B.L.U.E.S. and Kingston Mines, two revered blues clubs, are right across from one another on Halsted Street.