Aurora Real Estate
About the City
Named for the goddess of dawn, Aurora, Illinois, is known as the economic anchor of the Fox River Valley area and has a population of more than 110,000. It was first settled in 1834 when Joseph and Samuel McCarty came from New York looking for a river site to build a mill. The river served as a power source for mills and early factories even as periodic floods destroyed businesses, bridges and dams. With the city’s dramatic expansion, the river now divides the town through its general geographic center.
Following the establishment of textile mills, Aurora became a manufacturing center, primarily of heavy-machine building equipment and was a railroad hub for nearly 100 years, from the 1850s to the 1960s. The first economic engines of this Midwest city provided jobs for four generations of European immigrants.
Aurora's character formed early. Philosophically, the town was (and is) inclusive and tolerant, welcoming a variety of European immigrants and openly supporting abolitionist activity prior to the Civil War. Mexican migrants began arriving after 1910.
Socially, it was (and is) progressive in its attitude toward education, religion, welfare and women, for example, establishing the first free public school district in Illinois in 1851 and a high school for girls in 1855, supporting 20 congregations including two African-American churches representing nine denominations in 1887 and establishing a YWCA in 1893 which is still in operation today.
As late as the post–World War II boom, manufacturing companies continued to locate in Aurora to take advantage of the abundant workforce, good transportation and favorable economy. Few labor problems affected Aurora.
With the closing of many factories in the 1980s, the town's unemployment rate reached 16 percent. In response, Aurora initiated downtown redevelopment and border initiatives, welcoming riverboat casinos, mixed-use business parks and residential communities to help create 20,000 new jobs.
In 2000 Aurora's population was 32 percent Hispanic and 11 percent black. The city remains a self-sufficient community, independent of Chicago for its identity, but connected to it through the economic patterns that tie suburbs.
The city was the first in the United States to use electric lights for publicly lighting its streets, so it achieved the nickname of “City of Lights”.
Aurora extends into four counties, Kane, DuPage, Kendall and Will.
Demographics
The median income for a household in the city is about $54,861 and the median income for a family, $61,113.
Men had a median income of $41,429 versus $30,150 for women.
Approximately 70 percent of Aurorans own their homes with an estimated median housing value of about $185,000.
Over the past 25 years Aurora and its economic base has expanded considerably: Aurora’s population has increased from 84,540 to approximately 175,000 and Aurora’s size has dramatically increased from 15.68 square miles in 1972 to 42 square miles in 2005.