05-09-2009, 08:59 AM
The foreclosure notices in the paper continue to grow by the week in the paper. This morning the real estate transfers were slim. Waukegan had only one listing.
Waukegan
4127 Continental Drive: to Gutierrez, Jaime: April 1: $98,000.
Vacant residences up 11% in county
Comments
May 9, 2009
By JUDY MASTERSON and Cheryl Rafferty <!-- e --><a href="mailto:jmasterson@scn1.com">jmasterson@scn1.com</a><!-- e --> <!-- e --><a href="mailto:crafferty@scn1.com">crafferty@scn1.com</a><!-- e -->
Meet the forgotten housing crisis.
The number of vacant residences in Lake County increased by 11.22 percent in the last year.
![[Image: vacant.jpg_20090508_23_17_45_147-116-165.imageContent]](http://media1.suburbanchicagonews.com/multimedia/vacant.jpg_20090508_23_17_45_147-116-165.imageContent)
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)
Lake County numbers Total residences
3/31/08 3/31/09 Pct. chg.
271,444 272,689 .46
Vacant residences
3/31/08 3/31/09 Pct. chg.
7,395 8,225 11.22 Vacancy rates for Lake County towns Town Vacant 2008 Pct. vacant Vacant 2009 Pct. vacant Pct. chg.
Antioch 39 1.4 66 2.4 1
Gurnee 289 1.6 315 1.7 .1
Lake Forest 282 4.1 311 4.6 .5
Libertyville 350 2.7 375 2.8 .1
Mundelein 223 2.1 245 2.2 .1
North Chicago 265 5.3 517 10.77 5.4
R.L.Beach 277 2.3 261 2.3 0
Vernon Hills 32 .6 74 1.3 .7
Waukegan 1,794 5.8 2,138 6.9 1.1
Zion 595 6.8 627 6.9 .1
Data compiled from census neighborhood tracts which don't necessarily follow exact town boundaries.
Source: wid.ap.org/neighborhoods
An analysis by The News-Sun, based on data collected by the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, shows 8,225 residences were vacant in Lake County as of March 31, 2009. That compares to 7,395 vacant residences on March 31, 2008.
The percentage of empty abodes increased from 2.72 percent to 3.02 percent.
Federal lawmakers have designated nearly $6 billion over the past year for local governments to do just that -- buy and either rehabilitate or demolish foreclosed and abandoned homes.
In Waukegan, where the number of vacant single-family homes and apartments increased 1.1 percent from 1,794 in 2008 to 2,138 in 2009, $850,000 in federal stimulus money, drawn from $4.6 million in housing redevelopment funds coming to Lake County, will be used to rehab foreclosed/vacant properties.
The current 7 percent vacancy rate in Waukegan's housing stock is an indication that the city is struggling with unemployment, said new Mayor Bob Sabonjian.
"We're fighting through a recession that there's no quick fix for," Sabonjian said. "We're trying to develop a plan to keep an eye on these properties, keep the grass cut -- nuts and bolts stuff -- and we want to get occupancy in days when people can't get mortgages."
Sabonjian said the city is working with Community Development Block Grant funds and agencies like the Affordable Housing Corp. to get people into empty addresses. "But keeping them in is the problem," he said.
An injection of federal money will only make a modest dent in the abandoned housing problem. As of March 31, there were about 4 million homes that have been empty for 90 days -- a slight increase over last year's figures and about 3 percent of all U.S. homes.
The federal money will be distributed based on a formula that considers local rates for foreclosures, high-cost mortgages and vacancies. There won't be enough money to completely fix places like the Waukegan neighborhood north of 12th Street, where no one lives behind 178 front doors.
The number of abandoned homes in the nation's 65,000 neighborhoods concerns both federal and local officials because they could prevent economies from recovering. Empty housing feeds upon itself. It entices thieves looking for metal to sell for scrap. Experts say that as more houses stand vacant, property values and tax revenues drop. The drop in property values leads to fewer buyers, which leads to more vacancies.
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham has seen that happen in areas of his city, where nearly 11 percent of all residences sit empty, up from 5 percent in 2008. He is concerned about blight and the effect of lost population on federal funding for the city.
That concern is not universal. More affluent communities can absorb the impact of vacancies.
Gurnee's vacancy rate of 1.7 percent, representing 315 addresses, is well within the norm, according to Mayor Kristina Kovarik, who said employee relocations by Abbott Laboratories have always meant higher inventories of empty houses.
"Typically we're between 2 and 4 percent," Kovarik said. "That's not bad for between 8,000 and 9,000 households. We're still in decent shape."
Kovarik, a consultant in mortgage finance, said she will worry when she sees concentrations of vacancies in a neighborhood.
