The front door to everything we publish about Chicago housing. Every number is computed from the source its analysis names — chiefly the sale records the Cook County Assessor publishes from recorded deeds, city permit, license, notice and hearing files, and Census population estimates; a few analyses read forecast or search-interest series and say so. No listings data, no modeled home values in the sale figures.
$320,000
median house sale, 2025
+62%
two-to-six-flat median since 2019
16%
of 2026 purchases through May have a corporate buyer
7,914
fewer two-to-six-flat buildings on the assessor’s classification rolls than in 2006
Sale figures cover January 2018 through May 28, 2026; every analysis carries its full sources and as-of dates.
What homes actually cost
MOVING HEREWhat a Chicago Home Actually Sold For241,653 deeds, all 77 community areas, 2018 to mid-2026, with a map you can scrub through seven years.THE BUYERSChicago Loses a Two-to-Six-Flat Every DayThe stock, price, and buyers of the city’s signature small apartment building, measured over twenty years.THE NEW LAWThe Federal Housing Law, Measured Against ChicagoFour provisions of the ROAD to Housing Act, checked against our deeds, permits and inspection records.FINANCINGThe Loans That Weren’t Written1,424 homes sold under $100,000; lenders wrote 289 mortgages that size. The mortgage gap, neighborhood by neighborhood.THE BUYERSWho Is Buying Chicago?Deconversions, scattered-site operators, a nonprofit receiver, and 9,704 quick flips: the buyer names on nine years of deeds.MOVING HEREZillow Cut Its 2026 Outlook to Flat. Chicago Ran 23% Ahead.Recorded sales through April 2026 against the national forecasts, on matched complete windows that recording lags cannot distort.
Where change is running fastest
NEIGHBORHOODSWhere Chicago’s Gentrification Signals Are FlashingFive market signals scored in every community area. The active cluster is not in the neighborhoods most often named.NEIGHBORHOODSLogan Square Is Climbing in the DataWhat search interest and permits said about one North Side neighborhood.
What gets built — and what doesn’t
NEIGHBORHOODS698 New-Construction Permits in Half a YearEvery new-construction permit the city issued in the first half of 2026, mapped to its community area.NEIGHBORHOODS201 ADU Permits in Five YearsChicago re-legalized backyard apartments and coach houses in May 2021. The permit file counts fewer than one a week since.RENTERS & RULESThe City’s Affordable-Rental Inventory, Counted598 city-supported developments and 29,550 listed units — and the 1997 state law that keeps rent control off the table.RENTERS & RULESThe House-Share Ledger, Both Directions3,852 active registrations across all 50 wards — and 2,230 buildings totaling 184,978 units that filed to bar house-sharing, heaviest on the high-rise lakefront.LAND & BUILDINGSAfter the Wrecking BallThe demolition-to-rebuild join, permit to permit: in the areas leading 2018–2022 demolitions, a rebuild permit followed more than 80 percent of the time.LAND & BUILDINGSThe City’s Land Ledger12,110 parcels listed as city-owned, 195 marked sold last year, and the median sold parcel held 23 years.LAND & BUILDINGSThe Demolition-Dust Paperwork, Mapped1,253 CDPH notices of intent with proposed 2026 starts — heaviest downtown and on the North lakefront, while the demolition subset runs a different belt.LAND & BUILDINGS412 Individual Landmarks, by Era and AreaMore than half were designated under one mayor — about 10.4 a year — and the pace has been back near that level since 2023.LAND & BUILDINGSThe Vacant-Building Docket5,012 violations against financial-institution-owned vacant buildings; four in five ended in “City non-suit,” and $1.53 million was assessed at the docket grain.
The bigger picture
THE BIG PICTUREIllinois Has Gained Population Three Years StraightThe Census revisions nobody noticed, and what they mean for housing demand.THE BIG PICTUREWhere People Leaving Cook County Actually GoIRS tax-return flows: mostly next door, not Texas.THE BIG PICTUREAmerica Is Short 4.7 Million HomesChicago isn’t on the worst-off lists. What its absence does and doesn’t mean.THE BIG PICTUREChicago Against the National Housing NumbersNew-home sales, permits and prices: the national indicators, then the same measures computed for Chicago on comparable windows.
Renters and the rules
RENTERS & RULESPRO vs. FAIR, ComparedThe two competing renter-protection ordinances in front of City Council as of July 2026.RENTERS & RULESSouth Shore, the Obama Center, and the Renters Next DoorThe neighborhood where eviction pressure and investment pressure meet.
How this hub works
Analyses are added as they publish, and the numbers above refresh with each update; annual figures get a full revisit each winter when the county’s complete-year records land. Methods are disclosed inside every piece, including the screens we apply to raw records and the thresholds where we suppress thin data rather than guess. If you spot an error anywhere in the cluster, corrections come first.