Citywide, the vacancy rate has increased to 6.2 percent in the second quarter of 2009 from 5 percent in 2007, the research found. Rents – adjusted for inflation – declined in all areas of the city except for the North Side during the second quarter of 2009 compared to the prior period.  While the study’s rent data included all sizes of multifamily rental buildings, the vacancy rates were primarily based on smaller, two-to-four unit buildings.

Chicago was divided into seven submarkets for purposes of the study – Central/Near North, South, Far South, Southwest, West, Northwest and North – and the study showed that rental vacancies over the past two years rose significantly in the South, Far South, Southwest and West areas of Chicago.  The Far South submarket posted the biggest jump in vacancies, growing to 6.1 percent from 3.8 percent since 2007. The West submarket now posts the highest vacancy rate – 9.8 percent – up from 7.9 percent two years ago.

“This really is the tale of two cities.  While a number of communities on the North Side are holding their own, overall, most areas of the city are feeling the economic chill,” Shilling said.

 “The South and Southwest Sides are experiencing a big decline in household formation,” Shilling explained.  “People are losing their jobs and moving back with family, or doubling up in rental units, which increases vacancies. The percentage of vacancies in these areas now far exceeds what occurred during the last recession after 9/11. And the situation appears to be getting worse.” 

Interestingly, the effects of the poor economy and rising unemployment have not been seen in the North submarket, the study found. 

“The North Side market has seen a slight decrease in vacancies and virtually no decline in rents,” Shilling said. “In this part of the city, owners of single-family homes and condominium units who are losing their jobs appear to be moving back into the rental market, which has stabilized rents and vacancies.”

The study is the first in a series of reports that IHS, in partnership with The Preservation Compact, plans to issue to provide government housing agencies, preservationists and community organizations with reliable and impartial data about the state of affordable rental housing in Cook County and guide collaborative efforts to save this housing.  In addition to updating the rental and vacancy report quarterly, upcoming studies will delve into trends involving multifamily building foreclosures in the region and the suburban Cook County rental housing market.

The Preservation Compact was founded in 2007 to stimulate a more comprehensive approach to preserving affordable rental housing stock in Cook County. Guided by the Urban Land Institute Chicago with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Preservation Compact partners, in addition to IHS, include Local Initiatives Support Corp./Chicago, Chicago Community Loan Fund, Community Investment Corp., Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago Department of Community Development, Illinois Housing Development Authority, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Chicago Rehab Network, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and the Cook County Assessor’s Office.

“When IHS was formed two years ago, the greatest threats to affordable rental housing were coming at the higher end of the market from affordable rental units being converted into condominiums, as well as expiring subsidy contracts and higher rents,” Shilling said.  “Now we are seeing the greatest threat coming from the lower end of the market with units being lost to foreclosure and potential abandonment.”

IHS, part of the Real Estate Center at DePaul, oversees two Preservation Compact programs: the Rental Housing Data Clearinghouse, maintained by Shilling and other DePaul researchers to produce studies on the region’s affordable rental housing using data from multiple sources, and the Preservation Compact Interagency Council, which is comprised of federal, state and local agencies that develop preservation strategies using the data.

In conjunction with the study’s release, IHS also launched a new data Web site, IHS.depaul.edu.  The site provides a comprehensive, online inventory of government-subsidized housing in Cook County and, for the first time, will meld unduplicated data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Illinois Development Authority and City of Chicago Department of Community Development to provide a fuller picture of Cook County’s affordable rental housing market.

The site also features U.S. census data for Chicago from 1930 to 2000, a resource that DePaul researchers could not find online publicly elsewhere.  Chicago community area maps and housing data—such as housing tenure, rent, property values, properties by year built and number of units, and units by bedroom size—are presented, as well as population breakdowns by gender and race/ethnicity. Additionally, economic characteristics, including income and employment data, are reported. This part of the site includes an affordability index that allows users to map the cost of housing for Chicago neighborhoods by decade.  Census data from 1990 and 2000 for suburban Cook County municipalities are also provided.

“The Web site provides valuable tools for anyone interested in studying demographic and housing patterns in Chicago’s neighborhoods – whether academics, policy-makers or community advocates,” Shilling said. “The goal is to inform policy decisions and institutional change while engaging community involvement and support for preserving affordable rental housing.”

While much of the data is currently available in static tables and charts on the Web site, IHS plans to turn it into a searchable database that would allow users to pose queries on specific topics.

Another of the Web site’s pages, created by the Interagency Council, provides information on how owners of rental properties (whether publicly assisted or not) can take advantage of Preservation Compact resources, including the Energy Savers program and other resources for green retrofits that help maintain buildings efficiently and affordably.

Editors’ Note: To view the report, go to http://ihs.depaul.edu or click here.  

Reporters seeking interviews with Shilling should contact Robin Florzak, DePaul University Media Relations, at (312) 362-8592 or rflorzak@depaul.edu.

For interviews about The Preservation Compact, contact Valerie Denney at (312) 408-2580 or vdenney@valeriedenney.com.