Illinois home values continue to lag, with recent data showing they remain 12 percent below pre-Great Recession peak levels.
That pegs the state’s recovery as the 7th worst in the U.S., according to global property analytics firm Corelogic. Illinois is now one of just 14 states where home values have yet to regain at least the ground they lost 10 years ago.
Among the areas hit hardest by the downturn have been Chicago's south suburbs, where government watchdog website Wirepoints reports frustrated and cash-strapped residents have taken to just walking away from their debt-ridden properties.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker
As the situation in Illinois shows few signs of improving, neighboring states have rebounded to the point of now surpassing pre-recession peak levels. Over the last decade, home prices in Missouri, Indiana and Iowa are up by an average of better than 8 percent.
“There’s no need to debate precisely why Illinoisans are so much worse off than residents in other states,” Wirepoints posted on its site. “There are plenty of reasons why. Anemic income growth. Too much state and local government debt. Rampant political corruption. Another way to say all that is Illinois politicians have run the state into the ground with decades of failed public policies.”
With Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democrats now pushing a new progressive income-tax system, Wirepoints analysts predict that can only mean one thing.
“Look for their next big idea, a progressive income-tax scheme, to make things far worse,” the article said.
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