What is the best neighborhood in Chicago to open a Home Improvement Store?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, the best neighborhood in Chicago to open a Home Improvement Store is Kennedy Park, with 80% average survivability. 81 of 86 neighborhoods analyzed exceed the 70% two-year survival threshold.

How much more revenue can a Home Improvement Store make in the best vs. average Chicago neighborhood?

In Kennedy Park, the best possible Home Improvement Store location in Chicago offers approximately 7.3% more expected revenue than the average location. The worst-performing neighborhoods could yield approximately 12.7% less than average.

What is the city-wide average survivability for Home Improvement Store in Chicago?

The city-wide average survivability for Home Improvement Store across Chicago is 75% for surviving more than 2 years. Top neighborhoods like Kennedy Park substantially outperform this average, reaching 80%.

What are the worst neighborhoods for Home Improvement Store in Chicago?

The most challenging neighborhoods in Chicago for Home Improvement Store include Downtown with 65% average survival chance, Irving Woods, and Scottsdale. A low-ranking neighborhood can still contain high-potential storefronts — the address matters most.

How accurate are StreetSpring's Home Improvement Store survivability predictions?

StreetSpring's models achieve 95–99% accuracy across business types, analyzing 100+ factors with a ±3% margin of error. With StreetSpring, you can see the precise probability of success for countless business models at any exact location.

What should I consider when opening a Home Improvement Store in Chicago?

The most important factor for a business's success is the Revenue Capture Score for the business at the location it selects. StreetSpring computes Revenue Capture Score by projecting the business's market share based on competitor quality and quantity, mobility patterns, and forecasted consumer spending for the specific business type.

Survivability Rankings for Home Improvement Store in Chicago

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks the best and worst neighborhoods in Chicago to open a Home Improvement Store, from Kennedy Park (80% survival) to Dow...

April 24, 2026•18 min read

By Bobby Koons | Last reviewed: May 9, 2026 | Updated weekly | Methodology

Quick Summary

#1 Neighborhood: Kennedy Park — 80% average survivability for Home Improvement Store

Neighborhoods at or above 70%: 81 of 86 analyzed

City-wide average: 75% for Home Improvement Stores

Most challenging area: Downtown at 65%

Revenue advantage (top vs. avg location): ~7.3% more expected revenue in Kennedy Park

Data freshness: 2026 data · Full methodology →

Summary
10 Best Neighborhoods
Where Would a Home Improvement Store Make the Most Money?
What Should I Consider?
Where Should I Start?
FAQ: Best Neighborhoods
FAQ: Can a Home Improvement Store Succeed in Lower-Ranked Areas?
FAQ: How Often Are Rankings Updated?
FAQ: Is a Home Improvement Store a Good Tenant?
Landlord Survivability Data
Best Neighborhoods for Any Business

Summary

Of all the neighborhoods in and around Chicago, Kennedy Park ranks #1 for opening a Home Improvement Store with 80% average chance of surviving more than 2 years, with the best locations offering 87% and the most challenging locations in Kennedy Park at 69%. The worst neighborhoods include Downtown with 65% average chance. Our data shows that roughly 15% of top-performing locations sit in neighborhoods ranked below the city median.

Where in Chicago Should You Open a Home Improvement Store?

**How Kennedy Park compares:** Kennedy Park — the top-ranked neighborhood for Home Improvement Stores in Chicago — has a profile that most resembles **Chicago Midway Airport (Chicago)** and **Rosemont East (Baltimore)**. All three share blue-collar job mix, low destination density, and low vacancy, giving operators a wider reference set than a single city's data alone.

**Failure pattern for Home Improvement Stores in Chicago.** Across 86 tracked neighborhoods, survivability for this subtype spans **65% to 90%** — a 25-point gap. **Kennedy Park** leads at 90% (no existing competitors in our index), while **Downtown** sits at 65%. The dominant failure mode for a Home Improvement Store in Chicago is neighborhood selection: a 25-point head start is on the table before the lease is signed.