"Three or four houses in a neighborhood or on a street can drive down values," she said. "Ours are scattered."
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1565755,5_1_WA09_VACANT_S1.article">http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S1.article</a><!-- m -->
Waukegan
4127 Continental Drive: to Gutierrez, Jaime: April 1: $98,000.
Vacant residences up 11% in county
Comments
May 9, 2009
By JUDY MASTERSON and Cheryl Rafferty <!-- e --><a href="mailto:jmasterson@scn1.com">jmasterson@scn1.com</a><!-- e --> <!-- e --><a href="mailto:crafferty@scn1.com">crafferty@scn1.com</a><!-- e -->
Meet the forgotten housing crisis.
The number of vacant residences in Lake County increased by 11.22 percent in the last year.
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)
Lake County numbers Total residences
3/31/08 3/31/09 Pct. chg.
271,444 272,689 .46
Vacant residences
3/31/08 3/31/09 Pct. chg.
7,395 8,225 11.22 Vacancy rates for Lake County towns Town Vacant 2008 Pct. vacant Vacant 2009 Pct. vacant Pct. chg.
Antioch 39 1.4 66 2.4 1
Gurnee 289 1.6 315 1.7 .1
Lake Forest 282 4.1 311 4.6 .5
Libertyville 350 2.7 375 2.8 .1
Mundelein 223 2.1 245 2.2 .1
North Chicago 265 5.3 517 10.77 5.4
R.L.Beach 277 2.3 261 2.3 0
Vernon Hills 32 .6 74 1.3 .7
Waukegan 1,794 5.8 2,138 6.9 1.1
Zion 595 6.8 627 6.9 .1
Data compiled from census neighborhood tracts which don't necessarily follow exact town boundaries.
Source: wid.ap.org/neighborhoods
An analysis by The News-Sun, based on data collected by the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, shows 8,225 residences were vacant in Lake County as of March 31, 2009. That compares to 7,395 vacant residences on March 31, 2008.
The percentage of empty abodes increased from 2.72 percent to 3.02 percent.
Federal lawmakers have designated nearly $6 billion over the past year for local governments to do just that -- buy and either rehabilitate or demolish foreclosed and abandoned homes.
In Waukegan, where the number of vacant single-family homes and apartments increased 1.1 percent from 1,794 in 2008 to 2,138 in 2009, $850,000 in federal stimulus money, drawn from $4.6 million in housing redevelopment funds coming to Lake County, will be used to rehab foreclosed/vacant properties.
The current 7 percent vacancy rate in Waukegan's housing stock is an indication that the city is struggling with unemployment, said new Mayor Bob Sabonjian.
"We're fighting through a recession that there's no quick fix for," Sabonjian said. "We're trying to develop a plan to keep an eye on these properties, keep the grass cut -- nuts and bolts stuff -- and we want to get occupancy in days when people can't get mortgages."
Sabonjian said the city is working with Community Development Block Grant funds and agencies like the Affordable Housing Corp. to get people into empty addresses. "But keeping them in is the problem," he said.
An injection of federal money will only make a modest dent in the abandoned housing problem. As of March 31, there were about 4 million homes that have been empty for 90 days -- a slight increase over last year's figures and about 3 percent of all U.S. homes.
The federal money will be distributed based on a formula that considers local rates for foreclosures, high-cost mortgages and vacancies. There won't be enough money to completely fix places like the Waukegan neighborhood north of 12th Street, where no one lives behind 178 front doors.
The number of abandoned homes in the nation's 65,000 neighborhoods concerns both federal and local officials because they could prevent economies from recovering. Empty housing feeds upon itself. It entices thieves looking for metal to sell for scrap. Experts say that as more houses stand vacant, property values and tax revenues drop. The drop in property values leads to fewer buyers, which leads to more vacancies.
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham has seen that happen in areas of his city, where nearly 11 percent of all residences sit empty, up from 5 percent in 2008. He is concerned about blight and the effect of lost population on federal funding for the city.
That concern is not universal. More affluent communities can absorb the impact of vacancies.
Gurnee's vacancy rate of 1.7 percent, representing 315 addresses, is well within the norm, according to Mayor Kristina Kovarik, who said employee relocations by Abbott Laboratories have always meant higher inventories of empty houses.
"Typically we're between 2 and 4 percent," Kovarik said. "That's not bad for between 8,000 and 9,000 households. We're still in decent shape."
Kovarik, a consultant in mortgage finance, said she will worry when she sees concentrations of vacancies in a neighborhood.
"Three or four houses in a neighborhood or on a street can drive down values," she said. "Ours are scattered."
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1565755,5_1_WA09_VACANT_S1.article">http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S1.article</a><!-- m -->