Chicago Real Estate Guide

Middle-Class Neighborhoods Are Disappearing

• November 17, 2011

by Erin Calandriello

Middle-income Chicago neighborhood

Reuters reported Wednesday evening that middle-class neighborhoods in America are fading away as the income divide between the wealthy and poor expands.

A Stanford University study, which examined 117 major metropolitan areas, revealed that the percentage of families living in middle-class neighborhoods decreased from 65 percent in 1970 to 44 percent in 2007, while the proportion of families living in affluent neighborhoods doubled from seven percent to 14 percent during that period.

From Reuters:

“Given that in 2008 the top 10 percent of earners controlled approximately 48 percent of all income in the United States, the increasing isolation of the affluent from the low and moderate-income families means that a significant portion of society’s resources are concentrated in a smaller and smaller portion of neighborhoods,” the study said. “The enormous number of housing foreclosures in the last few years has likely led many low-income families to move to lower-income neighborhoods, which would lead to increased income segregation. Conversely, declining incomes and income volatility among the middle-class may lead to lowered income segregation, because it may widen the income distribution within previously middle-income neighborhoods, or force these families to move into lower-income neighborhoods.”

Readers, do you see this happening in the Chicagoland area? Share your comments.

This article originally published at http://chicago.urbanturf.com/articles/article/middle-class_neighborhoods_are_disappearing/4601

1 Comment

1. Allen said at 4:03 pm on Thursday November 17, 2011:

   I think a lot of middle class families are not only dealing with job losses, salary cuts, and furloughs, they’re not being a given a break when it comes to college tuition for their kids. Middle-class neighborhoods are going to become low-income neighborhoods, or people are going to lose their homes, and they’ll become vacant neighborhoods. It’s happening in the west and south suburbs. Another problem is that they overbuilt and too many folks were approved for mortgages they couldn’t afford and it’s taking a toll on Illinois.