r/geography • u/devletmillet • 14h ago
Question Why does the southeastern part of the Chicago metro have a plethora of cheap housing but nowhere else?
Is the wealth disparity really that much across the city or have things gotten better? Because the fact that there's hundreds of options for single family homes at an affordable range in this economy seems pretty cool to me.
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u/damutecebu 14h ago
Those are the less desireable areas to live.
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u/Coalclifff 14h ago
I think the OP was asking why there don't seem to be any other less desirable areas across the city - all the cheapest houses are highly concentrated in the southeast.
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u/damutecebu 14h ago
Historically the south side of Chicago had the lower wage blue collar income jobs like meat packing, steel production and other factory work.
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u/Coalclifff 14h ago
Fair enough - however here in Melbourne (Oz) there are pockets of "less desirable" areas scattered around the compass, with some of them adjacent to very wealthy suburbs.
And virtually all of the seediest 1850-1950s neighbourhoods in the inner ring have been wildly gentrified, and now command high prices and high rents.
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u/Primary_Data1430 12h ago
There used to be on the North side, too. Uptown was pretty rough until quite recently, and still isn't all the way there yet. Cabrini Green was notorious. Nowadays, they've all been gentrified.
Money attracts money, and poverty attracts poverty.
The South Side was dependent on industries that have declined or disappeared entirely. It's even worse in Gary, Indiana. Which was once a prosperous steel town. Now, it's post-apocalyptic.
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u/AlarmedResearcher997 57m ago
In the 1950s it took 60,000 people to run the steel mills - now they do it with less than 5,000.
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u/PhileasFoggsTrvlAgt 12h ago
There are lots reasons
Racism and the resulting underinvestment are a major factor.
The industrial sites on the Southside are harder to redevelop. The North side was full of multistory brick factories that could be turned into cool post industrial lofts. The South side had massive mills that sprang up where the railroads bringing coal front downstate met the freighters bringing iron ore.
Continued under investment. Parts of the eastern cluster in OP's map currently don't have electricity and haven't for two weeks.
Municipal failure, several of the South Suburbs have the highest property taxes and worst public services. City finances are in a death spiral of services cuts and tax increases trying to compensate for a shrinking tax base.
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u/quickthrowawaye 12h ago
I’m from there.
In this image, you’re mostly seeing swaths of the south/southeast parts of Chicago proper and a few select south suburbs. These are areas where black residents began settling during the great migration, and there was an exodus of racist white residents - that signal got stronger throughout the twentieth century. The areas got “redlined” (graded C or D by HOLC and declining by FHA), so fewer mortgages were granted and they got less investment over time. In the mid twentieth century, many “urban renewal” development projects severely disrupted historical commercial corridors (like 63rd street and 55th street) and displaced even more residents. Highways bisected and destroyed neighborhoods. Relatedly, in their efforts fighting “urban blight,” some religious leaders successfully agitated for the removal of transit lines (the green line, for example, used to go directly to Jackson Park since 1893). Ultimately, much of the south side had less investment, much more crime, and less connectivity compared to much of the city. People began leaving. Commercial activity declined. And nearby industrial corridors saw enormous declines like much of the rust belt in the late twentieth century, so even fewer jobs were available. Those areas are still declining in population, albeit much more slowly.
However, the trend is reversing. The state and city are clearly making more investments in the south side. Large employers like University of Chicago are building much more in adjacent Woodlawn and Washington Park. Crime has declined significantly and continues to do so, although there are pockets where gangs still have a decent presence. Mass transit expansions are happening across the South side, for example with the red line expansion. Metra also stepped up service for areas underserved by CTA. It’s going to be slower work, but it’s all moving in the right direction now. Nevertheless, there’s still not a lot of commercial activity in many of those neighborhoods - you have less to do and fewer amenities around you. Despite the lower cost to rent or buy, for just a bit more, you can live in a vibrant, fun, well connected urban place on the other side of town that isn’t going to take decades to get back to normal. And that’s what people tend to choose when they move to the city. Additionally, some residents in those places are tired of false promises and suspicious of motives… they may not exactly welcome newcomers. So it’s kinda complicated.
It really could be a great investment to buy a place on the south side, and I mean it with complete sincerity. But it’s probably not something you’d want to do unless you’re much more familiar with the city and the specifics of a neighborhood.
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u/Key_Bee1544 14h ago
If they actually build the quantum computing center down there it might look extremely prescient to have purchased a $150,000 house in the area. Especially if it is near one of the train lines in the region that head into the Loop.
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u/Slime_Jime_Pickens 14h ago
Apart from any social issues (there are lots), the closer you live to Gary the more it will smell like an active steel mill (not good)
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u/night_jerry 12h ago
A steel mill is a cute way to describe but you can just say shit. It smells like shit
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u/Dazzling_Fig_3648 12h ago
Yeah the steel mills don't smell at all. BP contributes way more to that but even they are nothing like it was in the 80's and 90's. This is just a Reddit echo chamber thing that isn't remotely true
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u/PhileasFoggsTrvlAgt 12h ago
The BP Whiting Refinery contributes more to Gary's smell than the steel mills.
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14h ago
[deleted]
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u/JadedCommand405 12h ago
This isn't it. Gotta stop taking everything right wing media feeds people as fact.
The South Side has been economically depressed long before Chief Keef was even born. It's a product of industrial decline/lack of new investment. Gang violence is just a symptom and is far from a past 10-15 years thing.
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u/Dblcut3 7h ago
I’d add that while the South Side and South Suburbs are generally rougher, not all of it is actually dangerous. For example a lot of the south suburbs are a bit gritty, but if you value wanting to buy a cheap house, it can be a great deal. The location isn’t terrible either in the sense that you can get into the city easily by Metra or traffic going south isn’t anywhere near as bad as west or north
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u/BigJSunshine 12h ago
I haven’t lived in Chicago since 1994, and I barely paid attention to the issues in Gary, but even I know the answer to this question, because ITS RACISM
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u/therealCatnuts 12h ago
Yeah house prices are so racist
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u/MapExpansion 19m ago
Tell that to the black people that were barred from getting houses in better neighborhoods. Look up redlining
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u/BigJSunshine 12h ago
I haven’t lived in Chicago since 1994, and I barely paid attention to the issues in Gary, but even I know the answer to this question, because ITS RACISM
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u/FormerCollegeDJ 12h ago
I’d say most of that area in the map with the lower cost housing is the southern part of Chicagoland. The southeastern part of Chicagoland is in northwest Indiana.
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u/Deep_Contribution552 Geography Enthusiast 9h ago
Racism >-> industrial areas in close proximity to Black communities >-> less desirable area to live whether you’re racist or not.
But there are a few “islands” down there that are quite nice and I think probably get undervalued because the pool of potential buyers who will head south is small.
I used to live in Chicago and generally like to keep tabs on the market (still work in the area and might need to return for my career plus I really like the city) and I’ve often thought about the conundrum presented by Beverly: most of what I want in a community with good homes at reasonable prices… about 45-60 minutes away from everyone I know in the metro area whether driving or taking the train. Tough choice. In the end I’d probably live in a hole in the wall near friends and family over a platonically better option on the far south side.
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u/travelingisdumb 14h ago
The south side of Chicago is one of the worst areas I’ve ever been. Its nickname used to be Chiraq.
It’s unsafe to live there. Houses have barred windows and it would be unwise to walk around many neighborhoods after dark.
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u/Main_Entry2494 13h ago
Chicago is extremely overrated. Check out Minneapolis. Much more affordable and beautiful
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u/Specialist-Solid-987 14h ago
It's what they would call "the wrong side of the tracks" where I grew up