To overcome the stereotypes, ignorance, and prejudice that many have about different communities, MoveSmart.org takes a unique approach to neighborhood recommendations. We sort your results both by how well they match your priorities and by whether or not you would add to the diversity of the community.

Why Diversity?

Many think that the only benefit from an integrated neighborhood is the opportunity for our family to meet and experience other cultures, and maybe eat exotic foods.

Being deprived of the connections and interactions that a diverse community provides is important, but even more important is a concept at the core of the civil rights movement and MoveSmart.org - separate is unequal. As long as neighborhoods are separated by race and income they will continue to provide unequal opportunities.

"Racial Blind Spots"

Most of us want to live in more diverse neighborhoods than we actually do. According to the Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans "like the idea of living in politically, racially, religiously or economically mixed communities," and 65% "say they would rather live in a community composed of a mix of racial and ethnic groups."

So why are most neighborhoods still segregated by race, ethnicity, and income?

Discrimination and economics play large roles, but neither fully explains the problem, and both are already being addressed by a plethora of non-profit organizations and govermnent programs designed to promote fair housing and build affordable housing. Individual behavior is the missing piece in this puzzle.

Research tells us that many housing seekers make decisions about where they will live with blinders on - what MoveSmart.org board member Prof. Maria Krysan calls "racial blind spots". We know a great deal about and have likely looked for housing in neighborhoods where we would be in the majority, but we frequently know little about and have seldom looked for housing in neighborhoods where we would be in the minority - even when those neighborhoods might be a great fit for our families. This and similar research research directly informs our unique approach to neighborhood search.

Geography

MoveSmart.org covers seven counties in Northeastern Illinois that are part of metropolitan Chicago: Cook, Kane, DuPage, McHenry, Lake, Kane, and Will. There are plans to add counties in Northwest Indiana when enough data becomes available. For more information about what we search, please see our Data on MoveSmart.org page.

• For more information, please read the post "Separate But Equal?" on our blog, which we wrote just a few months after founding MoveSmart.org.