Real Estate Professor Says Illinois Homeownership Rate “Not That Bad”
Real Estate Professor Says Illinois Homeownership Rate "Not That Bad" Heading link
Illinois was ranked 20th lowest in the nation for homeownership rates in 2019, the last year of available state data, with 66 percent of Illinoisans owning their own abode.
Dan McMillen, professor of real estate at the University of Illinois Chicago, says 20th in the nation really isn’t that bad. “It really means we’re in the middle of the pack,” he said on the Illinois Radio Network.
Factors that determine homeownership rates are the percentage of the population that lives in an urban area, home prices and demographics, according to McMillen. “Urban areas tend to have significantly lower homeownership rates than more rural areas, and so since Illinois is so dominated by the Chicago metropolitan area it’s more likely to have lower homeownership rates,” he said.