Displacement Pressure in Context: Examining Recent Housing Market Changes Near The 606

This report goes “under the hood” of our Mapping Displacement Pressure in Chicago project data to highlight how house prices are changing in the neighborhoods around The 606 linear park system and highlights a potential strategy to preserve affordability in surrounding communities. It finds that rising prices have largely eroded the stock of lower-cost homes near the trail system, particularly 2 to 4 flats that tend to make up a neighborhood's unsubsidized affordable housing supply. In moderate-cost neighborhoods with rising prices, interventions are needed to mitigate displacement pressure. Among these solutions is helping mission-driven developers and others acquire a portion of this stock and preserve it as affordable. Data show that there is still a potential inventory to feed this type of policy solution nearby, but the window to act is closing as prices increase and the supply disappears.