It seems that downtown Chicago isn’t just for office buildings anymore. According to Curbed.com, the population in the Loop downtown area has nearly tripled to more than 20,000 over the last decade.

The Loop population is on the rise.

The Chicago Loop Alliance released a report that cites an increase in students in the area as well as employees who want to live close to work. But, interestingly enough, the report says about 60,000 jobs downtown were lost. Wonder what the draw is to live downtown for those that are living and moving there?

Besides downtown, Chicago Agent reported that many Chicagoans are moving to the suburbs, too. And because of this, the demographic of several suburbs is changing. Take Hinsdale, for example. YoChicago.com reports minority numbers in the suburb are on the rise; African Americans in particular have increased in Hinsdale, increasing 58.8 percent.

Since it seems Chicago has a lot of people moving around, looking for homes to buy, whether in the city or suburbs, there’s good news out there for Chicagoland homebuyers. The Chicagoland Real Estate Forum reports that home equity lines of credit are on the increase, with more reported in October 2010 than the previous October. This was the first increase in home equity lines since 2006.