Homes
So far this year: 3,491 homes permitted, about 770 torn down, a net gain of about 2,720.
Permits through Nov. 13, 2026, updated every morning · teardowns through Nov. 13
Homes permitted each year, and what was left after teardowns
The whole bar is homes permitted. The hatched cap is homes in buildings that got a demolition permit that year; the solid part is the gain.
so far
In 2025: 3,908 permitted − about 800 torn down = about 3,110 more homes. Teardowns are down by more than half since 2013, when about 1,900 homes were in torn-down buildings.
A permit is not a finished home
Of the homes permitted each year, how many are finished today.
Building takes years: 86% of the homes permitted in 2022 are done, and 48% of 2024’s. About 9% of the homes permitted in 2021 and 2022 had the permit expire before the city recorded them as finished.
Where the homes are going
Homes permitted in the last 12 months, by ward. Wards differ in size, so the map shows homes per 1,000 already there.
Tap or point at a ward to see its numbers.
Most homes permitted
Most for its size (per 1,000 homes)
24 of 50 wards permitted less than 1 new home for every 1,000 they have. 3 permitted none (Wards 5, 7, 10). The city as a whole: 3.0 per 1,000.
All 50 wards
| Ward | Homes permitted, last 12 months | Per 1,000 homes there | Homes in the ward (2020 Census) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 34 | 631 | 19.1 | 33,023 |
| Ward 32 | 325 | 11.8 | 27,644 |
| Ward 1 | 277 | 9.3 | 29,864 |
| Ward 27 | 276 | 9.0 | 30,676 |
| Ward 48 | 247 | 7.2 | 34,411 |
| Ward 28 | 234 | 10.1 | 23,282 |
| Ward 3 | 192 | 6.5 | 29,767 |
| Ward 46 | 151 | 4.1 | 36,453 |
| Ward 24 | 146 | 7.2 | 20,226 |
| Ward 26 | 125 | 5.4 | 23,245 |
| Ward 20 | 118 | 4.8 | 24,708 |
| Ward 44 | 98 | 2.7 | 35,837 |
| Ward 47 | 96 | 3.3 | 29,494 |
| Ward 25 | 84 | 3.7 | 22,974 |
| Ward 4 | 75 | 2.4 | 31,578 |
| Ward 11 | 70 | 3.1 | 22,424 |
| Ward 43 | 66 | 1.9 | 33,969 |
| Ward 40 | 65 | 2.5 | 26,261 |
| Ward 6 | 55 | 2.0 | 27,317 |
| Ward 36 | 52 | 2.3 | 22,918 |
| Ward 37 | 33 | 1.6 | 20,898 |
| Ward 12 | 31 | 1.7 | 18,139 |
| Ward 21 | 30 | 1.3 | 22,725 |
| Ward 35 | 30 | 1.2 | 25,261 |
| Ward 2 | 25 | 0.6 | 40,189 |
| Ward 33 | 23 | 1.0 | 23,318 |
| Ward 14 | 22 | 1.4 | 15,488 |
| Ward 15 | 22 | 1.2 | 17,702 |
| Ward 38 | 22 | 1.0 | 22,487 |
| Ward 41 | 22 | 0.9 | 24,499 |
| Ward 39 | 20 | 0.9 | 22,914 |
| Ward 30 | 14 | 0.7 | 21,188 |
| Ward 45 | 14 | 0.6 | 24,369 |
| Ward 50 | 12 | 0.6 | 19,947 |
| Ward 8 | 9 | 0.3 | 26,556 |
| Ward 22 | 8 | 0.5 | 16,401 |
| Ward 16 | 7 | 0.3 | 22,125 |
| Ward 9 | 7 | 0.3 | 23,342 |
| Ward 31 | 6 | 0.3 | 20,408 |
| Ward 19 | 5 | 0.2 | 21,144 |
| Ward 29 | 5 | 0.2 | 22,431 |
| Ward 17 | 4 | 0.2 | 23,506 |
| Ward 13 | 2 | 0.1 | 19,180 |
| Ward 49 | 2 | 0.1 | 29,313 |
| Ward 23 | 1 | 0.1 | 16,223 |
| Ward 18 | 1 | 0.1 | 19,498 |
| Ward 42 | 1 | 0.0 | 39,629 |
| Ward 5 | 0 | 0.0 | 30,691 |
| Ward 7 | 0 | 0.0 | 26,728 |
| Ward 10 | 0 | 0.0 | 20,640 |
How long a housing permit takes
Middle number of days from applying to getting the permit, new buildings with homes, 2026 through Nov. 13.
By how the plans were reviewed (last 12 months)
- 58 days Self-certified by an architect (402 permits)
- 97 days Standard city plan review (337 permits)
- 135 days Developer Services (large projects) (39 permits)
Half of all new home permits in 2026 took between 46 and 133 days. This counts only the city’s part, from application to permit: design, zoning changes and financing come before it. The city changed how it records application dates in late 2023, so earlier years aren’t compared.
Chicago next to other big cities
Homes permitted in 2025 for every 1,000 residents, in Chicago and 12 of the other 14 largest U.S. cities.
Chicago permitted 1.5 homes per 1,000 residents in 2025, the fewest of these 13 cities. Columbus permitted 10.3.
Chicago by itself
| 2015 | 2019 | 2022 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homes permitted | 5,750 | 7,914 | 7,124 | 3,916 |
Suburbs that permitted the most in 2025
Other ways homes are lost or gained
These are not in the net figure above: the records only let us count part of each.
The city has not set a citywide target for new homes
The pace on this page is our own yardstick: Chicago’s share of the region’s housing shortage, closed by 2041 (10,379 homes a year). The nearest official plan is the 2024–2028 Housing and Economic Development Bond, which projects 600 to 1,000 affordable rental homes, 750 homes on empty lots in neighborhoods and 600 or more mixed-income homes every five years from a new city fund. The bond plan ›
The pace is the housing simulator’s goal, an estimate: Chicago’s share of the regional shortage, closed by 2041. Over 2010–2025 our permit total is within 1% of the Census permit survey; single years differ by 8% on average. Torn-down homes are an estimate, counted every morning through the newest demolition permit (Nov. 13): each permit is matched to the building at its address in the city’s 2013 footprints (the one its point falls in, or the nearest within 12 m) to read how many homes it held. Permits for only a garage or porch are left out, and so are matches to a building much bigger than the one the permit describes. Looser or tighter matching moves a year’s figure by about a tenth. Most teardowns are followed by a new building, which the permit count includes. Renovation figures come from permits whose wording states the change (for example “convert from 3 units to 2”), leaving out permits that expired or were cancelled. We catch roughly half of the cuts and fewer of the additions, so both are floors, and neither is subtracted or added in the net figure. Homes per ward come from the 2020 Census. “Finished” means the city marked the permit complete or issued a certificate of occupancy. Coach house applications are counted from Mar. 31, 2026; the 2021–2025 pilot cleared 907. The city comparison uses the Census Building Permits Survey’s yearly place file and the population it carries for each place; Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Charlotte are filed under their county governments there and are left out. New York is its five boroughs added together. Suburbs are Illinois places of 25,000 or more people in the Chicago metro area.
Sources: City of Chicago building permits (new construction, demolition and renovation); City of Chicago 2013 building footprints; Census Building Permits Survey; 2020 Census housing counts by block; City of Chicago ADU pre-approval applications and shared housing registrations.