-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Statewide home sales in September totaled 12,432, a more than 10 percent drop from September 2017, according to Illinois Realtors.
In Illinois, all three of the area markets that Attom measured – Chicago, Peoria, and Rockford – showed deceleration. Blomquist said property taxes and the higher mortgage rates can bring appreciation to a crawl.
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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A better metric of housing market health is new home construction. In McLean County, home to Bloomington-Normal, 1256 new homes were built and sold in 2006. This year we are track to build less than 90 new homes (in a county with 180,000 residents!). The vast majority of developers, builders, subcontractors and suppliers went broke and moved on. Peoria is no better. As long as we’re shedding jobs and people the situation will not improve.