Hot real estate market mostly missed Illinois, ranking 48th for new homes

By Bryce Hill

02/28/2022

Illinois saw new residential building permits in 2021 issued at one of the slowest rates in the nation. The rest of the U.S. saw real estate booming.

TAGS: housing market, Illinois, real estate

Illinois home building lags virtually every other state during past decade

By Bryce Hill

07/18/2021

New census data shows Illinois ranked 48th in the U.S. for new single-family home permits during the past decade.

TAGS: construction, homeownership, Illinois, real estate

Illinois is home to most seriously delinquent mortgages in Midwest

By Orphe Divounguy, Bryce Hill

05/14/2021

Data reveals 5.7% of Illinois homeowners are at least 90 days behind on their payments.

TAGS: COVID-19, homeownership, Illinois, mortgage, real estate

Chicago area up 241K jobs, rest of Illinois down 41K jobs from before recession

By Austin Berg

01/21/2020

Illinois’ uneven recovery reflects national trends, but also raises important questions about the state’s economic future ahead of a key tax hike vote.

TAGS: BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics, capital gains, Chicago, corporate income tax, economic competitiveness, economy, graduated income tax, Great Recession, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, Illinois, investment, JB Pritzker, labor, minimum wage, outmigration, population, progressive income tax, real estate, recession, Springfield, tax hikes, tax increase

Chicago’s 2020 budget proposal was never truly balanced

By Adam Schuster, Bill Reveille

11/26/2019

Faced with the impossible task of balancing Chicago’s budget without pension reform, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is forced to partially rely on phantom cuts and revenues.

TAGS: bonds, budget, CAFR: Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Chicago, Chicago City Council, Chicago City Hall, constitutional amendment, CTA: Chicago Transit Authority, CTU: Chicago Teachers Union, deficit, emergency fee, homelessness, housing market, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, interest rates, library, Lori Lightfoot, Lyft, property taxes, Rahm Emanuel, real estate, real estate transfer tax, tax hikes, tax increase, TIF: Tax Increment Financing, Uber

Lightfoot looks to Springfield for more taxing power on high-end services, home sales

By Vincent Caruso

08/23/2019

Chicago’s mayor wants permission from Springfield to impose a new tax on high-end professional services and raise taxes on pricier home sales, as the city faces down a $1 billion deficit.

TAGS: Lori Lightfoot, municipal pensions, pension guarantee, pensions, real estate, service tax, taxes

Illinois taxpayers to face $2.1B in new taxes on July 1

06/27/2019

Starting this July, Illinoisans will pay higher taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, video gaming and more.

TAGS: cigarette tax, gambling, gas tax, JB Pritzker, managed care, real estate, taxes

Quincy hikes property taxes to pay for pensions

12/21/2018

The Gem City joins a growing list of Illinois municipalities raising property taxes to pay for pensions.

TAGS: municipal pensions, pensions, property taxes, real estate, taxes

‘Home Alone’ with a $38,500 property tax bill

By Joe Kaiser

12/19/2018

As pension costs explode for Winnetka and the rest of Illinois, owners of the “Home Alone” house featured in the 1990 film are feeling the effects.

TAGS: property taxes, real estate

Why your property tax bill is so high, and how to fix it

By Austin Berg

08/02/2018

Less than 50 cents of every additional property tax dollar over the last 20 years went to pay for services that raise home values. Instead, the primary driver of the rise in property taxes was pension costs.

TAGS: IMRF: Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, municipal pensions, pensions, property taxes, real estate