Blog

March 18, 2024

An Update to IHS’s Housing Market Indicators Data Portal

IHS recently updated its Housing Market Indicators data portal to include new data 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.

March 4, 2024

A New Update to the Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change Tool

IHS recently updated our Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change mapping tool to include neighborhood news stories published in 2023 through 2024 mapped alongside our 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.

June 21, 2023

Key Housing Challenges in the City of Chicago

IHS research has indicated that the city's housing affordability crisis has some unique characteristics which shed light on why residents are struggling to find affordable rental housing, buy homes, and maintain their current residences.

May 1, 2023

Chicago Programs Helping to Expand the Supply of 2 to 4 Unit Properties in Black and Latino Neighborhoods

This blog reviews several programs in Chicago that showcase growing efforts to create a supply of affordable, for-sale housing in neighborhoods that have struggled for decades with disinvestment-related challenges.

January 27, 2023

Exploring the Impacts of Rising Property Taxes in Changing Neighborhoods

This blog contextualizes recent research and reporting on property tax disparities in Chicago with IHS research on neighborhood house price changes and discusses how policy interventions designed to mitigate increased tax burdens have challenges of their own.

November 17, 2022

Understanding the Implications of Pandemic House Price Gains in Chicago’s Communities of Color

This blog updates data on house price trends in City of Chicago neighborhoods based on the neighborhood’s race and ethnic composition and focuses on how COVID-19 pandemic period price gains have impacted house prices in Chicago's communities of color.

August 15, 2022

IHS Convenes Stakeholders to Discuss Older Adult Housing Needs

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.

March 2, 2022

An Update to the Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change Tool

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.

February 25, 2022

Looking Forward: An Update on COVID-19 Housing Policy Interventions

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.

December 14, 2021

Planning for the Housing Needs of an Aging Population

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.