Is It 'White Flight' If The Wealthy Are First To Flee Chicago?

CHICAGO — Whatever you do, don't call it "white flight," I was warned after asking how to best explain that Realtors are saying city folk have started to migrate out of town toward mostly fair-skinned suburbs.

The last thing our chaotic city needs is an oversimplified, racially tinged explanation for early anecdotal evidence and speculation by some aldermen that downtown-living Chicagoans are running for the border.

Besides, even if there are early signs of a downtown neighborhood exodus that does include mostly white folks, describing fledgling migration patterns in racial terms likely doesn't capture the essence of the perceived reactions to the violent reverberations of civil unrest, violence and looting that has left wealthy downtown ZIP codes on edge.

If anything, what we're looking at is the prospect of something like "Rich Flight," as Realtors say there's a spike in city people buying luxurious, move-in-ready houses with wider lawns beyond the city limits.

Chicago-area Realtor Virginia Trux, for instance, told me she represents a lot of clients moving from downtown out to the suburbs.

"Wilmette is on fire. Winnetka’s on fire," she said. "Whether it's Park Ridge. Whether it's Glenview. People are heading north. Properties are getting multiple offers. It's crazy."

I couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure in pre-coronavirus America, transitioning from a Viagra Triangle condo to a house on a Wilmette cul-de-sac was a leading cause of death by boredom.

A few years ago, when Chicago's tiny growth spurt trickled to a halt, I poked fun at Suburban Jungle, a boutique firm from New York offering a real estate sherpa service to downtown-living Chicagoans looking to relocate to culturally bland suburban hinterlands.

"The way I see it, this service is for a breed of bland folks who desire a life in a cultural void, consider a trip to Sam’s Club a 'Sunday Fun Day' and always wanted a riding lawnmower with a cup holder. I’m not saying these city defectors are horrible people. And I’m not prejudiced against them. I have suburban friends. They’re just, you know ... boring," I wrote in 2016.

Now, Suburban Jungle owner Alison Bernstein tells me she has 500 percent more clients than last year. And she's picked up the unlikeliest kind clients: die-hard urbanites.

"I have so many clients who are city people that say, 'I thought I would never leave the city,'" she said.

Park Ridge Mayor Marty Maloney says it's impossible not to notice the influx of city folk to his town, cradled between O'Hare International Airport and the city's Northwest Side border along Interstate 90 and the CTA Blue Line.

In the last three months, 153 residential property sales have closed in Park Ridge, which is 92 percent white and has an average household income of $142,000. The average house sale price was $557,276 — ranging from $230,000 to $1.8 million, according to Midwest Real Estate Data.
"I've talked to Realtors, and their general observations are that houses are moving quickly.

"They're priced right and don't stay on the market for very long," said Maloney, a Park Ridge native who calls himself the town's "Cheerleader-in-Chief."

"Young married couples with or without kids are moving here from the city for a little more space, and our schools, that have always been a draw. All the things that are Park Ridge's sweet spot, and that maybe COVID is speeding up the timeline for people who otherwise wouldn't be moving yet."

What impact that uptick of migrations to white suburbia might have on Chicago and other big cities remains as uncertain as the times we're living in.

Chicago's real estate market, hit hard by the pandemic, has slightly rebounded. In May, there were 43 percent fewer property sales than 2019. In June, home sales dipped 28 percent, and increased about 2 percent over the year before, according to data compiled by the Chicago Association of Realtors.

When considering populations shifts, Brookings Institution demographer Bill Frey suggests taking the long view. Big cities are resilient. They crumble and rebound. They're fueled by an influx of immigrants and the life decisions of new generations.

"In a year or two years, people are going to be moving out of their parents' house, getting married and deciding where to live. Those people are going to make different decisions that these people have made in the last six months," he said.

"Cities aren't dead, no. … Cities like Chicago and New York and Los Angeles depend on immigrants to come to the city. … That's going to rise up in the future and continue to make the city of Chicago attractive."

Realtors aren't like demographers. They live in the now. Part of their job is to find ways to explain market uncertainties in reassuring ways to regular folks regardless of whether they're buying or selling. And there's never been more uncertain times than these.

"We're just in such a weird place," Bernstein said. "Walk the streets in major cities, and it's very eerie and looks like a horror show. When crime goes through the roof and you don't know if or when people will come back, or if the place you loved will ever be like it was … I think that's the key to why there's an exodus.

"Life is short," she said. "People are paying a premium without access to the stuff they like. 'I can't have my culture. I can't have my restaurants.' So, they're leaving. People are, like, 'If it gets better, I'll come back to the city, but I'm not going to waste five years of my life waiting for that to happen.'"

That kind of migration logic is for people who can afford to move, regardless of their race.

Relocating to a bigger house on a wider lot isn't part of quality-of-life discussions for those who can't work from home because their "essential jobs" force them into the public every day, and don't pay enough to eliminate worry about foreclosure, eviction and lacking access to quality health care.

And it's a reminder to those who can't, that whether it's COVID-19 or the ripple effects of civil unrest, we're not "all-in" Illinois together.

Whatever you do, don't call early reports of a downtown exodus "White Flight," because that's not the whole story.

Folks with plenty of green — cash, that is — might be first to flee.

But there's no evidence that others will follow — at least not yet.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots.

More from Mark Konkol:

• Are Feds Sniffing CPS Custodial Contract To Make Insiders Squirm?

• CTU Bosses Demanding Hazard Pay For Teachers In Empty Classrooms

• If Foxx Lied To Public She Represents, Take Away Her Law License

• Lightfoot Stands Alone, Talks Like 'Boss' She Doesn't Want To Be

• Who's To Blame For Chaos In Chicago? Fingers Point At Everyone

This article originally appeared on the Chicago Patch