Newswise — Two of Chicago's collar counties -- McHenry and Will -- lead the nation in homeownership rates, according to a report by University of Illinois at Chicago researchers.
Owner-occupied units make up 85 and 84 percent, respectively, of housing in these counties, compared to a national average of 69 percent.
The other three collar counties -- Lake, Kane and DuPage -- ranked 19, 21 and 29 among 230 counties nationally for which data were available.
Cook County, the metropolitan core, ranked at only 188, with 61 percent owner-occupied units. Other large urban counties had similar rankings.
Such widespread homeownership in outlying areas implies that sprawl is caused by low land prices and growing prosperity rather than by highway expansion, according to Siim Soot, director emeritus of UIC's Urban Transportation Center, and Joseph DiJohn, director of the Metropolitan Transportation Support Initiative at the center.
The researchers base their conclusions primarily on two observations:
-First-time buyers frequently choose space over a convenient commute. Land in Will and McHenry counties is cheaper than elsewhere in the metropolitan area, so developers tend to build larger homes there. Accordingly, the county has attracted more buyers despite the likelihood of a longer commute.
--Commuters may drive less than policy makers expect. Will is the only Chicago-area county where more residents work outside than inside their home county. McHenry has the second-highest outflow of workers. These data suggest that counties where jobs are plentiful have higher land costs, and therefore fewer homebuyers.
The report notes that Chicago is one of the few metropolitan areas that achieved a double-digit increase in homeownership rates over the past 13 years.
"Twenty years ago, the Chicago area was more typical of large metropolitan areas, with homeownership rates in the 50s," Soot said. "Letting the region grow has opened homeownership to more households as incomes have risen and housing costs remained relatively low."
The researchers predict that homeownership soon will level off. Land consumption no longer outpaces population growth, perhaps because much of the housing market has been served, Soot said.
"There was a dramatic increase in land consumed nationally by sprawl during the 1970s and 1980s," Soot said. "Urban land grew by about 35 percent despite a population growth of only 4 percent. Now it's more in line with population growth of about 11 percent per decade."
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit http://www.uic.edu
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