Vacant buildings in Harvey, Ill.
Vacant buildings in Harvey, Ill.
Illinois home values have yet to return to pre-recession levels, making the state home to one of the worst recovery rates in the country.
According to Wirepoints, average home prices across the state remain 12 percent below pre-recession peak levels, leaving the state as just one of 14 across the country to still be experiencing such a prolonged slump. At the same time, home values in the neighboring states of Missouri, Indiana and Iowa are up by an average of more than 8 percent
“There’s no need to debate precisely why Illinoisans are so much worse off than residents in other states,” Wirepoints wrote. “There are plenty of reasons why. Anemic income growth. Too much state and local government debt. Rampant political corruption. A disappearing working class and middle-income jobs. And the nation’s highest property taxes and the stream of out-migration have something to do with it, for sure. Another way to say all that is Illinois politicians have run the state into the ground with decades of failed public policies.”
In the end, a lot of people have simply made the decision to walk away from Illinois, especially in places like Chicago’s south suburbs, where once thriving middle- and working-class communities have now become virtual ghost towns. Wirepoints analysts fear that just more of the same is sure to come if Gov. J.B. Pritzker gets his way with his progressive income tax proposal.
“No matter how you run the numbers, the progressive tax rates needed to fund Pritzker’s $10 billion-plus in new spending would be harmful,” the website added. “They’ll punish the wallets of both the middle class as well as the wealthy.”
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