The advantage a Chicago Native has over an out-of-state investor has long been having local knowledge of how the neighborhoods change sometimes by neighborhood and others by block. Where other major cities such as New York often have an area of lower crime rates and the other side of town has high crime rates, Chicago goes by zip code and even sometimes block by block, you may have one of the nicer, safest parts of the city of Chicago, and right across the way is a high violent crime rate. For instance, the zip code with the most violent crimes is 60620; next to it are 60643 and 60652, which have relatively low crime rates. In my opinion, some of the most crucial factors to consider in a neighborhood before investing are crime data, school ratings, public transportation, and resources available (grocery stores, coffee shops, etc).

The news especially at a national level talks a lot about gun violence but there are also other major reported crimes that can affect your investment including theft or robbery and vandalism, while violent crime often is the reason property values can be kept low, property crimes, such as break-ins and vandalism, can increase your maintenance costs for the home. On the flip side this is one reason why landlords in some of these. The good news is that crime has gone down in Chicago in recent years and the hope is that the violence reduction will continue to get bigger as reform comes to the Chicago police department. Per ABC 7 reports, in 2025 the total homicides went down from 587 in 2024 to 417, which is close to half of what we saw during the 2021 covid year which saw 805 murders. While Chicago's overall Murder rate has continued to come down, reported crime Chicago's most violent neighborhood is still well above the national average crime rates. Most of these crimes are caused by a few particular issues in Chicago, the high gang activity that goes unchecked in many of Chicago's south side neighborhoods and a criminal justice system that allows for offenders to be back on the street very quickly after being arrested for most crimes. In this blog I have separated crime into 3 groups

Violent: which includes homicide, Assault, Battery, Criminal Sexual Assault, and Kidnapping

Robbery: which includes break ins muggings and car thefts, etc.

Vandalism: property crimes.

Top Hot Spots for Chicago Crimes by Zip Code

A total of 97,424 crimes were reported in 2025 when we combine all 3 crimes together the 3 highest crime rates are 

1.60620 (Auburn Gresham and Gresham neighborhoods) 

2. 60619 (Chatham, Avalon Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Burnside, and Calumet Heights) 

3. 60617 (South Chicago, East Side, Hegewisch, Calumet Heights, South Deering, Avalon Park, and specialized areas like Jeffrey Manor, Pill Hill, and The Bush) 

Violent incidents are the most telling of an area's economic opportunities for investors to gain equity in their property. The higher rates of violent crime correlate directly to lower appreciation in an area. With that being said from an investors point of view if you have the risk tolerance to buy in an area with high crime that is starting to see crime prevention programs installed on the blocks you are looking to invest in you could buy a home for very cheap and end up seeing very quick appreciation as the neighborhoods ratings go higher. So which areas have the highest violent crime rates?

Top Hot Spots for Violent Crimes

1. 60620 (Auburn Gresham and Gresham)

2. 60619 (Chatham, Avalon Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Burnside, and Calumet Heights)

3. 60623 (Little Village (South Lawndale) and North Lawndale neighborhoods, along with portions of Douglas Park)

Top Zip Codes for Robbery in Chicago

1. 60624 (West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park, North Lawndale, and the Fifth City area)

2. 60620 (Auburn Gresham and Gresham)

3. 60619 (Chatham, Avalon Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Burnside, and Calumet Heights)

And the last top 3 we have is for vandalism. Again, high rates of vandalism equal higher maintenance costs to you as an investor,

Vandalism Top 3 Zip Codes

1. 60617 (South Chicago, East Side, Hegewisch, Calumet Heights, South Deering, Avalon Park, and specialized areas like Jeffrey Manor, Pill Hill, and The Bush) 

2.60620 (Auburn Gresham and Gresham neighborhoods) 

3. 60619 (Chatham, Avalon Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Burnside, and Calumet Heights) 

So again overall Chicago crime rates have been going down so let's turn this article around and talk about what areas have a lower overall crime rate. Here are the lowest total number of crimes by zip code.

Lowest Overall Crime Zip Codes in Chicago

1. 60606 (Downtown Chicago)

2. 60646 (Edgebrook, Sauganash, and Forest Glen)

3. 60604 (Loop/Heart of downtown)

So first off you can see two of the top 3 are the Chicago downtown area and the other is the Northwest side of Chicago, other areas close to the bottom of the crime list include places like mount greenwood, and Jefferson park, what do all of these have in common, is a high presence of the Chicago police departments, downtown obviously is kept under high watch due to tourism and money coming into the city, the other areas mentioned have a high density of police officers living in them compared to other communities in Chicago. Community development especially on the south side of Chicago is definitely a work in progress but over the last 5 years we have seen a bigger push towards cleaning up crime in these areas. 

Chicago 2025 Crime Report by ZIP Code

Chicago Crime Report by ZIP Code — Year 2025

Data Source: City of Chicago Data Portal — Crimes 2001 to Present
Report Generated: May 4, 2026  |  Coverage: Full Calendar Year 2025

What does crime mean for investors?

High crime rates mean prices are going to be kept down, however this also means that you can get into a property for cheap and still have great return on value if you can weather the storms financially as things get cleared up. We have had clients buy a property for 25k, put 50k into fixing it and sell for 400k a few years later as the neighborhood started to turn around. The key is being able to weather the storm, which is something Chicago Style Management was made to help you manage. We are Chicago's C and D class premier Property management company and have the experience dealing with properties and tenants in the neighborhoods that other companies do not want to deal with. If you have a building in a problem area we have the tools to stabilize the building for you.