-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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For most Chicago homeowners whose home is within targeted Mansion Tax bracket, that home must be sold before they can decamp to suburbs. Most likely those homeowners would decamp to a new location outside of Illinois, after a protracted and money-losing home-sale timeline.
Mansion Tax will redirect first-time homebuyers to suburbs, if their home-purchase budget is within or slightly below Mansion Tax price-target.
First time homebuyers are already decamping to the suburbs with or without the mansion tax. Prices are falling precipitously around the rest of the country but suburban Chicago prices remain very strong, despite a generational low number of homes sold. Many suburban markets are on fire with prices up double digits, some even up 20% or more. However, do not fret, as suburban Chicago prices will fall soon too. The pattern in these bubbles is always a near complete shutdown in transaction volume while the median price continues to rise seemingly exponentially, as buyers bid up the cheapest properties, and… Read more »
We can always count on you to be an optimist in every posting. Au contraire, remind me of Al Capp’s cartoon character, Joe Bltsflk, in “Li’l Abner”. Joe always wore black and carried an umbrella for the rain falling on him and no one else nearby.
Wow. Haven’t you ever heard the proverb about glass houses? It’s just that your “rain falling” applies when a different topic is under discussion.
It would be favorable for the suburbs to attract people from the city without Section 8 papers and housing vouchers for a change.
Yep. Most former Detroiters if they are still alive live in the burbs. Even a large part of the community has GTFO.
And those suburbs near Detroit have never recovered in value either. The Gross Pointes suburbs are extremely undervalued compared to the old money ‘north shore suburbs’ of other major cities in America.