Cook County Houses Gained And Lost By Township Since 2008

Since 2008, Cook County’s count of houses and small apartment buildings has risen by just 3,087, and the split is lopsided: the 30 suburban townships gained 6,351 while Chicago’s eight townships lost 3,260, by the assessor’s count. Lake township alone lost 3,075, nearly the county’s whole net gain. From 2000 to 2008 the count had grown by 21,986, most of it in the suburbs.

Single and Multi-Family Improvement Characteristics (x54s-btds), maintained by the Cook County Assessor’s Office, tax years 2000, 2008 and 2025, retrieved September 18, 2026; last updated September 15, 2026 · one row per building: single-family houses and buildings of fewer than seven units · every change is net — buildings added minus buildings that left these classes

Chicago’s townships and the suburbs

Buildings in the file for each tax year. Chicago’s eight are the townships the assessor’s parcel file assigns to its “City” triad, one of the three groups it reassesses in turn; township lines are not city or village limits.
Area	2000	2008	2025	Change, 2000–2008	Change, 2008–2025
Chicago’s eight townships	441,654	442,685	439,425	+1,031	−3,260
The 30 suburban townships	636,320	657,271	663,622	+20,951	+6,351
No township listed	0	4	0	+4	−4
All of Cook County	1,077,974	1,099,960	1,103,047	+21,986	+3,087

The suburbs’ gain shrank from 20,951 buildings in the eight years to 2008 to 6,351 in the seventeen since, and Chicago’s townships went from a gain of 1,031 to a loss of 3,260. Put the two periods side by side and net growth fell from about 2,700 buildings a year to about 180.

Where the growth went, and where it slowed

From 2000 to 2008 the largest net gains were in Hanover township, 3,661, Orland, 3,484, and Rich, 3,244 — together 10,389. Since 2008 the same three have added 1,791. The losses since 2008 are concentrated in Chicago: Lake township, down 3,075, West Chicago, down 965, and Lake View, down 557, with Thornton, down 764, the largest suburban loss. Lemont gained the most relative to its size, 1,334 buildings or 19.6 percent, and South Chicago township is the only Chicago township to gain more than a thousand in either period: 1,560, then 1,085.

