Now’s the time to buy? In Humboldt Park, answer may be yes (Chicago NSP)

It was a blustery April Saturday in Humboldt Park – rainy, cold and in no way conducive to a walking tour of houses for sale, particularly when buyers remain few and far between.
 
But that didn’t stop more than 100 home owner wannabes from making a combination trolley/walking trek of five formerly vacant, foreclosed Humboldt Park houses that have been renovated through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and are now for sale to buyers of modest means.
 

 
NSP, the federally-funded effort to breathe new life into vacant foreclosed properties and to help rebuild stable, vibrant neighborhoods in Chicago and nationwide – has so far acquired, rehabbed, and put a for-sale sign in front of  28 houses throughout the city. Those in Humboldt Park are among the crown jewels.
 
Not only are they charming, affordable and solidly-built (many date to the early days of the last century), but they’re on some uncommonly attractive Humboldt Park streets.
 
Consider, for example, the 3500 block of W. Le Moyne. It’s lined with trim, tidy, two-story detached single-family houses, all with flat roofs. Among them is 3518 W. Le Moyne, whose crisp, white painted brick exterior is consistent with the bright, clean renovated three-bedroom, two-bath interior. The block, and the house, would be equally at home on a street in, say, London.
 
The adjacent blocks are no less interesting. Instead of flat-roofed, Georgian houses, some boast the steeply pitched roofs of brick Chicago cottages, all perfectly lined up like soldiers at attention, with their uniform heights and setbacks suggesting that the neighborhood evolved from thoughtful planning and design.
 
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