Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer
April 22, 2026
No Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The suburban city with the most delinquent homes is Harvey. Located 22 miles south of Chicago, Harvey has 4,604 homes that owe nearly $14.5 million in overdue property taxes. Cook County data does not report delinquent homes by ethnic group, but 66 percent of Harvey’s 24,386 residents are Black, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
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Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
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.
Do people realize that when a house is not sold in the tax sale process it is effectively worth zero. That means it should be assessed at zero and pay zero taxes. The assessors job is to assess at market value, not make something up. Zero means zero. The unpaid taxes would not be so high or sound so dramatic if they used market value. Where they get the money to fund the schools or municipality is another issue, but you are not going to get it by over inflating the assessments and are then shocked when a lot of… Read more »
The homes are basically cash only priced. They are worth more than zero but less than the total tax redemption (accrued at18% a year interest) plus carrying costs. The banks cut their losses and abandon the property. Investors can’t charge enough in rent to cover the back taxes, current taxes and the cost of repairs to make the home habitable. The residents who would be interested in living there can’t afford to pay cash for the home and residential lending doesn’t do mortgage financing to redeem unpaid real estate taxes.
In ford heights for example if the tax sale were held, there are 856 properties which owe approx 1.3 million in back taxes current thru 3/31/21. About $1500 average per property. Of course many of these are vacant parcels. In harvey the average is about $4200 currently owed including interest. While there may be a scattering of properties that meet your description and would sell in a non tax situation, the rest are zero or right next to it. Many are assessed, including vacant property, at over 20k. They should be assessed at zero until real money proves otherwise.
This may sound politically incorrect but I’m an engineer and that looks at disposes of 100 ideas a day so I don’t care… Since we are about to see a few million Mexican border jumpers enter the country. Why not just sell able bodied young males with families these houses in sweat equity agreements that they fix them up. Mexican immigrants have already cornered the drywalling, painting and other trades in the US and are generally good at the skills needed to fix them up. A MASSIVE amount of PRIDE and people willing to make their homes nice is what… Read more »
If this plan were in place, 1/2 of Mexico will pack up and leave Mexico for the free housing in Harvey IL and they will bring all of their problems with them. Gangs, low education, communicable diseases, poverty, and a host of other social problems that place like Harvey are all ill equipped to handle.
The nicer they make the homes, the less able people are to pay the increased property taxes.
One of our brilliant elected law makers will float a bill that the state pay off the tax bills and mortgages of the poor down trodden in these communities and Bubblehead the governor will jiggle like a bowl of Jello as he signs it into law spending millions more for the same freeloading crowd that is demanding everything free as payment for the suffering they’ve been thru. Sing along, “Nobody knows da trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus”.
While trying not to paint with too wide a brush so to speak my experience in life has been that black neighborhoods tend to vote heavily for the Democrat party politicians. The Democrats within our State tend to favor higher taxes put upon the homeowners making this mean, to me, that many blacks might consider the ramifications of whom they vote for. Raising taxes on homeowners is an EEO driven activity that we all suffer from and voting a straight ticket Democrat party at election time is almost a certainty to create tax hikes that have put many into the… Read more »
The upside of this “alleged tragedy” is that the tax sales will make cheap housing available to accommodate the new arrivals that suddenly have been pouring into America over the past month or two. There are also a lot empty units in those Luxurious Downtown and Lakefront high-rises to relocate anyone displaced by the new arrivals.
I just don’t see the downside of this story here…
Can anybody explain?
I agree, its a house flippers dream and a solution to illegal Mexican immigrants on welfare, see my sweet equity agreements post above. The only missing ingredient is to make the area safe, which its not. Families going in there should be required to own a firearm so the safety issues could be put under control, god knows the town cant afford that. Its time to empower the willing individuals to fix this place up themselves, with the reward of a house.
So? This is the system that was adopted and voted on. Hell some investor should come in and buy them at the tax scavenger sale and bulldoze them and land bank it all. If you want to start forgiving taxes start with mine
Wait, I thought all of our elected democrats were supposed to help!
Keep voting democrat!
A large number of these homes are foreclosures. The banks have abandoned the properties and refuse to pay taxes. The accrued real estate taxes are more than the value of the property so they abandon them by the thousands. They are zombie properties. This is actually great news for the communities because the communities are now full of ‘affordable’ housing. For a little more than a combined stimulus check and tax refund, they can purchase a home in these communities, with no mortgage. They can use a little sweat equity to make the home nice, like most generations did before… Read more »
This is what occurred in many areas of Detroit. But once the situation goes too negative – meaning too many abandoned homes – it is difficult to get anyone to live in the abandoned areas – even if the economics are attractive. The high taxes and low services are a millstone. I share your vision of the opportunity but have doubts about whether it will happen (back in the 70’s, guys I competed against at Thornton (they were good) came from a thriving community. What a tragedy this is to see.
“The high taxes and low services are a millstone.”
Only because of population loss and too many poor people in the region. Believe me, if the Chicago area started booming just like FL, AZ, or CO is now – these areas would rapidly gentrify. But there are too many homes and not enough people to fill them all, which is ironic, because the MLS shows there are too few homes and too many people!