"Neighborly" Housing

By Kelly Sheehan, Multi Housing News

Chicago residents who buy housing in low-income neighborhoods prefer homes that are designed to be part of their communities and not insolated from them, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a think-tank based in Cambridge, Mass., funded the year-long study.

"I'm interested in neighborhood revitalization and I study the way that the design of housing connects or doesn't connect to surrounding communities," Brent Ryan, UIC assistant professor of urban planning and policy, told MHN. "Since there is so much housing being constructed in Chicago right now, we asked the question, 'Does the design of new urban developments popping up around the city affect the value of housing?' As it turns out, it does."

Ryan and Rachel Weber, a fellow UIC associate professor of urban planning and policy, analyzed assessed values of housing built between 1993 and 2003 in parts of Bronzeville, Bucktown, East Garfield Park, Lawndales, Ukrainian Village and Wicker Park. Every census tract in the analysis had a poverty rate of at least 20 percent in 1990, according to federal standards.

Buyers are willing to pay 33 to 50 percent more for units in small multifamily buildings or single-family homes with entrances that face the street and parking that faces the rear, according to the report. Buyers also favor relatively short setbacks from the street and designs similar to those used for neighboring buildings.

"The value differential implies that buyers of these homes recognize the connections of this housing to the neighborhoods, whether those connections are physical, social or economic," Ryan said. "This might be expected in higher-income neighborhoods, but it’s more surprising in low-income neighborhoods, given that the literature portrays an overriding concern for personal and property security."

Ryan and Weber defined three basic housing design models common to many U.S. cities. They are:


Infill , or housing built on scattered individual lots by multiple developers, which is visually in keeping with surrounding housing. Infill is common in older neighborhoods where houses were demolished one at a time due to deterioration and arson, such as Bronzeville, East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park and North Kenwood.

Traditional neighborhood development, or large planned communities that maintain the neighborhood’s street grid, which face the street and are relatively close to it. They do not have rear parking. An example is North Town Village on the Near North Side.

Enclave or self-contained complexes on large sites, often behind a gate or wall, which are consciously separated from their surroundings.

Many enclaves and traditional neighborhood developments are built on former industrial or institutional sites. Homan Square in Lawndale and Picardy Place in North Center are enclaves. Ryan and Weber determined that infill housing had the highest assessed values. Units in traditional neighborhood developments were assessed only slightly higher than those in enclaves. Values were lowest in enclave or traditional developments with private roadways and entrances facing private spaces. Ryan and Weber suggested that some buyers might associate the size, homogeneity and isolation of these buildings with suburban housing or 20th-century public housing. The study indicated that buyers can be swayed toward enclave or traditional developments by convenient parking in front of or attached to their homes, as well as landscaping that forms a buffer between units and streets.

Ryan told MHN that he lives in a high-rise building in Chicago because he is interested in being a part of the surrounding community. "Our study finds that other people value housing that is integrated into the community as well," he said. "People aren't moving to Chicago to live in a development that could be found in the suburbs--they're moving here to be involved in all that the city has to offer. We were surprised to find that this translated into economic value."

Weber said that the research team found that the cost per unit might be higher to build infill housing, but the cost to build enclaves also can be pushed higher because of the need for private roadways and landscaping. "

The study should be reassuring to urbanists who believe that the best way to revitalize urban neighborhoods is to respect and augment existing places rather than attempt to transform them into another type of neighborhood entirely," Ryan said.

Ryan is currently working to secure funding for a new study that will examine the spillover effects of the design of 800 to 1,200 new urban developments. "We want to look into how the design of these new urban developments affect the housing around them," he said.