Category Moving Here

Guides for anyone relocating to Chicago or its suburbs: what homes cost, how buying works here, and the practical questions every move raises. Researched from local data and sources, and updated as the answers change.

Moving Here

12 Numbers for Anyone Moving to Chicago, From Public Agencies’ Own Records

Moving truck on a Chicago block of greystones and two-flats with an L viaduct at the end of the street

Twelve numbers for anyone weighing a move to Chicago, each from a public agency's own file and a published KCM analysis: the 81 percent valuation-to-sale ratio, 60 percent of self-filed appeals winning, an October 1 tax due date, 311's clocks, 69,852 basement-flooding requests, 2.76 million potholes filled, 3,852 house-share registrations, 86/65 percent transit recovery, $4.21-a-mile rideshares, a $1,750 federal rent figure, and 5 percent of beach tests at advisory level.

KCM Desk
August 21, 2026

Moving Here

The Chicago Community Areas With the Most Two-to-Six-Flats

Brick two-flat buildings along a Chicago residential street

Austin leads Chicago with 6,777 two-to-six-flat parcels on the Assessor's 2026 roll, ahead of West Town and Logan Square - the top ten areas hold 38 percent of the city's 119,978. Class-211 parcels, not buildings, with the shrinking-stock arc in the companion analysis.

KCM Desk
August 18, 2026

Moving Here

The Chicago Community Areas With the Most Registered Murals

Several colorful abstract murals painted along a brick alley wall

West Town has more registered murals than any other Chicago community area - 66 of the 458 on the city's own Mural Registry - with Uptown at 56 and the Loop at 54 behind it. The top ten areas, each count placed by the mural's own coordinates, and the registry-not-a-census rule that scopes every rank.

KCM Desk
August 15, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago’s Mural Registry Lists 458 Works — and West Town, Uptown, and the Loop Hold 176 of Them

Colorful abstract mural on a brick wall in afternoon light

Chicago's own Mural Registry lists 458 works, and three community areas - West Town, Uptown, and the Loop - hold 176 of them. Install years run 1971 to 2024 with the busiest years in 2017 and 2019, 55 of 77 areas hold at least one, and the registry's own area column disagrees with its own coordinates on nearly half its rows - so every mural here is placed by its coordinates. The registry as recorded, mapped in full.

KCM Desk
August 15, 2026

Moving Here

Cook County’s Late Tax Bills Have a Due Date Now: October 1, 2026 — 61 Days Past the Statutory August 1

Mailboxes on brick two-flat porches in warm morning light

Cook County's second-installment bills now have a due date: October 1, 2026, per the Treasurer's table - 61 days past the statutory August 1 and the mildest of the four late years in the ledger (151, 122, 136, and now 61 days). Every date the county's own, every source linked.

KCM Desk
August 15, 2026

Moving Here

Every Frank Lloyd Wright Building on Chicago’s Landmark Register (2026)

A Prairie-style brick house with deep eaves in warm afternoon light

Chicago’s individual-landmark register credits Frank Lloyd Wright on 11 of its 412 entries — 10 as sole architect, plus the Charnley House’s shared credit — from an 1891 house on Astor Street to a 1917 pair on South Hoyne. All 11, in construction-date order, with the register’s own dates and designations.

KCM Desk
August 10, 2026

Moving Here

The Oldest Buildings on Chicago’s Landmark Register, From 1833 On (2026)

A white 1830s farmhouse with a columned porch among mature trees

The oldest standing building on Chicago’s individual-landmark register is an 1833 farmhouse in Norwood Park — three years older than the Clarke House. The twelve oldest register entries, through a four-way tie at 1869, with the commemorative sites and one stone marker kept apart and every date the register’s own.

KCM Desk
August 10, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago Took 5,012 Vacant-Building Violations Against Financial Institutions to Hearings. Four in Five Ended in “City Non-Suit.”

A boarded-up brick two-flat on a Chicago side street in afternoon light

Chicago’s ledger of vacant-building cases against financial institutions: 5,012 violations across 4,175 hearing dockets, most from the early 2010s — and four in five ended in “City non-suit,” the city ending its own case. $1.53 million assessed at the docket grain the file itself uses, $1.26 million paid. Read in full, with the double-counting trap the file sets explained.

KCM Desk
August 9, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago Has 412 Individual Landmarks. More Than Half Were Designated Under One Mayor.

An ornate Chicago greystone house with a turret on a summer morning

Chicago’s register of individually designated landmarks holds 412 entries, and more than half were designated in one mayor’s 22 years — about 10.4 a year under Richard M. Daley against roughly 6.5 under the next two administrations, with the pace back near Daley-era levels since 2023. Mapped area by area, with the register’s 1990s-built civic monuments included.

KCM Desk
August 9, 2026

Moving Here

Chicago’s Demolition and Asbestos Paperwork, Mapped: 1,253 Notices With Proposed 2026 Starts, Heaviest on the Near North Side, in Lake View, and in the Loop

An excavator and dust-suppression water spray at a Chicago demolition site

Before demolition or asbestos work, Chicago requires a notice of intent — 1,253 carry proposed 2026 starts, heaviest on the Near North Side, in Lake View, and in the Loop. The demolition subset runs a different belt, and the complaint file points somewhere else again. All mapped from CDPH’s own files.

KCM Desk
August 8, 2026