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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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When I hear “Chicago area” I think of the city and closest suburbs, but this report is referring to 9 counties. I’d like to see a breakdown of the price increases for Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will.
Yes, it would be great to find a breakdown like that, but you won’t find a useful one, IMO. The problem with the Realtors’ numbers and many other reports is that they are distorted by which end of the market is churning the most. Say, for example, high price homes are selling like hot cakes, as they are now in North Shore. That will make their “average” sale prices shoot up. The only report that doesn’t suffer from that problem is the Case-Shiller monthly index, which is why it’s widely seen as the best index. But Case Shiller publishes only… Read more »
You have to work a Public Sector Job to afford that kind of house.
There are private-sector workers in IL who can afford that kind of house, except not as big a percentage as in the past. That’s a result of the lower standard of living today. How many younger couples raising a family in IL do you know who can afford a nice house in a nice neighborhood, without having two six-figure salaries?
After lagging behind saner locales for years, this is just leveling up.
Regression to the mean.
It’s supply and demand. With a lack of new houses being built prices are bound to go up.
Yes supply and demand. Housing goes up in places where people want to live. Although housing supply has increased, it’s not enough to keep up with demand. More people want to live in a Chicago area home than current supply. It happens when an area is in demand. Supply is not keeping up with demand. So much for everyone leaving.
And? For some inexplicable reason, housing in SF and NYC is also exorbitantly costly, even in areas with junkies tents crowding the sidewalks, piles of feces and used syringes everywhere and all the other amenities of having government sanctioned/ enabled derelicts lying around.