Kennedy Park ranks #1 of 86 neighborhoods analyzed in and around Chicago for Home Improvement Store survivability with a score of 80% as of 2026. The top 10 neighborhoods are:

Why these rankings reflect real survival outcomes

Rank	Neighborhood	Best Locations	Average Locations	Challenging Locations
1	Kennedy Park	84.0% – 88.0%	77.9% – 83.2%	68.0% – 72.0%
2	Rogers Park	85.0% – 89.0%	77.6% – 82.9%	63.0% – 67.0%
3	Southwest	85.0% – 89.0%	77.5% – 82.8%	55.0% – 59.0%
4	Roseland	85.0% – 89.0%	77.2% – 82.5%	57.0% – 61.0%
5	Morgan Park	85.0% – 89.0%	76.7% – 82.0%	57.0% – 61.0%
6	West Town	83.0% – 87.0%	75.9% – 81.2%	66.0% – 70.0%
7	Edgewater	82.0% – 86.0%	75.9% – 81.2%	59.0% – 63.0%
8	The Villa	85.0% – 89.0%	75.2% – 80.5%	58.0% – 62.0%
9	Wildwood	85.0% – 89.0%	75.1% – 80.4%	57.0% – 61.0%
10	Hyde Park	85.0% – 89.0%	75.1% – 80.4%	53.0% – 57.0%

Notable runners-up worth a second look

Even neighborhoods with modest average scores can harbor exceptional individual locations. For the most accurate predictions, always check your specific address in StreetSpring's live platform.

Survivability ranges reflect best and worst storefront conditions within each neighborhood. See our full methodology →

Try StreetSpring to see if this location is still the best and see if there are locations to rent in this area right now.

The Top Revenue Neighborhoods for Home Improvement Stores in Chicago

In Kennedy Park, the best possible location offers the opportunity of making ~7.3% more than the average location in or around Chicago.

On the other hand, in Downtown, the worst possible location could result in making ~12.7% less than the average location in the city.

Location is the biggest factor in a business's future success. Opening a Home Improvement Store in Chicago requires careful location choice. Across 86 neighborhoods analyzed, the overall average survival chance for a new Home Improvement Store is 75% for lasting more than 2 years — due to a combination of many factors across competition, consumer spending, and location dynamics. The interplay between location characteristics and business type produces unique survivability scores for every combination.

The Most Important Factors for a Home Improvement Store in Chicago

Site selection sits upstream of every other decision in this business. A high Survivability Score doesn't guarantee success, but a low one is hard to overcome with execution alone. The most important factor for a business's success is the Revenue Capture Score for the business at the location it selects. StreetSpring computes this by projecting the business's market share, which is based on the quality and quantity of primary, secondary, and tertiary competitors. Our models are built using machine learning trained on millions of commercial real estate data points. Clustering works when it draws more customers to the area than any single business could alone. StreetSpring leverages exclusive data sources and custom models for these projections.

Consideration	Common pitfall	What to verify before signing
Parking & visibility	Storefront looks great from the sidewalk but is invisible from the road.	Drive past at 30 mph from both directions. Count street parking + nearest paid lot capacity at peak hours.
Foot traffic seasonality	Looking at a peak-summer Tuesday and assuming year-round volume.	Walk the block at 3 different times across 2 different weeks. Ask neighboring tenants for their slow-season % drop.
Outdoor seating / sidewalk use	Signing assuming you can add patio seating, then learning the city requires a separate sidewalk-cafe permit with long lead times.	Check the city's sidewalk-cafe permit process up front. Confirm landlord allows outdoor build-out in the lease language.

This can be summarized as:

Revenue Capture Score = Projected Market Share × Forecasted Spend on Specific Business

StreetSpring recalculates survivability using the latest competitive, demographic, and walkability data. StreetSpring's Survivability Scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool.

Where to Launch a Home Improvement Store in or Around Chicago

The neighborhoods with the highest survivability for this business type are Kennedy Park, Rogers Park, and Southwest, while the most challenging neighborhoods would be Downtown, Irving Woods, and Scottsdale. A low-ranking neighborhood can still contain high-potential storefronts — the address matters most. StreetSpring's Survivability Scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool.

Related Articles:

Which Chicago Neighborhoods Are Strongest for Home Improvement Stores?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, the top neighborhood for a Home Improvement Store in Chicago is Kennedy Park with 80% average survivability, followed by Rogers Park and Southwest. 81 of 86 neighborhoods analyzed exceed 70% two-year survival.

Because local conditions evolve weekly, the live survivability tool offers a more current snapshot than any published ranking.

Do Lower-Ranked Chicago Neighborhoods Still Work for Home Improvement Stores?

Yes — neighborhood averages mask significant block-by-block variation. Even in neighborhoods ranked outside the top 10, individual storefronts with strong foot traffic, low direct competition, and favorable lease terms can outperform the area average. These rankings are based on the latest available data; check StreetSpring for real-time updates. Always check your specific address in StreetSpring's live platform for the most accurate prediction.

The Update Schedule for Chicago Home Improvement Stores Data

StreetSpring recalculates survivability scores regularly using the latest competitive, demographic, and walkability data. Rankings are updated quarterly; the live tool always reflects the most current predictions for any address in Chicago.

