Living in Chicago, I often hear comments along the lines of "why do we need more housing when the population is shrinking?" While the overall population of Chicago has been mostly stagnant or declining over the past several decades, many parts of the city have gained population, especially the areas in or adjacent to downtown.
Living in Chicago, I often hear comments along the lines of "why do we need more housing when the population is shrinking?" While the overall population of Chicago has been mostly stagnant or declining over the past several decades, many parts of the city have gained population, especially the areas in or adjacent to downtown.
The parts that are loosing population tend to have issues that make them unattractive to people looking for a new place to live. Specifically, they generally have old housing that is in poor repair, few local amenities such as grocery stores and restaurants, worse schools than the more desirable neighborhoods , relatively high rates of violent crime, and are often in areas with mediocre public transit. On top of that, if you want to buy a house in such a neighborhood, you are going to struggle to get a loan that will cover both the purchase price and the repairs that it most likely needs.
Living in Chicago, I often hear comments along the lines of "why do we need more housing when the population is shrinking?" While the overall population of Chicago has been mostly stagnant or declining over the past several decades, many parts of the city have gained population, especially the areas in or adjacent to downtown.
The parts that are loosing population tend to have issues that make them unattractive to people looking for a new place to live. Specifically, they generally have old housing that is in poor repair, few local amenities such as grocery stores and restaurants, worse schools than the more desirable neighborhoods , relatively high rates of violent crime, and are often in areas with mediocre public transit. On top of that, if you want to buy a house in such a neighborhood, you are going to struggle to get a loan that will cover both the purchase price and the repairs that it most likely needs.