CAITLIN WILSON
JUN 20, 2014
Reboot Illinois
According to Zillow.com, a real estate listing and reporting website, there are about 150,000 homes for sale in Illinois as of June 2014. That breaks down to about one home for sale for every 86 people who live in the state. The state’s 25 most populous counties homes-for-sale per capita rates hover around the same mark, though most had more housing scarcity than the state as a whole.
Out of those top 25, Kendall County, the 16th most populous county in the state, has the most homes available to buy per capita. Adams County, which is the 22nd most populous county, has the least amount of homes available to buy per capita. Cook County, which is the most populous county in the state, is the 23rd most housing-for-sale available county in the state, and Whiteside County, the 25th most populous county in the state, is the 16th most housing-for-sale available county in the state.
The differing housing inventory throughout the state may say a lot of things about the individual counties. In counties that have low numbers of houses for sale based on the amount of people who live in that county, such as Cook or Adams Counties, more people may rent their homes, and so there is less demand for houses to buy. People who live in those counties may also be moving less–people are settled into their homes, and so there are less for sale. The numbers may also point to which counties have more people moving in and out of them. In counties such as Kendall and McHenry, there are more homes available per every person who lives there, so it is assumed that there are more people moving around within or to and from those counties.
Counties where there are more people per every home for sale may also see homes sell more quickly than counties where there are fewer people for every home for sale because there are fewer empty homes at any given time.
Houses for sale per capita for the top 25 most populous counties in Illinois. (All numbers are approximate and rounded to the nearest whole person, as houses are bought, sold and put on the market every day.)
All numbers are approximate, as houses are bought and put up for sale every day. Here are the numbers for how many people live in each county for every one house that is for sale there.
1. Kendall County: 76
2. Williamson County: 77
3. McHenry County: 80
4. LaSalle County: 84
5. Madison County: 88
6. Kankakee County: 95
7. Jackson County: 105
8. Will County: 108
9. Lake County: 109
10. Tazewell County: 110
11. Peoria County: 112
12. St. Clair County: 112
13. Kane County: 113
14. DeKalb County: 122
15. DuPage County: 126
16. Whiteside County: 128
17. McLean County: 130
18. Winnebago County: 131
19. Sangamon County: 138
20. Champaign County: 139
21. Rock Island County: 164
22. Vermillion County: 166
23.Cook County: 170
24. Macon County: 270
25. Adams County: 300
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Caitlin Wilson is a staff writer for Reboot Illinois. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago, where she studied journalism and political science. Caitlin has become both endeared to and frustrated with her adopted home state and wants to bring Illinoisans the information they need to actively participate in the politics that directly affect them. You can find Reboot on Facebook here and on Twitter at @rebootillinois.