Articles - Keep Chicagoland Moving

City in Motion

Chicago’s January–April House Sales Now Read 5.6 Percent Below Last Year, Not 23 Percent Above — the County Added 1,147 Sales to 2025 After Our July Count

A Chicago residential street with a brick two-flat and a house on a sunny morning

A correction and a recount. In July this page said Chicago’s recorded house sales ran 23 percent ahead of last year through April. Cook County’s sales file has since added 1,147 sales to the 2025 side, and the same comparison now reads 4,129 against 4,376, 5.6 percent fewer. The median recorded price held at both readings: $340,000 in 2025, $360,000 in 2026.

KCM Desk
July 28, 2026

Living Here

Chicago Re-Legalized ADUs in May 2021. It Has Issued 201 ADU Permits Since, Fewer Than One a Week.

A small Chicago coach house above a garage at the rear of a residential lot

We read all 856 ADU-related building permits since Chicago's pilot began and counted conservatively: 201 ADU permits in five-plus years, two-thirds of them in five North Side areas. The citywide expansion went live in April 2026 - this count is its baseline.

KCM Desk
July 28, 2026

Living Here

93% of Chicago House Parcels the Assessor Turned Down Appeared at the Board of Review Too. More Than 4 in 10 Won There.

A brick Chicago two-flat with a bay window on a sunny street

We matched every tax-year-2025 Chicago house appeal across both stages, parcel by parcel. The Assessor granted no reduction to five in six parcels that appealed; 93% of those later appeared at the Board of Review, and 42.5% received the reduction there. The 2026 appeal season opened July 27.

KCM Desk
July 27, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago Houses and Two-to-Six-Flats Sold in 2025 Were Valued at 81 Percent of Their Sale Prices. Those Resold Within Two Years, at 60 Percent.

A Chicago greystone house on a sunny residential street

The Cook County Assessor valued the Chicago houses and two-to-six-flats that sold in 2025 at 81 percent of their sale prices, at the median, and the homes resold within two years at 60 percent. Every community area’s figure, with resales set apart. Second reading, September 30, 2026, with corrections to the July version.

KCM Desk
July 27, 2026

Neighborhoods & Suburbs

Nearly Half of Lincoln Park’s Houses Appealed Their Property Tax Assessments. On the Southeast Side, About One in 24 Did.

Brick bungalows on a sunny Chicago residential street

We mapped all 77,942 Chicago house appeals from tax year 2025 against 446,354 house parcels. Filing runs about 12 times higher on the North Side lakefront than on the Southwest and Southeast Sides - and the low-filing areas win more often when they file.

KCM Desk
July 27, 2026

City in Motion

CPS Says It Is Short $250 Million. The Treasurer Says at Most $80 Million. The Tax Bills Are Late Either Way.

Brick facade of a classic Chicago public school building in warm morning light

Cook County's last two property tax deadlines ran late, and the county says the next will too. CPS says it is short $250 million; the Treasurer's office says at most $80 million. Either way, the schools are borrowing while they wait.

KCM Desk
July 27, 2026

City in Motion

After the Great Chicago Fire: the Three-Year Fight Over Who Could Rebuild

Currier and Ives bird's-eye view of Chicago in 1874, rebuilt three years after the Great Fire

The flames took 30 hours; deciding who could rebuild took three years. The 1872 march on the Common Council, the businessmen's relief ledger, the fire-limits compromise, and the class map it drew.

KCM Desk
July 24, 2026

City in Motion

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871: Map, Timeline, and What It Left Behind

Currier and Ives lithograph of crowds fleeing across the Randolph Street bridge as Chicago burns, 1871

The Great Chicago Fire, mapped: how it crossed the river twice, the 30-hour timeline, the disputed toll, the deadlier fire the same night, and where it survives in daily Chicago.

KCM Desk
July 24, 2026

Living Here

Last Call on the Red Line: 10 Chicago Bars Open Till 4 A.M.

Ten Chicago bars licensed to serve until 4 a.m., every one a short walk from the 24-hour Red Line. Verified against city licence records and each bar’s own posted hours, with the ones that shut at two flagged.

KCM Desk
July 21, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago’s January–April Median Sale Prices Are 18 to 29 Percent Above 2023’s and New-Construction Permits Hit a Five-Year High. The Sales Rise We Printed in July Did Not Hold.

A Chicago street of two-flats and greystones with a new building under construction mid-block

Chicago’s deed and permit records for January through April 2026: median prices 18 to 29 percent above the same months of 2023, the low of the last five years, in all three types of home, and new-construction permits at a five-year high. In July we printed a 22 percent rise in sales; after the county added 1,914 sales to 2025, the same comparison reads 6 percent down. Both readings are shown, next to the national figures and the margins printed beside them. Corrected September 30, 2026.

KCM Desk
July 20, 2026