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According to my data from above (I actually keep data on this stuff), there are currently 2823 units of the multi-unit type which have received building permits in 2014 in Chicago with another 400-500 for stuff like transitional living homes. Also 208 new construction single family homes. Doing the math here, that means a over 1000 units have received building permits outside of the downtown area so far this year and all of those single family homes are outside of that too. This is also not counting conversions either like the 65 units in a former office/Studebaker showroom in the South Loop or the conversion of an abandoned old folks home in Uptown to 160 residential units.
Last edited by marothisu; 05-22-2014 at 10:45 PM..
Why is it bogus? Downtown is set to add almost 5000 apartment units this year alone yet vacancies remain low. And roughly the same numbers are in the pipeline for the coming years.
No city in the country offers the combination of urban/cost-of/living as does Chicago. The previous decades loss was almost entirely blacks moving to the suburbs. The core of the city is surging and I don't see that stopping any time soon.
Chicago is still freezing cold, expensive, highly taxed, etc. It is a very difficult city to survive in. No one wants to live in a place like that.
The city also had a net loss of whites. Asian and Hispanic groups barely grew if they grew at all.
Chicago is still freezing cold, expensive, highly taxed, etc. It is a very difficult city to survive in. No one wants to live in a place like that.
* What you can and can't stand weather wise is subjective, not to mention that the average temperature in Chicago historically is at least 70 degrees for 5 months of the year (May - September). October's average highs are in the 60s, and Aprils are just below 60, at 59 degrees on average. In other words, 6 months of the year, the average temperatures are above 60, and another month is barely below it. November and March historically average in the upper 40s for highs. 3 months of the year average below 40, and no month averages below 30 degrees.
* Expensive? Yeah maybe compared to Des Moines, IA. It's not expensive when you compare it to San Francisco, LA, NYC, DC, or Boston. It has about the same COL as Seattle and Philadelphia. Furthermore, the fact that you can live in many areas without a car means that some other places like Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, etc become more even with it with housing + transportation costs. Food costs are about the same between places like Chicago, Houston, Dallas, etc. Gas is more expensive in Chicago, but again you don't have to drive. Around 30% of households do not have a car, which is about the same as San Francisco.
* Highly taxed - yes, though if you don't own property you aren't going to feel this as much. Sales tax is high, no denying that, though it's decreased in the last few years.
It's only difficult to survive if you are unskilled and can't get a job, or you are bussing tables and are stupid enough to try and live in Lincoln Park. Otherwise, it's quite easy and you don't even have that make that much to survive there. My last girlfriend made $36K/year and still was able to live 1 block from the lake in Lake View next to hundreds of restaurants and bars, close to bus routes, and 4 blocks from a train line that runs 24/7 that takes 10 or so minutes to get to the closest parts of downtown (which if you know anything about the city you'd know that the area she lived in had tons of stuff going on and downtown is not the only place you'd go to do stuff).
Quote:
The city also had a net loss of whites. Asian and Hispanic groups barely grew if they grew at all.
Actually, the Asian population grew about 17% from 2000 to 2010 and the Latino/Hispanic population grew just over 3%. If you take into account 2012 estimates, then the Asian population has actually increased around 28% from 2000. It's estimated that the Asian population has increased by 15,000 between 2010 and 2012. It's highly noticeable downtown, actually.
Last edited by marothisu; 05-22-2014 at 11:04 PM..
I didn't know that Minneapolis was important. It's just a small Midwestern metro. It's not considered to be a major player in the united state when it comes to importance. Minneapolis doesn't crack the top 50. Houston eventually will take over Chicago in terms of population and importance.
Yeah in maybe 50 years.I am being serious.
Chicago is a lot more dense and has more research and educational resources than Houston and has an airport that is just behind Atlanta in passenger volume.
Los Angeles wasn't always dense and now it's denser than Chicago. There are areas of LA that are uninhabitable so the density of LA is higher than the statistics suggest. Chicago's population At 227 square miles is less than la's urban core at 227 square miles. Houston can get much denser and shows no signs of slowing. Eventually Houston's metro will pass Chicagoland in population and sooner than people think. If a small metro like Minneapolis is gaining more people than Chicago than good luck competing with Houston
Santa Ana, California also has higher population density than Chicago, and Santa Ana doesn't exactly scream "urban city" to me. But I agree, there's something fishy about Chicago's population growth rates.
Using the whole 'You don't need a car in Chicago so that makes it more affordable' will never be a plus on my list. I wouldn't live anywhere that my car doesn't have a cozy spot to park in.
Also Chicago has a very high unemployment rate. Why would people be moving to a city where they can't even find work? I just recently felt that hardship in Atlanta and while Atlanta's job market sucks Chicago's is way worse.
Also Chicago has a very high unemployment rate. Why would people be moving to a city where they can't even find work? I just recently felt that hardship in Atlanta and while Atlanta's job market sucks Chicago's is way worse.
Unemployment rate only shows part of the situation, not the whole thing. Are the unemployed people ones with or without degrees? You'll find in Chicago that there's a lot of people without a college degree that are unemployed, but the people with degrees have a much lower unemployment percentage. The ones without college degrees and unemployed is a situation of many things - it could be part of a shift in industry (Chicago is much less manufacturing centric than it was say 20 years ago when these people could easily get a factory job) or in part to their own laziness.
Other than that, if you work in an industry that is normal and you have a degree, you'll have no trouble finding it. Even without a degree, there's ALWAYS hospitality positions open whether it's at a restaurant, bar, club, lounge, hotel, or even new apartment/condo complex with staff. I get contacted on LinkedIn weekly about new jobs, and I also interview people for positions. I've interviewed 10 people for positions in the last month. Friends of mine have had 0 problems finding new jobs when they want a change either. Take it from someone who actually interviews people for jobs - there's many jobs available in the city and many people are moving to the city because their job got moved there from somewhere else or their company has expanded. Not that many people are moving to the city with no job in hand.
Some people even do it on purpose. I have a friend who worked for 10 years as an exec for a company in DC and moved to Chicago to be a VP at another company. He was let go, but for a year he on purpose didn't work. Instead he took tennis lessons, traveled to Europe, went to bars, concerts, and chilled out. He's now the COO of a company after he decided he was done with his year of fun. I actually have two friends who stupidly play the system and are able to accept unemployment benefits even though they are actually employed quite well.
Chicago was ranked the “Top Metro” in the U.S. for corporate investment in a report released this week by Site Selection magazine, considered the “industry scoreboard for corporate investment and relocation professionals.” The publication recognized that the Chicago region was home to more new or expanded corporate facilities than any other metropolitan area in the nation in 2013, with 373 new and expanding companies, generating approximately 10,000 new jobs and $2.8 billion in investment.
And I'm not saying this is more than Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, etc, but to say that there's no jobs available in Chicago is just untrue. Just looking on CareerBuilder.com, there's over 17,000 jobs listed for Chicago http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseek...hptest_ignore2
Last edited by marothisu; 05-22-2014 at 11:17 PM..
Using the whole 'You don't need a car in Chicago so that makes it more affordable' will never be a plus on my list. I wouldn't live anywhere that my car doesn't have a cozy spot to park in.
By all means...stay away, no one in Chicago will miss you, trust me.
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