Peer benchmarks · 9 Chicago community areas

Compared to what?

case_study_resultPoint-in-time analysis. Public data through 2025.as of 25 August 2026· next 25 November 2026

Business density9thof 9 · 8.3 per 1k

Permit intensity9thof 9 · 16.0 per 1k units

Crime concentration9thof 9 · 2,766 / sq mi

Owner-occupied9thof 9 · 24.9%

Crime per resident7thof 9 · at peer average

Housing vacancy4thof 9 · 13.7%

South Shore ranks last on four of eight normalized metrics. It is not uniformly weak — vacancy is better than peers and crime per resident sits at the peer average. The weakness is concentrated in commercial density and reinvestment.

Benchmark by metric

How much active commercial life exists per resident.

-27% vs peer avg

Core peer avg · 11.4 per 1,000 residents

Lincoln Park23.7

Chatham14.9

Greater Grand Crossing14.3

Hyde Park14.2

South Chicago10.4

Auburn Gresham10.4

Woodlawn9.4

Roseland8.7

South Shore8.3

Business density · per 1,000 residentsSouth Shore ranks 9 of 9

Full benchmark set

All values computed from Chicago Data Portal and Census ACS 2024 5-Year. Crime and permits are 2019–2025. Business licenses are a current active snapshot.

Community area	Role	Pop.	Biz / 1k res	Permits / 1k units	Permit trend	Crime / 1k res	Crime / sq mi	Vacancy	Owner-occ
South Shore	Target	51,178	8.3	16.0	-35.0%	158.6	2,766	13.7%	24.9%
Auburn Gresham	Core peer	43,779	10.4	26.4	-27.3%	139.6	1,621	13.6%	50.0%
Chatham	Core peer	29,895	14.9	22.2	-24.2%	179.4	1,817	13.7%	38.8%
Greater Grand Crossing	Core peer	29,143	14.3	23.8	-38.4%	209.6	1,723	17.7%	36.3%
Roseland	Core peer	36,635	8.7	27.6	-23.4%	144.9	1,102	18.1%	54.5%
South Chicago	Core peer	27,551	10.4	20.8	-31.8%	135.3	1,114	19.5%	44.0%
Woodlawn	Core peer	26,211	9.4	23.6	-26.4%	140.1	1,771	17.1%	26.0%
Hyde Park	Aspirational	30,599	14.2	19.7	-43.0%	83.4	1,578	9.1%	34.5%
Lincoln Park	Reference	67,987	23.7	27.8	-37.7%	57.5	1,234	9.9%	44.8%
Core peer average			11.4	24.1	-28.6%	158.1	1,525	16.6%	41.6%

What the numbers mean

Every metric, defined.

Every pillar is scored against the core peer average, not an absolute scale. 50 means in line with peers. Above 50 is better than peers, below 50 is worse. None of these are investment recommendations.

Metric	What it counts	Why normalized this way	High / low
Business density Per 1,000 residents	Active City of Chicago business licenses	Per resident rather than per square mile, because it measures whether the local population is being served, not how tightly packed the storefronts are.	High: A commercial base sized to its population Low: Residents leaving the neighborhood to spend
Permit intensity Per 1,000 housing units	Building permits issued	Per housing unit rather than per resident, because permits attach to buildings. A neighborhood with more buildings should have more permits.	High: Owners are reinvesting in the existing building stock Low: Buildings are aging without capital going into them
Permit trend Percent change	Change in annual permit count, 2019 to 2025	Direction, separate from level. A weak market improving and a strong market declining are different situations.	High: Reinvestment accelerating Low: Reinvestment pulling back
Crime per resident Per 1,000 residents	Reported incidents	The exposure an individual resident faces. Reported incidents reflect reporting behavior as well as underlying activity, so this is context, not a verdict.	High: Higher reported exposure per person Low: Lower reported exposure per person
Crime concentration Per square mile	Reported incidents	How concentrated activity is in space. Reported separately from the per-resident figure because dense areas can show high concentration and average per-person exposure at once.	High: Concentrated in a small area Low: Dispersed
Housing vacancy Share of all units	Unoccupied housing units	Vacancy is the clearest published signal of whether housing demand is holding.	High: Weakening demand or units off the market Low: Housing stock in use
Owner-occupancy Share of occupied units	Units occupied by their owner	A proxy for who captures appreciation. Where owner-occupancy is low, rising values accrue to landlords rather than residents.	High: Residents hold equity in the neighborhood Low: Appreciation leaves the community

Why these nine

A peer set you can argue with.

A neighborhood scored against Lincoln Park will always look weak. Scored against nothing it will always look fine. The core peer group is what the benchmark average is built from; the other two are reference points.

Target

South Shore

South Shore — the community area under analysis.

Core peer

6 core peers

Six South Side community areas with comparable market conditions. These six define the benchmark average.

Aspirational

Hyde Park

Hyde Park — a nearby, more stabilized South Side market with stronger institutional anchors.

Reference

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park — a mature North Side market used only as a distant reference for a stabilized profile.

Name three markets you passed on. We will tell you which one you were wrong about.

Every deal you did is measured. Every deal you correctly passed on cost nothing. Every deal you incorrectly passed on is invisible and expensive, and nothing in your screen will ever surface it. A pilot runs your own pass list through corridor-level analysis on public data. No systems access required.

How it is calculated