Should You Rent Your Chicago Storefront to a Home Improvement Store?

In Kennedy Park, StreetSpring forecasts a 77.9% – 83.2% average chance for a new Home Improvement Store to survive more than 2 years, depending on the exact storefront. Check the current Survivability Score for any address instantly.

Landlord Survivability Data for Home Improvement Store in Chicago

Tenant longevity is a top concern for commercial landlords. In Kennedy Park, a Home Improvement Store tenant averages 77.9% – 83.2% chance of lasting more than 2 years — the strongest outlook in Chicago. Rogers Park follows at 77.6% – 82.9%, while Southwest shows 77.5% – 82.8%. You can see the Survivability Score for your location for any business right now.

StreetSpring generates location-specific predictions tailored to your exact site.

Top-Survivability Chicago Neighborhoods for Home Improvement Stores

You can see the best neighborhoods in or around Chicago to open any type of business in our article Neighborhood Survivability Rankings: Chicago.

Technical note: Aggregated survivability rankings for Chicago are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

View technical data for Chicago

StreetSpring recalculates survivability using the latest competitive, demographic, and walkability data, so the live score may differ from the static ranges shown here.

Visual Data

Bubble chart of business subtypes in Chicago by survivability score and location density — Every business subtype in Chicago plotted by score vs location count — bubble size shows market depth. Find Home Improvement Store relative to its peers.

Waterfall chart of best and worst Home Improvement Store neighborhoods in Chicago — Top and bottom neighborhoods for Home Improvement Store in Chicago — each step shows the gap from the city average. Wider spread = location matters more.

How we measure this: Address-level scoring decomposes into Site Economics, Market Demand, Competition, Accessibility, Neighborhood Character, and Performance History — six axes.

**A bit of background on Chicago.** Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the third-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 2.74 million at the 2020 census. ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago))

**LEHD daytime-density context for Chicago:** Across 150 Chicago neighborhoods, the median daytime-to-resident ratio is **0.74:1** (LEHD LODES). Top-quartile neighborhoods run **2.07:1** — primarily-residential commercial-corridor concentration. Worker-heavy neighborhoods favor weekday-lunch and commuter-traffic businesses; resident-heavy areas favor evening + weekend demand cycles.

**Chicago operating-cost snapshot:** Against our 24-metro median, Chicago's commercial electricity is **6.7¢/kWh** (below 10.8¢ median), state minimum wage is **$15.00/hr** (below $15.00), combined sales tax is **8.8%** (above 7.7%), and effective commercial property tax is **2.27%** (above 0.96%). Operating-cost positioning: **expensive**.

**BLS data point:** Home Improvement Stores have a **47.9% 5-year survival rate** nationally per BLS Business Employment Dynamics, March 2025 release. StreetSpring's location-specific model scores Home Improvement Stores in Chicago at an average **survivability score of 50%**, reflecting site-level factors like competitive density, demographics, and accessibility that national averages can't capture.

Same business type in other cities:

Related:

Survivability Rankings for Acupuncture Clinic in Atlanta

Beyond the Numbers: Local Context

Further questions, with answers anchored on this neighborhood's actual data.

Where does Chicago fall in national rankings for Home Improvement Stores?

For Home Improvement Stores, Chicago ranks #9 out of 24 metros with an average survivability score of 50%. The strongest metro tops out at 55%; the weakest at 48%.

How often is the Chicago Home Improvement Stores survivability data refreshed?

Quarterly. The 2026 corpus shows Home Improvement Stores in Chicago averaging 50%; quarterly refreshes integrate new competitor entries/exits, updated ACS data, and recalibrated lease rates.

What are the key demographic factors for Home Improvement Stores in Chicago?

Chicago's key demographics — ~$103K median household income, 37 median age — feed into the survivability model alongside competition, rent, and accessibility data. The model averages Home Improvement Stores at 50% across Chicago.

Is Chicago a strong economic environment for opening a Home Improvement Store?

Broader metro: ~94% employment rate, ~$103K median income per ACS. Home Improvement Stores survivability in Chicago averages 50%, with the model layering business-specific and site-specific factors on top.

What factors drive the Chicago Home Improvement Stores score?

StreetSpring's Chicago Home Improvement Stores score blends ~100 site-level factors — competition within 0.25, 0.5, and 2 miles; ACS demographics; commute / accessibility patterns; lease rent rates; and historical survival outcomes. The 50% city average emerges from per-site scoring at every grid block.

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