Immigrants Drive Chicago's Housing Boom

Immigrants made up more than half of the Chicago-area’s gain in home owners from 2000 to 2005, according to an analysis of data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week.

The role immigrants played in the rush to home ownership was most obvious in suburban Cook County, where 81 percent of the 42,000 additional home owners were immigrants.

The study, commissioned by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, an advocacy group, does not address how long immigrants had been in the United States before buying real estate or break down the kind of housing they bought.

Instead, it looks at the overall growth in home ownership across eight counties, which totaled nearly 2.2 million by 2005. The region gained about 219,000 home owners during those five years, 52 percent of whom were born in other countries.

Source: Chicago Tribune (10/17/2006)