DePaul’s Institute for Housing Studies released its 2023 report on the Chicago rental market. The big takeaways for me is that if Chicago wants more affordable housing they have to incentivize builders to build affordable homes. Streamline the city’s building code, prevent downzowning of 2 and 4 flats, increase the percentage of affordable housing units required in large developments. At the end of the day it’s just too expensive to build new homes in Chicago, so builders will do the logical thing and build luxury homes that allow them to realize the most profit. The north and northwest sides of the city will continue to gentrify and become less dense as multi-family homes are demolished and replaced with larger single family homes. This has 2nd order effects on public schools and small businesses, and not in a good way.