Continuing its slow return to prominence, residential construction is gaining ground in many metropolitan areas in the U.S. Unfortunately, not everyone did so well in April.

The Chicagoland area has seen its fair share of rough residential construction months, but April 2014 won’t be counted among them. According to numbers provided by McGraw-Hill, residential construction in the Chicagoland area is already outpacing 2013.

Last April, total residential construction projects were valued at approximately $254 million, making the Chicagoland area one of the least active markets in regard to new construction. While it’s true Chicago remains at the lower end of the residential construction spectrum when compared to its metropolitan peers, growth since 2013 has greatly increased the amount of construction money going into the Chicagoland area.

Check out our graph below to see how Chicago compares with other cities: