This blog discusses highlights from IHS's May 2022 convening of a diverse group of participants including affordable-housing advocates, the aging-in-place community, housing developers, community groups, government agencies and others to discuss the implications of IHS's recent report Housing Needs and Economic Conditions of Cook County’s Older Adults.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the fourth quarter of 2021 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

IHS recently updated our Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change mapping tool to include neighborhood news stories published in 2021 and 2022 mapped alongside our updated Mapping Displacement Pressure data. The mapping tool provides users with spatial, housing market, and demographic context to assess the potential implications of the activities described in each article.

This blog is a part of our series examining the impact of the COVID-19 economy on Chicago households and communities. This third installment discusses data, research, and programs to guide equitable recovery efforts as COVID-19 protections and assistance enacted during the first two years of the pandemic end.

IHS’s Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago project supports ongoing and future public investment decisions by creating a leading indicator to identify neighborhoods where vulnerable populations may be experiencing affordability pressures and displacement risk from increased housing costs.

The development of impactful policy to address the unique housing needs of Cook County’s older adults requires local and timely data on changing conditions, informed by the data needs of issue-area stakeholders. This analysis leverages the local knowledge of roughly 20 Chicago-area organizations working on older adult housing issues to create a practitioner-focused resource on key demographic and socioeconomic conditions related to older-adult housing demand and economic and housing insecurity in Cook County.

To inform our work on Cook County’s older adult housing needs and economic challenges, IHS tapped into the local knowledge of roughly 20 Chicago-area organizations to create a resource on key older adult demographic and socioeconomic trends. Read more here about the distinct challenges facing older adult renter and owner households in Cook County, as well as key policy challenges and information needs that emerged during our stakeholder engagement process.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the second quarter of 2021 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

The newest release of the State of Rental Housing in Cook County updates key data on changing rental demand, the supply of rental housing, and how these dynamics affect access to affordable rental housing for Cook County's lowest income households.

Chicago’s diverse stock of naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) faces a variety of challenges. A new report and resource clearinghouse from The Preservation Lab, an initiative co-led by the Institute for Housing Studies and The Preservation Compact, documents the risks and pressures facing NOAH buildings, owners, and tenants in different market contexts and provides resources and guiding principles to assist community stakeholders in developing tailored NOAH preservation strategies.

Facilitated by the Chicago Community Trust’s Protecting and Advancing Equitable Homeownership initiative, the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (IHS) partnered with the Urban Institute to develop a data resource for Chicago practitioners, policymakers, and advocates working to reduce the racial homeownership gap. Read more about Chicago Housing Overview: Preserving Affordability and Expanding Accessibility here.

For a decade, IHS has provided data and technical assistance to the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) to inform the organization’s programs, initiatives, and outreach in southwest Chicago. Read more here about how IHS data has helped SWOP target and rehabilitate vacant buildings after the Great Recession, distribute aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, and conduct targeted outreach to Southwest Chicago residents.

This blog provides an overview of the current state of 2 to 4 unit housing in Chicago, new pilot programs directed at preserving multi-unit housing in Chicago, and IHS’s work in community partnerships over the years that have provided insight on the 2 to 4 unit housing market.

With support from Urban Institute's National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, the Institute for Housing Studies partnered with Communities United and Elevated Chicago to engage community members experiencing disproportionate impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here about how data and community-driven narratives can guide equitable COVID-19 response and recovery efforts in Chicago.

This analysis uses a unique data set to document the loss of the 2 to 4 stock in Chicago neighborhoods in an effort to understand the different ways that market forces put pressure on this key segment of the city’s housing market.

To inform ongoing policy conversations related to the preservation of 2 to 4 buildings in Chicago neighborhoods, this report updates key contextual data on the stock of 2 to 4s in Chicago, and includes new data on the characteristics of the stock, foreclosure impacts, and the importance of 2 to 4s in communities of color and for households of color.

This guest blog, co-authored by a group of Chicago housing organizations, responds to IHS's recent analysis on the importance of and threats to 2 to 4 unit buildings in Chicago. It emphasizes the disproportionate health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across Chicago’s communities of color; the potential implications for the stability of Chicago’s 2 to 4 unit housing stock; and the urgent need for coordinated actions to address existing needs of families that rely on the affordability that 2 to 4 flats provide.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the fourth quarter of 2020 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

IHS recently updated our Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change mapping tool to include neighborhood news stories published in 2020 mapped alongside our updated Mapping Displacement Pressure data. The mapping tool provides users with spatial, housing market, and demographic context and to assess the potential implications of the activities described in each article.

IHS’s Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago project supports ongoing and future public investment decisions by creating a leading indicator to identify neighborhoods where vulnerable populations may be experiencing affordability pressures and displacement risk from increased housing costs.

