The Paseo is a planned four-mile trail that will run from 16th Street and Sangamon Street to 32nd Street and Central Park Avenue, cutting through Pilsen and Little Village, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. A new study suggests that the trail will spur already rapidly rising home prices along its route.

Over the past five years, home prices in Pilsen have risen from $84 per square foot to $225 per square foot. New condos and townhomes, as well as new developments like Mural Park, are making Pilsen increasingly attractive — and expensive.

The study in the Crain’s report looks to The 606 trail and the rising home prices that resulted in the surrounding neighborhoods of Logan Square and Humboldt Park as a model for what could happen in Pilsen.

DePaul’s University’s Institute for Housing Studies found that home prices on The 606’s western end rose 48 percent in the three years after the trail first broke ground. The institute’s new study indicates the Paseo could have a similar effect, displacing many people who have lived in Pilsen for years.

Though gentrification has certainly followed The 606, neighborhood residents are not standing idly by. Earlier this year, the Pilot Act for the Preservation of Affordable Housing was proposed to slow rising home costs along The 606. 

The experts behind the new study hope the data can be used to avoid some of what occurred after the construction of The 606.

"I think what public investment needs to do is create safeguards around the Paseo so that existing residents are not displaced by market forces," said CEO of Pilsen civic group the Resurrection Project Raul Raymundo, according to the report.