Belmont: Avondale

Belmont is where the Blue Line comes out of the subway and into the median of the Kennedy Expressway. The station sits at Kimball and Belmont on Avondale's northeastern edge, less than three blocks from St. Hyacinth Basilica. Avondale runs from Addison on the north to Diversey on the south, the river to Pulaski.

What it is like

Avondale is a working neighborhood that has been discovered: Time Out ranked it the fifth coolest neighborhood in the world in 2025, up from sixteenth in 2022. It has long had a large Polish population, and the stretch of Milwaukee Avenue known as the Polish Village, with its sausage shops, restaurants and bakeries, is anchored by the basilica and St. Wenceslaus church. Latino families have been the majority since the 1990s, and the old factory buildings along the river have become lofts and condos, including the former Dad's Root Beer plant. The residential streets are brick two-flats, bungalows and frame houses.

What it costs

Zillow Home Value Index for July 2026, the typical value of a middle-tier home: Avondale $523,436 (+8.5% in a year). That is roughly $40,000 under Logan Square for the same train, and Belmont Gardens, on Avondale's western edge, is $378,591 (+4.4% in a year).

Getting around

Blue Line at Belmont and at Addison, both 24 hours. Buses: the 56 Milwaukee northwest-southeast; the 49 Western, 53 Pulaski, 82 Kimball-Homan, 93 and 94 California north-south; the 76 Diversey, 77 Belmont and 152 Addison east-west. The Kennedy entrance is at the station.

Parks and schools

Honest note: the Chicago Tribune has counted Avondale among the city's park-poor neighborhoods, and Avondale Park lost most of its ground to the expressway. Brands Park is the largest green space; Kosciuszko Park next door in Logan Square is heavily used by residents. Residents are served by Chicago Public Schools; Carl von Linne School on Sacramento is a neighborhood school with a gifted program and a dual-language program. Ask me for the boundary of any address.

Buying or selling near this stop? Tell me about your place and you get a real number, not an algorithm, within a day.

Where this comes from

• Wikipedia, Avondale, Chicago, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avondale,_Chicago, retrieved 2026-09-03
• Wikipedia, Blue Line (CTA): station listing, 24-hour service, history, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Line_(CTA), retrieved 2026-09-02
• Zillow Research, ZHVI neighborhood file (all homes, middle tier, smoothed, seasonally adjusted), July 2026, https://www.zillow.com/research/data/, retrieved 2026-09-02