IHS recently expanded its Housing Market Indicators data portal to include additional information on neighborhood demographic and economic characteristics. These data will provide portal users with additional context to understand factors that may affect housing market activity in their communities.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the second quarter of 2020 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

This blog revisits local, state, and federal policy interventions that emerged during the beginning months of the COVID-19 crisis. Short term supports have been critical for those able to access relief, but many of the most critical economic supports have expired and stopgap measures to temporarily extend these programs are not enough to alleviate the current economic hardship faced by many households. Read more about how these policy interventions have evolved since the first stimulus package.

The Preservation Lab is an initiative co-directed by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (IHS) and The Preservation Compact that aims to investigate complex and timely affordable housing topics and inform affordable housing policy through applied research and stakeholder engagement.

Through the City Tech Connect Chicago Innovation Program, the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (IHS) and MAPSCorps teamed up to create data indicators, sustainable processes, and tools to help community organizations access, analyze, and compare neighborhood-level data that can be leveraged to support local policies and issues.

IHS provides data and technical assistance for Communities United (CU)— a community-based organization based in Albany Park which also serves Austin, Belmont-Cragin, Roseland, and West Ridge, on the Northwest, West, and South sides of Chicago— and its housing initiative Renters Organizing Ourselves to Stay (ROOTS). This blog highlights some of this work and how it has been used by Communities United.

How have policymakers responded to help communities weather the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19? This blog is part of our recent series examining the impact of the pandemic in Chicago neighborhoods and highlights local, state, and federal policy interventions that aim to provide housing and financial stability during a time of economic uncertainty. As the duration of large-scale unemployment and long-term impacts of the pandemic remain unclear, these policy approaches are evolving and fast-moving to respond to changing needs.

A recent IHS blog provided a preliminary analysis of the rental housing market implications of a COVID-19-related economic downturn. This brief follow-up blog takes a closer look at homeownership and provides an initial analysis of how a COVID-19 related economic downturn could impact homeowners in Cook County.

To support Chicago-area housing and community development practitioners as they think through the need for housing and place-based interventions, the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) has created a new analysis to highlight the potential economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on households with workers in occupations more vulnerable to mass layoffs.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the fourth quarter of 2019 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

As part of our new series that highlights examples of IHS technical assistance projects, this blog shares about a partnership between IHS and Greater Chatham Initiative.

This report goes “under the hood” of our Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago data to highlight how house prices are changing in the neighborhoods around The 606 and identifies potential opportunities to preserve affordability in surrounding communities.

IHS’s Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago project supports ongoing and future public investment decisions by creating a leading indicator to identify neighborhoods where vulnerable populations may be experiencing affordability pressures and displacement risk from increased housing costs.

We are starting a new blog series that highlights examples of IHS technical assistance projects. In this blog we describe a recent partnership IHS worked on in East Garfield Park.

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the second quarter of 2019 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

The newest release of the State of Rental Housing in Cook County updates key data on changing rental demand, the supply of rental housing, and how these dynamics affect access to affordable rental housing for Cook County's lowest income households.

The Preservation Compact’s 2019 policy response to the State of Rental Housing in Cook County

This update of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) Cook County House Price Index highlights changing prices for single-family homes through the fourth quarter of 2018 in 16 City of Chicago submarkets and 17 submarkets primarily in suburban Cook County.

This blog highlights how Chicago’s designated Opportunity Zones align with displacement pressure in the city’s neighborhoods and discusses what this means for the implementation of Opportunity Zone investments.

This analysis examines IHS’s updated displacement pressure maps and ways that market pressure may be changing in Chicago neighborhoods. The goal is to give neighborhood stakeholders a timely resource to understand shifting levels of market activity and highlight which areas in the City of Chicago may be experiencing increased displacement pressure.

IHS’s Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago project supports ongoing and future public investment decisions by creating a leading indicator to identify neighborhoods where vulnerable populations may be experiencing affordability pressures and displacement risk from increased housing costs.

Since 2010, the number of children in Chicago declined by 40,000. Chicago ranks near the top of cities in the nation for child population declines, right behind Cleveland and Detroit.

This analysis examines how household incomes have shifted at the neighborhood level between 2010 and 2016 and describes what different trends tell us about the challenges facing different neighborhoods in Chicago.

The City of Chicago commissioned the Institute for Housing Studies to develop data to guide conversations around developing Chicago’s 2019-2023 Five-Year Housing Plan.

The newest release of the State of Rental Housing in Cook County updates key data on changing rental demand, the supply of rental housing, and how these dynamics are affecting access to affordable rental housing for Cook County's lowest income households.