Township by township

Largest net loss since 2008 first. Four buildings in the 2008 rows carry no township and are not in this table.
Township	Group	2000	2008	2025	Change, 2000–2008	Change, 2008–2025	Percent, 2008–2025
Lake	Chicago	146,588	146,381	143,306	−207	−3,075	−2.1%
West Chicago	Chicago	66,675	66,629	65,664	−46	−965	−1.4%
Thornton	Suburban	53,809	54,242	53,478	+433	−764	−1.4%
Lake View	Chicago	24,386	23,603	23,046	−783	−557	−2.4%
Hyde Park	Chicago	64,659	64,982	64,704	+323	−278	−0.4%
Calumet	Suburban	4,874	4,908	4,730	+34	−178	−3.6%
Bloom	Suburban	26,670	27,585	27,442	+915	−143	−0.5%
Leyden	Suburban	23,391	23,359	23,297	−32	−62	−0.3%
Niles	Suburban	31,872	31,856	31,794	−16	−62	−0.2%
Cicero	Suburban	13,867	13,818	13,767	−49	−51	−0.4%
Elk Grove	Suburban	18,054	18,031	17,980	−23	−51	−0.3%
North Chicago	Chicago	5,609	5,520	5,481	−89	−39	−0.7%
Riverside	Suburban	5,286	5,277	5,262	−9	−15	−0.3%
Proviso	Suburban	41,989	41,996	41,984	+7	−12	−0.03%
Norwood Park	Suburban	8,140	8,216	8,214	+76	−2	−0.02%
New Trier	Suburban	18,209	18,328	18,330	+119	+2	+0.01%
Berwyn	Suburban	12,989	12,989	12,994	0	+5	+0.04%
Rogers Park	Chicago	7,916	7,809	7,814	−107	+5	+0.1%
Stickney	Suburban	12,120	12,270	12,293	+150	+23	+0.2%
River Forest	Suburban	2,934	2,950	2,977	+16	+27	+0.9%
Worth	Suburban	42,911	43,406	43,461	+495	+55	+0.1%
Oak Park	Suburban	11,200	11,333	11,448	+133	+115	+1.0%
Bremen	Suburban	31,182	32,746	32,865	+1,564	+119	+0.4%
Evanston	Suburban	12,931	13,028	13,171	+97	+143	+1.1%
Palos	Suburban	13,108	13,818	14,003	+710	+185	+1.3%
Rich	Suburban	18,980	22,224	22,475	+3,244	+251	+1.1%
Barrington	Suburban	4,640	5,215	5,577	+575	+362	+6.9%
Wheeling	Suburban	35,680	36,011	36,373	+331	+362	+1.0%
Schaumburg	Suburban	29,541	30,051	30,491	+510	+440	+1.5%
Maine	Suburban	34,892	34,972	35,463	+80	+491	+1.4%
Lyons	Suburban	29,151	29,908	30,466	+757	+558	+1.9%
Jefferson	Chicago	111,979	112,359	112,923	+380	+564	+0.5%
Hanover	Suburban	20,905	24,566	25,178	+3,661	+612	+2.5%
Northfield	Suburban	21,804	23,172	23,927	+1,368	+755	+3.3%
Palatine	Suburban	25,536	26,595	27,519	+1,059	+924	+3.5%
Orland	Suburban	24,095	27,579	28,507	+3,484	+928	+3.4%
South Chicago	Chicago	13,842	15,402	16,487	+1,560	+1,085	+7.0%
Lemont	Suburban	5,560	6,822	8,156	+1,262	+1,334	+19.6%

Since 2008, 23 townships gained buildings and 15 lost them, five of the losers in Chicago. A net figure hides its parts: a township that tore down and rebuilt at the same pace would show no change at all. The earlier analysis of the county’s housing age estimates, under stated assumptions, that roughly 21,394 or more buildings in the 2008 rows are no longer in the 2025 rows. If so, the modest net figures here sit on top of much larger turnover in the file’s rows.

What the file confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, as recorded: how many buildings the assessor lists in each township for each tax year. Not shown: how many were built or torn down, since a building can also leave these classes by becoming condominiums or changing class; condominiums and buildings of seven or more units, which the file does not carry; and why any township gained or lost. The comparison starts in 2000 because 1999, the file’s first year, holds 18,272 fewer rows than 2000, and it ends in 2025 because the 2026 rows are not final. This analysis used only grouped counts, never a parcel number or an address.

Where the record lives

The Single and Multi-Family Improvement Characteristics file and the current-year Parcel Universe, which supplied the township names, sit on Cook County’s data portal. Every figure here was computed from them as retrieved on September 18, 2026.

The bottom line

Cook County’s net growth in houses and small apartment buildings slowed from 21,986 in 2000–2008 to 3,087 in 2008–2025. The suburbs still gained, 6,351, while Chicago’s townships lost 3,260, most of it in Lake township.

Three questions the file can answer

Which township lost the most since 2008? Lake, 3,075. Which gained the most since 2008? Lemont, 1,334. Which grew most from 2000 to 2008? Hanover, 3,661.

Source: the Cook County Assessor’s Single and Multi-Family Improvement Characteristics file (x54s-btds), tax years 2000, 2008 and 2025, retrieved September 18, 2026.
Read: grouped counts of buildings by tax year and township; no parcel number, address or owner field selected.
Townships: names and groups from the assessor’s current-year Parcel Universe (pabr-t5kh).
Not here: construction, demolition, condominiums, and any cause for a change.

Computed by KCM Desk from the Cook County Assessor’s Single and Multi-Family Improvement Characteristics file, retrieved September 18, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.