Backyard Pool Sales Are Exploding, in Chicago

Before 2020, private pools weren’t only relatively uncommon around Chicago, but often detracted from the overall value of homes there, says Jane Lee, a real-estate agent in Lake County, Ill.

The weather, which averages above 70 degrees only three months out of the year, isn’t conducive to spending much time in an outdoor pool. It costs between $1,600 and $2,500 annually just to heat an outdoor pool with gas in Chicago, depending on your desired water temperature, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Before the pandemic, the cost and maintenance of outdoor pools made them a value killer.

“In past years, we were getting estimates for filling in or removing pools prior to going on the market,” said Emily McClintock, a real-estate agent with Baird & Warner on Chicago’s North Shore. Now, she says, pools are a selling point.

When Jennifer Nichols and her husband, Lennon Jones, decided to move back to Chicago last December after a nearly two-year stint in Portland, Ore., a pool didn’t rank high on their priority list for a home. But as they looked at houses in the Old Irving Park neighborhood of the city, a seven-bed, eight-bath home with a 24-foot, aboveground pool was the surprisingly perfect fit.

“It had more appeal to me because of the pandemic,” said Ms. Nichols, a corporate attorney. “If you can’t go anywhere and do anything, at least you can feel like you did something during the summer, like swim in your own backyard.”

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