Life Cycle Neighborhood Changes in Chicago Suburbs 1960–80

Abstract The number of households in Chicago's suburbs grew rapidly between 1960 and 1980, and the spatial distribution of households of various income groups changed greatly. Nonetheless, at the conclusion of the 20-year period, the differences among the distributions of the income groups had changed little. Only in a few areas did invasion and succession play a role in neighborhood economic change, since few poor blacks or Hispanics have migrated to suburban Chicago, and there was little European ethnic concentration there. In several areas there is evidence of filtering of older expensive housing to lower income households. In other places it appears that real income of many households has decreased over time sufficiently to cause them to enter a lower income category.