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| February 5, 2007 Buyers Value 'Neighborly' Housing, Study Finds Chicagoans who buy new housing in low-income neighborhoods prefer homes that are integrated into the neighborhood and not isolated from it, according to a new report by University of Illinois at Chicago researchers. Buyers are willing
to pay 33 percent to 50 percent more for units in single-family or
small multi-family buildings with entrances that face the street and
parking that faces the alley, according to the report Brent Ryan, assistant professor of urban planning and policy, and Rachel Weber, 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, Lawndale, 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. "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 1. Infill, or housing built on scattered individual lots by multiple developers, 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. 2. Traditional neighborhood development, or large planned developments that maintain the neighborhood's street grid, face the street and are relatively close to it, and have rear or no parking. An example is North Town Village on the Near North Side. 3. Enclave, or self-contained complexes on large sites, often behind a gate or a wall, consciously separated from its 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. The researchers determined that infill housing had by far 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 suggest that some consumers might associate the size, homogeneity and isolation of these buildings with either suburban housing or 20th-century public housing. However, consumers can be swayed toward enclave or traditional developments by convenient parking in front of or attached to their homes and landscaping that forms a buffer between home and street. "From interviews with developers, we 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 more landscaping," Weber said. Weber and Ryan urge policymakers to consider urban design as a tool for social and economic integration, especially in distressed neighborhoods where demolition has left large vacant tracts that allow developers to aggregate blocks, reshape street patterns or add open space. "This 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. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a teaching foundation based in Cambridge, Mass., funded the year-long study. 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 - UIC - |