Skyrocketing Foreclosures Pose New Challenges in Many Upscale Chicago Suburbs!
ABANDONED PROPERTIES IN DISTRESS CREATING EYE-SORES, LOWERING NEIGHBORING PROPERTY VALUES!
The shame of a homeowner coming close to foreclosure, or actually losing his home to the foreclosure process, is generally not made public until the foreclosure is finalized, or the property is sold.
In the meanwhile, the affected properties could become unsightly to neighbors and passersby alike. Uncut grass. Un-shoveled snow. Broken windows. Delivered flyers and circulars piling up on the front stairs.
Mayors and City Managers of Chicago Suburbs unaccustomed to this visual element of the foreclosure process, and often unable to react quickly. Indeed, around the Nine-County Chicago Metro Area, many villages and towns have seen foreclosures more than double within the past couple of years.
And the names of many of these suburbs would astound most in and around Chicago!
According to data compiled by Online Foreclosure Listing Service RealtyTrac, as summarized in a Chicago Tribune article by reporters Azam Ahmed and Darnell Little, pricey Highland Park IL - home to Basketball Legend Michael Jordan, as well as the prestigious Ravinia Music Festival, and some very high-end shopping, had 144 foreclosures in 2008 - a 188% increase over 2007. Chicago West Suburban Naperville IL suffered a 165% increase in foreclosures last year versus 2007 - 636 in all.
One local Naperville Realtor estimates foreclosure and pre-foreclosure "short sale" properties may make up as much as 40% of the available for-sale inventory in that Chicago Suburb.
According to the same RealtyTrac data, Southwest Suburban Bollingbrook IL had 1,000 foreclosures within its boundaries last year - about 4% of its total housing stock, whether for sale or not! In Oak Lawn IL, Southwest of Chicago, foreclosures have spiked 332% in two years, while revenue from their local Real Estate Transfer Tax fell by nearly one-half.
Still, the chore to completing even basic exterior maintenance to foreclosure and pre-foreclosure homes being neglected has been falling on local suburban governments. Many of these municipalities are running out of the money necessary to keep these homes looking presentable to the public, the neighbors, and potential buyers.
To address this issue, lobbyists representing the interests of suburban city councils are seeking the State of IL to pass legislation requiring banks notify the home communities when properties within their boundaries are about to fall to foreclosure. Such a bill would also assure that town governments would be reimbursed for they money they feel they have to spend maintaining vacant homes in or near foreclosure.
The Housing Crisis in the Chicago Area has shifted migration patterns out of Chicago and Cook County, and into the so-called "Collar Counties" surrounding the city - Kane, DuPage, Kendall, and Will Counties. New data from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning indicates the rate of population growth in these surrounding counties is slowing, as fewer people have left Cook County, the county that includes the City of Chicago, since the housing crisis began.
According to Demographer Kenneth Johnson, of the University of New Hampshire, 9,200 fewer people migrated to Will County, south of Chicago, in 2007 versus 2006. That slowdown in migration may have cost the county over $180 Million in income growth.
In the affluent West Chicago Suburb of Hinsdale IL, vacant homes are interspersed among the large, executive mansion-style properties - many, a few years ago, selling for well over one million dollars!
Recent Federal Recovery Funds to combat blighted neighborhoods will help a bit. However, the grants fall far short of the money needed to maintain a growing number of homes falling to foreclosure. In DuPage County IL, West of the City of Chicago, the total grant of $5.2 Million is far to little to fully fund their own vacant property maintenance efforts.
And with projections that foreclosure and pre-foreclosure properties will continue to increase for the balance of 2009, and into 2010, many suburbs see the job ahead of them - to maintain the look of vacant homes in their communities - quite daunting.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
