Chicago Fed
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Community perspectives and conditions from the Fed’s Beige Book, February 2026
Community contacts report that rising costs for food, housing, and energy have strained low- and moderate-income communities and nonprofits, while rural hospitals face financial risks. Stable employment for some helped ease economic anxiety, contacts noted. But vulnerable groups and small businesses remained stressed under increasing costs, according to observations for the February 2026 Beige Book.
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Community perspectives and conditions from the Fed’s Beige Book, January 2026
Demand for social services is growing while rising costs continue to strain household, small business, and service provider budgets, according to January 2026 Beige Book observations.
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The Quarterly Catch-up, Q4 2025
Check out the latest community development-related research, analyses, and articles from all 12 Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors. This post captures content published between October 1 and December 31, 2025, on topics affecting communities.
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Community perspectives and conditions from the Fed’s Beige Book, November 2025
Here’s what nonprofit and community leaders, and workforce professionals serving lower-income people shared with the Federal Reserve for the November 2025 Beige Book.
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Community perspectives and conditions from the Fed’s Beige Book, October
Here’s what nonprofit and community leaders, and workforce professionals serving lower-income people shared with the Federal Reserve for the October 2025 Beige Book.
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The Quarterly Catch-up, Q3 2025
Check out the latest community development-related research, analyses, and articles from all 12 Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors. This post captures content published between July 1 and September 30, 2025, on topics affecting communities.
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Community perspectives and conditions from the Fed’s Beige Book, August 2025
Here’s what nonprofit and community leaders, and workforce professionals serving lower-income people shared with the Federal Reserve for the August 2025 Beige Book.
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Peer City Identification Tool
The Peer City Identification Tool (PCIT), developed by the Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is a data comparison and visualization instrument that can help policymakers and practitioners understand a municipality in the context of peer cities.
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Local Economic Snapshot
The tool provides the opportunity to choose a preferred location and learn the basics of the current economy with a curated set of economic and demographic data.
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2025 Community Perspectives Survey: Insights from the field—Health of entities serving low- and moderate-income communities
The second report from the 2025 Community Perspectives Survey highlights how LMI-serving organizations are managing demand, funding, and staffing. While many can meet community needs, challenges like resource strain and adapting to uncertainity are impacting their overall organizational health.