Photo: Evelyn Ryan
In a collaboration with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), IHS has prepared new and comprehensive data on housing supply, demand, and affordability throughout the Northeastern Illinois region. The data are available as Local Housing Profiles, which are fact sheets containing housing maket data for various geographies. Profiles are available for each of the seven counties and 284 municipalities in the Northeastern Illinois Region, as well as for each of the 77 community areas within the City of Chicago.
The profiles include 2023 data on:
- General demographic and social characteristics of all households
- Housing unit characteristics and market conditions
- Affordability for existing homeowners and new homebuyers
- Affordability for rentals
The various Local Housing Profiles can be found on CMAP's website.
Additionally, IHS used data from the Local Housing Profiles to analyze current affordability conditions throughout the region. This analysis illustrates how key indicators for homeowners, new homebuyers, and rental affordability vary across geographies. You can read the analysis by clicking here.
Key Takeaways
Homeowners far outnumber renters in northeastern Illinois. In 2023, 65 percent of regional households owned their homes, while 35 percent of households rented. Cook County has the smallest percentage of homeowners — 58 percent — while Kendall County has the most at 84 percent.
Renters in the region earn far less than those who own their homes, but the disparity varies across counties. In northeastern Illinois, homeowner incomes are at least 76 percent higher than renter incomes. In 2023, the average renter household in the region earned $59,724 compared to the average owner household, which earned $120,738 — more than double. This disparity was highest in Lake County, where the average renter earned $73,182 less than the average homeowner.
In our region, nearly 48 percent of renters and 25 percent of homeowners were cost-burdened in 2023. The share of renter households burdened by cost is significant across all counties, with a low of 44 percent of renter households in DuPage County and a high of 56 percent of renter households in Kendall County. For households that own their homes, cost burden is lowest in McHenry County and highest in Cook County, where 22 percent and 28 percent of owners are cost-burdened, respectively.
Read the full analysis here.
