Our perspective: Chicago’s commercial real estate market still hasn’t recovered from pandemic

By Hilary Gowins

02/08/2024

Editor’s note: There is a lot of information coming at you every day, but not a lot of context. The Illinois Policy Institute is launching "Our Perspective" to give you our take on topics of the day so you can better shape your take on them.

TAGS: housing market, real estate

Illinois leads the nation in foreclosures in 2022

By Bryce Hill

07/29/2022

Illinois homeowners are most likely in the nation to be in foreclosure. The looming $2,100 property tax hike from Amendment 1 would make housing even more unaffordable.

TAGS: Amendment 1, foreclosure, housing market, Illinois

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 house value growth nation’s 2nd worst in 2019

By Orphe Divounguy, Bryce Hill

03/09/2020

States with the slowest housing appreciation tend to have worse labor markets, higher taxes and more pension debt.

TAGS: home price index, home values, homeownership, housing market, outmigration, population

Illinois home price growth slowest in nation last year

By Bryce Hill

02/03/2020

Home price appreciation in Illinois was the slowest in the U.S. between the third quarter of 2018 and the third quarter of 2019, federal data showed.

TAGS: Chicago, Chicagoland, Cook County, government spending, Great Recession, home values, homeownership, household income, housing, housing market, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, Illinois, income tax, Indiana, investment, JB Pritzker, Lake County, mortgage, recession, spending, Springfield, tax hikes, tax increase

State of the state: Pritzker saw worst first-year jobs numbers since Blagojevich

By Orphe Divounguy, Bryce Hill

01/27/2020

Illinois job creation lagged the national median in nearly every sector.

TAGS: 401(k), BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Chicago, constitutional amendment, economic competitiveness, economic growth, fair tax, government spending, graduated income tax, housing, housing market, IDES: Illinois Department of Employment Security, ILGA: Illinois General Assembly, Illinois, Illinois Constitution, income, income growth, JB Pritzker, job creation, jobs, labor, labor force participation rate, outmigration, pensions, personal income, population, private sector, progressive income tax, public sector, retirement age, spending, spending cap, Springfield, tax burden, tax hikes, tax increase, U.S. Census Bureau, unemployment

Chicago’s 2020 budget proposal was never truly balanced

By 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

Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: will it empower minorities and poor people to unleash their potential, or will it perpetuate an inequitable status quo? For far too many Illinoisans, opportunity is unfairly and unnecessarily out of reach. Illinois ranks in the bottom ten among all states in social mobility and last among Midwest states...

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Unlocking Opportunity: How Occupational Licensing Reform Would Promote Equitable Empowerment in Illinois

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Brandi Lentz

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students