Understanding housing affordability in each community

The Local Housing Profiles are a curated set of housing market data for every county, municipality, and Chicago community area in northeastern Illinois, created by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) in collaboration with the DePaul University Institute for Housing Studies (IHS).

Each Local Housing Profile includes a set of tables that present the latest data on a community’s housing demand, supply, and affordability, along with regional trends. This includes measures of affordability for both renters and owners.

The data tables describe:

  • General demographic and social characteristics of all households
  • Housing unit characteristics and market conditions
  • Affordability for existing homeowners and new homebuyers
  • Affordability for renters

Homeowners outnumber renters, especially in the collar counties

Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of households in the region are homeowners. The rate of homeownership is lowest in Cook County, where 58 percent of households are owners, and highest in Kendall County, where 84 percent of households are owners.

Renters earn less than owners

The average renter household in the region earned $59,724 in 2023, compared to the average owner household who 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.

Many households are cost-burdened

Nearly half (48 percent) of renter households and a quarter (25 percent) of owner households are cost-burdened, meaning that they pay 30 percent or more of their incomes towards housing costs.

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Data and methodology

Data are sourced from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the IHS Data Clearinghouse. ACS data are sample-based estimates; exercise caution when interpreting estimates concerning low-population communities, as margins of error can be large. IHS Data Clearinghouse data are derived from parcel-level administrative datasets as well as loan data disclosed under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

IHS data are not fully available for some communities. Certain IHS indicators are not available for geographies within Kendall County or for a small number of municipalities where the underlying data are not well-represented at the municipal level. Additionally, for communities that extend beyond the CMAP region (for example, Sandwich, IL, extends into DeKalb County), IHS data includes only the portion that is within the seven counties.

Measures of homelessness are not included in the current iteration of the Local Housing Profiles due to challenges with data availability and consistency.

CMAP will update the Local Housing Profiles each year to reflect the most recent data available. The data is also available on the CMAP Data Hub in table format.